John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons

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Language Stuff

Almost everyone uses language, so inevitably almost everyone thinks they are an expert in it. I don’t consider myself an expert, though most of my work requires at least language competence and sometimes actual skill, but I do follow the blogs featured on this feeds page.

(If you are wondering where the translation-related feeds have all gone, I have put them on their own page.)

Most of the blogs represented here are in English, most of the time, but don’t be surprised to find other languages used. Go with the flow – I occasionally find myself pleasantly surprised at how much I can grasp in languages I have never seen before.

Language On the Net

Language Log » Screwball reasons and gloriously simple distinctions

Monday 3 November 23:57:05 UTC 2014

In recent years, The New Yorker's coverage of the "descriptivist vs. prescriptivist" divide in English usage has been, shall we say, problematic. In 2012, we had Joan Acocella's "The English Wars," critiqued by Mark Liberman here and here. That was followed up by Ryan Bloom's Page-Turner piece, "Inescapably, You're Judged By Language," which I tackled in "The New Yorker vs. … [Link]

languagehat.com » Quality, Not Quantity.

Monday 3 November 23:26:54 UTC 2014

Douglas Quenqua had an interesting piece in the Oct. 16 NY Times that I just got around to (thanks, Eric!), the burden of which is well summarized in the title: “Quality of Words, Not Quantity, Is Crucial to Language Skills, Study Finds”: Now, a growing body of research is challenging the notion that merely exposing poor children to more language … [Link]

Language Log » Tireless or unchanging?

Monday 3 November 20:44:32 UTC 2014

Or something else: As you can see in the embiggened version, this is the display on an Italian vending machine, providing an English version of "La macchina non dà resto" = "Machine does not give change". [h/t Andrea Mazzucchi] [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Movember

Monday 3 November 9:00:00 UTC 2014

Refers to both the month and the mustache grown in November to bring attention to mens health issues. The movember can only be sported in the month of Movember but it can precede a mo-linger.Variances in the cause can lead a movember being called by different names. For instance a prostate cancer movember can also be called a prostache.A movember … [Link]

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