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 » Google Translate is even better now
According to these two articles, Google Translate is taking a quantum leap forward in the quality of its services, starting with Mandarin to English: "Google says its new AI-powered translation tool scores nearly identically to human translators" (Quartz, 9/27/16) "An Infusion of AI Makes Google Translate More Powerful Than Ever" (WIRED, 9/27/16) Below are two letters that I received from … [Link]
Language Log » Trump the hypernegator?
In addition to the many "nots" he uttered in last night's debate, Trump poured on the negations in this tweet today: Hillary's been failing for 30 years in not getting the job done – it will never change. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2016 Many on Twitter were quick to accuse Trump of overnegation. Is this a double … [Link]
Language Log » Wentzylvania
I don't watch broadcast TV a lot, but over the past couple of days I've experienced more than four hours of live television — which turned out to be a surprisingly positive experience. Sunday afternoon I watched the Philadelphia Eagles play the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Monday evening I watched the first presidential debate. My expectations for both events were low. I … [Link]
Language Log » Trump's debate denials
As Geoff Pullum noted, in last night's presidential debate, many of Trump's interruptions of Clinton (or shall we say his "manterruptions") involved on-the-fly denials of what Clinton was saying. Geoff describes one such denial: "'Not!' he snapped at one point, like a 9-year-old, during one of her utterances." Let's go to the transcript: CLINTON: Well, Donald, I know you live … [Link]
languagehat.com » Maltese Phrases You Just Can’t Translate.
Our beloved bulbul is having it rough but took time out from his shitty job and PhD woes to call my attention to this wonderful post by Max Dingli; never mind the silly “untranslatable” framing (I wish that meme would dry up and blow away), these are just world-class phrases that make me want to learn Maltese. Sample: 1. “M’hawnx … [Link]
Language Log » Debate words
Geoff quoted Vox on Donald Trump's interruptions during last night's debate, and discussed the extraordinary childishness of some of those interruptions. I don't have much time this morning, so I'll just add a few words about words. Trump used 35% more wordforms than Clinton did — 8,866 to 6,580, by my trivial debate-analysis program's count based on the Washington Post's … [Link]
Omniglot blog » Please alight
I received an email yesterday asking about the Swiss German equivalent of Bitte verlassen Sie den Zug (Please alight from the train). Does anybody know? Are announcements on Swiss trains in Swiss German or Standard German (Hochdeutsch)? What other languages are they in? Or does it depend on where you are in Switzerland? This got me thinking about some of … [Link]
Language Log » Sex, lies, and childishness; and insomnia
It's a bit early for Language Log to do any analysis of the presidential debate last night. Where I live, it came on after 2 a.m., and where Mark lives it is still only 5:15 a.m. right now. But Vox has already analysed the interruption rate, a well-known index of gender in speech style. Trump interrupted Clinton exactly three times … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » Redneck First Class
When you are flying in the coach section of an airplane and one or both of the other two seats are unoccupied giving you more room, to stretch, lean or lie down. The middle seat was unoccupied on my recent flight home so I got to sit in Redneck First Class
[Link]
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.