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 » Epistemological metaphors and meanings
Following up on the issues raised yesterday in "Feelings, beliefs, and thoughts", it might be helpful to explore the etymology of the various verbs that people commonly use to express the epistemic status of their assertions. From their entries in the Online Etymological Dictionary, we'll learn that several common propositional attitude verbs have roots in sensation, motion and emotion, just … [Link]
languagehat.com » CREWS Project.
Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems (CREWS) is a project hosted at the Faculty of Classics, Cambridge: The aim of the CREWS project is to take an innovative and interdisciplinary approach to the history of writing, developing new methodologies for studying writing systems and their social context. The project researchers will be working on specific case studies relating … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » Burritoing
Burritoing (Verb) – The act of wrapping yourself in multiple blankets, nearing, but not reaching, the point of suffocation. Cam was burritoing while watching a movie! He was so comfy wrapped up in all the blankets!
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Language Log » Death to Chinese language teachers
In "Character amnesia in 1793-1794" (4/24/14), I described the so-called Flint Affair, which refers to James Flint (?1720-?), one of the first English persons to learn Chinese. For his audacity, Flint was imprisoned for three years by the imperial government, and two Chinese merchants who helped him write a petition to the emperor were executed. …James Flint, a former employee … [Link]
languagehat.com » English at Rakuten.
Geoffrey Pullum has a Lingua Franca article called “The Social Consequences of Switching to English” that is bound to raise hackles, but it’s so interesting I can’t resist posting it. He writes about the consequences of a decree by Hiroshi Mikitani, the chief executive of Rakuten (which runs Japan’s largest e-commerce website): Mikitani was ruthless: He simply announced that the … [Link]
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