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 » Freedom of speech vs. speaking rights

Thursday 14 July 19:16:20 UTC 2016

Bill Holmes, who is familiar with the language of Chinese law, writes: With greater frequency over the past ten-odd years, I have run across the phrase “话语权", typically in commentary on (more or less sophisticated) mainland websites. This phrase can be put into English, clumsily, as “speaking rights” — though I believe it extends to written as well as oral … [Link]

languagehat.com » Screw the Pooch.

Thursday 14 July 17:50:02 UTC 2016

Who can resist such a lovely and slightly naughty-sounding expression? It’s well known from The Right Stuff, but where did it originate? Ben Zimmer tells the story (or as much of it as can be found) at Slate: Searching for clues, I noticed that the entry for the expression on Wiktionary had been anonymously edited a few years ago to … [Link]

Omniglot blog » Are you sturggled?

Thursday 14 July 11:51:40 UTC 2016

You may think I have misspelled the title of this post, and in a way I have, but I did so deliberately. The other day when typing struggle I accidentally typed sturggle. I thought that it looked like an interesting word, and wondered what it might mean. Apparently I’m not the first person to come up with this word – … [Link]

Language Log » Suspicious null objects in the news

Thursday 14 July 0:13:05 UTC 2016

Below is a guest post by Jason Merchant. There is an interesting grammatical point in an article in today's New York Times exploring some of the strands of support for Donald Trump, who has repeatedly been endorsed by racists, neo-Nazis, and their fellow travelers. In prior campaigns, such endorsements were typically followed by immediate and explicit disavowals by the Republican … [Link]

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