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 » "Double Happiness": symbol of Confucianism as a religion

Monday 8 June 23:45:04 UTC 2015

An image composed of a circle of fourteen symbols of major world religions has been circulating on the web: The example pictured here is from this site. Most of the symbols are readily identifiable and commonly agreed upon as standing for a particular religion. But one of them strikes me as odd, namely, 囍. It is instantly recognizable to all … [Link]

languagehat.com » Polyglot Gathering.

Monday 8 June 22:24:32 UTC 2015

We seem to discuss hyperpolyglots every couple of years (2009, 2011, 2013), so it’s time for another installment; here‘s a BBC Future piece by David Robson that starts: Out on a sunny Berlin balcony, Tim Keeley and Daniel Krasa are firing words like bullets at each other. First German, then Hindi, Nepali, Polish, Croatian, Mandarin and Thai – they’ve barely … [Link]

Language Log » Your appointment smells of elderberries

Monday 8 June 11:04:53 UTC 2015

Spending a couple of months in Paris frequently exposes me to the wonders of semantic drift. Many of the new French words that I'm learning turn out to be unexpected figurative senses of words that I already knew — though sometimes I need to look them up to realize that I knew them, because the figurative usage is non-obvious. For example, … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » trust fail

Monday 8 June 8:30:00 UTC 2015

A poorly executed trust fall, i.e. you do not catch the person who is dropping back in to your arms. Kendall was all set with this team building exercise until Barry was gabbing to Corbin and not paying attention, resulting in Kendall falling back to not get caught by Barry – trust fail. [Link]

Language Log » Ask Language Log: Iowa mystery image

Monday 8 June 3:27:55 UTC 2015

David Donnell: A friend in Ames, Iowa, sent me this photo of a small framed picture she purchased at a garage sale in her town. She is curious what the language is, and what it says…in English. She added, “I got the impression from the other items at this woman's sale that she had done some traveling and picked up … [Link]

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