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

Wordorigins.org » English 3.0

Monday 24 November 23:33:01 UTC 2014

Joe Gilbert has created English 3.0, a twenty-minute documentary on the state of the English language, featuring the likes of Tom Chatfield, David Crystal, Robert McCrum, Fiona McPherson and Simon Horobin. English 3.0 from Joe Gilbert on Vimeo. It’s quite good. One comment mentioned by several of those interviewed that I have my doubts about concerns the “revolution” in language … [Link]

languagehat.com » Batman.

Monday 24 November 15:14:30 UTC 2014

Even after all these years of looking up words, there are still plenty whose origins and history I’m unfamiliar with. Sometimes when I look one up, I nod and think “about what I expected”; sometimes I’m surprised; and sometimes I’m so taken aback that “astonished” doesn’t really cover it. This just happened to me with a word I’d been meaning … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Huxtabate

Monday 24 November 8:30:00 UTC 2014

To masturbate using somebody else's hand – either while the other party is unconscious, or unwilling to escalate sexual proceedings rapidly enough to satisfy the huxtabator. Synonym: Cosbate. Brian: How'd your date with Angela go last night? Kenneth: Not too well. She wasn't into me at all. Brian: Bummer bro. Kenneth: Well, she did drink a lot. I huxtabated after … [Link]

Language Log » Built site specific inducted

Monday 24 November 6:58:26 UTC 2014

Macaulay Curtis writes: "This one isn't a headline, but it is mightily hard to parse. From a construction site in Brisbane, Australia. I walked past it in confusion every day for a week before realising that the company is called 'Built'…" Knowing the company name doesn't solve the problem for me. Instances of the pattern NOUN-specific are perfectly good modifiers, … [Link]

languagehat.com » How Interpreters Do It.

Monday 24 November 1:21:58 UTC 2014

Geoff Watts reports on “the lives and minds of real-time translators”: …As the delegate spoke, Pinkney had to make sense of a message composed in one language while simultaneously constructing and articulating the same message in another tongue. The process required an extraordinary blend of sensory, motor and cognitive skills, all of which had to operate in unison. She did … [Link]

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