John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons

John Gordon Ross header image 3

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

languagehat.com » Sinewy Saxonisms.

Thursday 5 May 20:23:17 UTC 2016

In my leisurely cruise through Moby-Dick, I have reached Chapter 87, “The Grand Armada,” and I enjoyed this lexicographical footnote so much I thought I’d pass it on. The footnoted sentence reads, “Stripped to our shirts and drawers, we sprang to the white-ash, and after several hours’ pulling were almost disposed to renounce the chase, when a general pausing commotion … [Link]

Language Log » The world wants "bigly"

Thursday 5 May 11:55:50 UTC 2016

Back in February, we covered the whole Donald Trump big league → bigly business at length, and if you want details, go read that post: "Bigly", 2/26/2016. But Trump continues to say things like Your browser does not support the audio element. We're not going to lose, we're going to start winning again, and we're going to win big league, … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » spwl

Thursday 5 May 7:30:00 UTC 2016

text talk acronym standing for 'stroking penis while laughing' person 1: "I opened my personal laptop at a company meeting today. I forgot that the battery died while watching a porno last night. It was ten seconds of slurping, spitting and gagging. It was my first day."person 2: "spwl" [Link]

Language Log » Inspirational PLA Video

Thursday 5 May 1:55:05 UTC 2016

[The following is a guest post by Mark Metcalf, a retired Naval officer and adjunct Lecturer in Chinese Literature at the University of Virginia.] One of the joys of being semi-retired is having the luxury of being able to chase the occasional squirrel that appears in my field of view. This morning one of those squirrels appeared in the form … [Link]

Archive

No Comments

0 responses so far ↓

  • There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.

You must log in to post a comment.