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 » Telephone or telegraph?

Tuesday 29 November 22:25:59 UTC 2016

There's a controversy over whether President Xi Jinping called President-elect Donald Trump to congratulate him on his victory in the November 8th election. The problem is summarized in this passage from The Economist: Chinese officials pay obsessive attention to ensuring the Communist Party’s line is reflected accurately by the country’s main media. But Mr Trump’s victory caught them in a … [Link]

Language Log » Language & Communication: Request for Information

Tuesday 29 November 16:58:31 UTC 2016

This is a guest post by Bill Badecker, Linguistics Program Director at the National Science Foundation. Subject: Language & Communication: Request for Information Dear Colleagues, I am reaching out to share a request for information (RFI) that you may be interested in responding to from representatives from the Federal Government’s Interagency Working Group on Language and Communication (IWGLC). The IWGLC … [Link]

Omniglot blog » Scratching cartoons

Tuesday 29 November 12:28:11 UTC 2016

Cartoon cat scratching The first cartoons, in the sense of humorous or satirical drawings, appeared in the magazine Punch in 1843, however the word was used from the 1670s to mean “a drawing on strong paper (used as a model for another work)”. Cartoon can also mean: – An artist’s preliminary sketch. – An animated film – A diagram in a scientific concept. … [Link]

Language Log » Mixed metaphor of the week

Tuesday 29 November 12:10:01 UTC 2016

“As the car is hurtling towards the cliff, it’s driving on quicksand,” Levitt said. The context — Tierney Sneed, "Why The GOP Is Still Playing With Fire With Obamacare Repeal And Delay", TPM 11/29/2016: [H]ealth care policy experts across the ideological spectrum have warned that even a delayed repeal, if passed without a replacement bill queued up, could wreak havoc … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » Trumpophobia

Tuesday 29 November 8:00:00 UTC 2016

The fear of Donald Trump I have trumpophobia [Link]

languagehat.com » Italy’s Last Bastion of Catalan.

Tuesday 29 November 1:19:37 UTC 2016

Raphael Minder has a nice NY Times piece on Catalan in Alghero: The first Catalans reached Sardinia in the 14th century, when troops sailed from the eastern coast of what is now Spain as part of an expansion into the Mediterranean. After an uprising slaughtered the forces garrisoned in this northern port on the island, King Peter IV expelled many … [Link]

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