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 » Misnegations, or scribal errors?

Wednesday 13 April 9:25:51 UTC 2016

JVB wrote to point out that there's apparently an extra negation in a quotation presented in a current New York Time book review (Janet Maslin, "‘Maestra,’ a Novel of Sex, Murder and Shopping', 4/12/2016, emphasis added): “Maestra” is the work of L. S. Hilton, who is otherwise the British historian Lisa Hilton, but wanted to give voice to her inner … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Beat-up version

Wednesday 13 April 7:00:00 UTC 2016

noun: Someone who is a lookalike, or doppelganger, for another person, but less attractive. While it usually refers to physical appearance, the term is versatile and can, in theory, also be applied to inferior versions of non-human things/animals or used to compare one individual negatively to another in terms unrelated to physical attractiveness. Spencer Pratt is a beat-up version of … [Link]

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