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

Language Log » More on Boca Raton vs. Boko Haram

Tuesday 17 February 22:18:51 UTC 2015

Following up on yesterday's post about Representative Paul Gosar's substitution of "Boca Raton" for "Boko Haram" ("Boko Haram, Boca Raton, whatever", 25/16/2015), I wanted to check the recording, since I know that journalist's direct quotes are often unreliable. I found the interview here (Paul Gosar interviewed by Carol Costello on CNN's Newsroom, Tuesday 2/10/2015; complete audio here), and transcribed the … [Link]

Wordorigins.org » Early English Text Society

Tuesday 17 February 12:50:00 UTC 2015

Here is a nice blog post about the 150th anniversary of the Early English Text Society. EETS publishes scholarly editions of Old and Middle English texts which are an invaluable resource to anyone studying medieval language and literature. (I just did a count, and I have seventeen EETS volumes on my shelves.) Without EETS most of these works would never … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Nicholas Cage Syndrome

Tuesday 17 February 9:00:00 UTC 2015

When you have the same facial expression no matter what emotion you're supposed to be showing. Dude! Smile a little bit!I can't, I have Nicholas Cage Syndrome. [Link]

Language Log » Boko Haram, Boca Raton, whatever

Tuesday 17 February 1:34:23 UTC 2015

We were recently treated to lovely example of a "Fay-Cutler malapropism", that is, a speech-production error in which the speaker intends to say word X but actually comes out with word Y, where Y is typically similar to X in number of syllables, shares some sounds and even whole syllables, is the same part of speech, and so on. Tracy … [Link]

Archive