John Gordon Ross

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

Omniglot blog » What makes a word “real”?

Thursday 8 January 17:43:40 UTC 2015

I came across an interesting TED talk today about how words become real. Are they only real when they start appearing in dictionaries, or are they real if they are widely used, even if they don’t feature in dictionaries? The speaker, Professor Anne Curzan, looks at who makes dictionaries and how they decide which words to include. She says that … [Link]

Language Log » Decreasing definiteness

Thursday 8 January 11:23:39 UTC 2015

During the course of the 20th century, the frequency of the English definite article the decreased gradually and radically. I first noticed this effect about a year ago, in a post about the history of State of the Union addresses ("SOTU evolution", 1/26/2014), where I observed, in reference to the graph on the right, that The average frequency of the in … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » White Line Fever

Thursday 8 January 9:00:00 UTC 2015

An addiction to cocaine. Andy: What's wrong with Danny? Matt: He has white line fever. [Link]

Language Log » That "moisture dripping wet feeling"

Thursday 8 January 3:42:57 UTC 2015

I'm pretty sure this will push some wet buttons among Language Log readers and authors. Kira Simon-Kennedy found this stellar specimen of Chinglish in a press release from the China-sponsored section of the LA Art Show. The whole thing is pretty lackluster (what else to expect from State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television [SARFT], the Bureau for … [Link]

languagehat.com » Yugambeh.

Thursday 8 January 1:15:23 UTC 2015

Yugambeh is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken on the southeast coast of Queensland; according to Wikipedia, “Yugambeh is one of some dozen or two dozen dialects of the Bandjalang language. Among the differences in Yugambeh is that yugambeh (or yugam) is the word for no.” The Yugambeh Museum, Language and Heritage Research Centre “aims to record and promote the traditional … [Link]

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