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

Language Log » The Donald's THE, again

Monday 10 October 15:05:44 UTC 2016

THE African Americans. THE Latinos. THE women. Objects. You use "the" in front of objects, not people. #debate — Diana Prichard (@diana_prichard) October 10, 2016 It's not really true that "you use 'the' in front of objects, not people" — today's NYT is full of phrases like "until now the Russians have been on board with regard chemical weapons"; "It … [Link]

Language Log » "Arrival is a tree that is still to come"

Monday 10 October 12:13:31 UTC 2016

Thanks to Chinese characters, we are inundated with such preposterous profundities. In the day before yesterday's UK Observer, there is an article by Claire Armitstead titled "Madeleine Thien: ‘In China, you learn a lot from what people don’t tell you’: The Man Booker-shortlisted writer on a solitary childhood in Canada and daring to question the Chinese regime" (10/8/16). Armitstead commences … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Stall Sniffle

Monday 10 October 7:30:00 UTC 2016

The noise someone makes when they want to let you know they are in a bathroom stall Had to take a really wicked dump and got a stall sniffle when I hit the bathroom door. Almost shit in my pants running to another bathroom. [Link]

languagehat.com » Tsvetaeva on Death.

Monday 10 October 0:51:26 UTC 2016

As I wrote here, I’ve taken a break from Pasternak to read Marina Tsvetaeva, and I’ve run across an amazing poem from 1936 (she had only another five years to live) that shows off her late style at its most impressive. It’s only two stanzas; here‘s the Russian: В мыслях об ином, инаком, И ненайденном, как клад, Шаг за шагом, … [Link]

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