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
languagehat.com » Universal Positivity Bias?
Another study that arouses my instinctual skepticism: “Human Language Reveals a Universal Positivity Bias,” by Peter Sheridan Dodds, Eric M. Clark, Suma Desuc, et al., PNAS Online, 112.8 (2015). The abstract: Using human evaluation of 100,000 words spread across 24 corpora in 10 languages diverse in origin and culture, we present evidence of a deep imprint of human sociality in … [Link]
Language Log » Englishes in action in the Sinosphere
The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes has made several daring in-person investigations of China's military bases built on artificially expanded reefs and other features in contested waters far to the south of its southernmost provinces. He describes his latest venture in this extraordinarily well researched and presented article: "Flying close to Beijing's new South China Sea islands" (12/14/15) The detailed map accompanying … [Link]
Language Log » Stark rhetoric
Brad DeLong thinks that the way to understand the appeal of Donald Trump is to see him as a kind of big-city billionaire version of Willie Stark ("Nail 'em up!!!!", 1/21/2016): Methinks it is time to go reread Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men again… […] [T]he rise and durability of Donald Trump is a zero/probability event. And, as … [Link]
Language Log » That, that, that…
From a colleague: A friend who has little or no exposure to Chinese language and culture posted the following on Facebook: In the office where I work, there is a Chinese grad student having a phone conversation. I have no idea what he's saying. But what's striking is that, every so often, he drops a phrase that sounds uncannily like … [Link]
Omniglot blog » Language quiz
Here’s a recording in a mystery language. Can you identify the language, and do you know where it’s spoken? [Link]
languagehat.com » Dictionary Society of North America.
This link comes via John Cowan, who writes: “Considering how under threat dictionaries are, you might want to give these people some free publicity.” Good advice, and I am taking it. It’s a plea for support by David Jost: The editors of the American Heritage Dictionary have asked me, as head of the membership committee of the Dictionary Society of … [Link]
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