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 » Conjunctions considered harmful
Or not. Andrew Mayeda, “World Bank’s Star Economist Is Sidelined in War Over Words“, Bloomberg 5/25/2017: The World Bank’s chief economist has been stripped of his management duties after researchers rebelled against his efforts to make them communicate more clearly, including curbs on the written use of “and.” […] A study by Stanford University’s Literary Lab in 2015 found the … [Link]
Language Log » From “barbarian” to “very”
Earlier this week, I wrote a post titled “‘Little Man’ the eating machine” (5/22/17), in which I pointed out that “Man” here does not mean “(hu)man” or “male human”, but that it signifies “(southern) barbarian”, with extended meanings of “rough; reckless; fierce; rude; unreasoning; unruly; bullying”. I also noted that this mán 蛮 has another set of meanings: “quite; rather; … [Link]
Omniglot blog » Flutes and buckles
Six weeks ago today I had a slight mishap while ice skating in London, and managed to dislocate and fracture my ankle – both the tibia (shin bone) and fibula (calf bone). The word tibia comes from the Latin tībia (shin bone, leg). It originally referred to a stalk, or reed pipe, and came to mean shin bone as flutes … [Link]
languagehat.com » Bilinguals Experience Time Differently.
Anne Rothwell, Press Officer at Lancaster University, reports on a new study by linguists Panos Athanasopoulos and Emanuel Bylund, who “have discovered that people who speak two languages fluently think about time differently depending on the language context in which they are estimating the duration of events.” The paper is “The Whorfian Time Warp: Representing Duration Through the Language Hourglass,” … [Link]
Language Log » Political pun of the month
Some say the administration will end in ICE, some say in FOIA/from what I know of corporate lawyas, I hold with those who favor FOIA…. — emily nussbaum (@emilynussbaum) May 26, 2017 The source is Robert Frost’s 1920 poem Fire and Ice: Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire … [Link]
Language Log » Yes indeed
Mythili Sampathkumar, “Donald Trump and Mike Pence approval ratings hit new low in latest Fox News poll“, The Independent 5/26/2017: Voters polled were also asked “do you think America’s best days are ahead of us or behind us?” A majority – 62 per cent – said yes, they are. [h/t Michael Glazer] [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » backfired
Verb; An attempt to fix something in which the fixing actually makes the situation worse for you. Common on the internet when an arguement "backfires" and makes you look stupid. nub 1:My mom is not FAT! See! *insert link* person 2: Dude! She totally is, your arguement totally backfired on you. Lol, dumbass.
[Link]
Language Log » Attribution of the WannaCry ransomware to Chinese speakers
The notorious WannaCry malware infestation began on Friday, May 12, 2017 and spread rapidly throughout the world, infecting hundreds of thousands of computers and causing major damage. Speculation concerning the identity of the perpetrators focused on North Korea, but the supposed connection was never convincingly demonstrated, and there were no other serious suspects. Yesterday, Jon Condra, John Costello, and Sherman … [Link]
Language Log » Whistled language
In “Transcendent Tonality” (11/5/15), we examined this topic a couple of years ago. That post focused more on the philosophical and ethereal aspects of this type of communication, although it also introduced some of the basics of interhuman whistling and its congruence with melodic musicality. Additional research takes us further toward understanding the linguistic, neuroscientific, and evolutionary biological dimensions of … [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.