John Gordon Ross

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 » For: For or Against?

Thursday 18 August 20:46:07 UTC 2016

I just ran across a sentence in a year-old NYRB review by Robert O. Paxton of Pierre Birnbaum’s Léon Blum: Prime Minister, Socialist, Zionist (which sounds like a good book) and was driven to post by a sentence that made me grit my teeth: “It fell to Léon Blum to head the new government, for his Socialist Party had become … [Link]

Language Log » New frontiers in pseudo-Freudian slips

Thursday 18 August 14:12:59 UTC 2016

Jan Brewer, the former governor of Arizona, calls in once a week to the Mac & Gaydos radio show on KTAR in Glendale, Arizona. Her call on Tuesday 8/16/2016 featured this epic sequence, explaining why she doesn't think Donald Trump needs to run ads in Arizona: Your browser does not support the audio element. got a strong message out there … [Link]

Omniglot blog » Eating sideways

Thursday 18 August 13:36:19 UTC 2016

An interesting Japanese word I came across today in an article on ‘untranslatable’ words is 横飯 (yokomeshi) which is used to describe the stress of speaking a foreign language. It comes from 横 (yoko – horizontal) and 飯 (meshi – boiled rice, a meal, food), and could be translated as ‘a meal eaten sideways’. This refers to the fact that … [Link]

Language Log » The narrow end of the funnel

Thursday 18 August 11:29:10 UTC 2016

The big political story of the past 24 hours: Stephen K. Bannon, formerly the Executive Chairman of Breitbart News, has taken over as "chief executive" of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. The big linguistic story of the past 24 hours, at least here at Language Log: an exchange between Mark Liberman and Geoff Pullum about the rhetorical style of spontaneous speech, as … [Link]

Language Log » Internecine strife at Language Log?

Thursday 18 August 8:59:32 UTC 2016

Are we seeing the first signs of discord at Language Log Plaza? Mark Liberman seems to be flatly rebutting Geoff Pullum's "no structure at all" remark about what he calls "Trump's aphasia." Mark maintains that Trump's speaking style is no different in kind from any other human's spontaneous speech, even crediting him with "eloquence." Geoff, by contrast, seems to regard … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Full smash

Thursday 18 August 7:30:00 UTC 2016

a massive night out with the lads with no defined finishing time, unlimited larger consumption and scant regard for any tasks or responsibilities that need to be adhered to the next day. Generally the premise of the out of town worker -you out on Thursday? -too right, full smash! -but what about all that cable we've got to install on … [Link]

languagehat.com » The Byzantine Gemistus Plethon.

Thursday 18 August 0:57:47 UTC 2016

Poemas del río Wang has a post on an interesting topic: “since when is Byzantium called Byzantium?” The “Byzantine” Empire in reality never existed under this name, which put roots and is exclusively used in historiography. The term was coined about a century after the fall of the Roman Empire – as it was really called – by a German … [Link]

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