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

Language Log » Parrot as witness?

Monday 27 June 15:27:14 UTC 2016

Peter Holley, "Foul-mouthed parrot may be used as evidence in murder trial, prosecutor says", WaPo 6/26/2016: Family members believe Bud, an African gray parrot, may have witnessed the shooting that left Martin Duram dead and his wife severely injured. They believe this because the bird’s latest phrase — the one he won’t stop shouting at the top of his lungs … [Link]

Language Log » Some speech style dimensions

Monday 27 June 14:13:08 UTC 2016

Earlier this year, I observed that there seem to be some interesting differences among individuals and styles of speech in the distribution of speech segment and silence segment durations — see e.g. "Sound and silence" (2/12/2013), "Political sound and silence" (2/8/2016) and "Poetic sound and silence" (2/12/2016). So Neville Ryant and I decided to try to look at the question … [Link]

Language Log » FORM TWO LANES

Monday 27 June 7:46:35 UTC 2016

Driving back from the airport last night in unusually heavy traffic I came to a sign that said "FORM TWO LANES". I tried. Honestly, I did try. [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Behaving British

Monday 27 June 7:30:00 UTC 2016

The act of doing something you know you'll regret immediately after. "I always knew it was a terrible idea to vote 'leave', I guess I was just behaving British." [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.