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

languagehat.com » Ess Bouquet.

Monday 29 May 22:11:44 UTC 2017

I’m reading Dostoevsky’s Selo Stepanchikovo i ego obitateli [The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants, also translated The Friend of the Family] and enjoying it a great deal, though it’s an odd mixture of sitcom and existential drama (like The Man Who Came to Dinner, but with a genuinely evil Sheridan Whiteside). One of the minor characters is a foppish … [Link]

Language Log » A little sentiment analysis

Monday 29 May 16:43:28 UTC 2017

As I’ve noted from time to time, speakers’ pitch range is affected by many internal and external factors in addition to their anatomy and physiology. External factors include the level of background noise and the distance to the intended hearer(s). Internal factors include the level of physiological arousal. In particular, we expect the emotion of “hot anger” to increase pitch … [Link]

Language Log » Li’l Ice AI writes Chinese poetry

Monday 29 May 16:18:46 UTC 2017

About a week ago I received this Facebook query from Scaruffi.com about Chinese chatbot poetry (relayed by Mark Liberman): Since friday Chinese social media are flooded with comments about a poetry book written by Microsoft’s chatbot Xiaoice that was published on May 19 (three days ago). I cannot find a single reference to this book in Google’s search engine. No … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » hotdog holidays

Monday 29 May 7:00:00 UTC 2017

Any holiday when you go to someones house you will be offered a hotdog ie memorial day , 4 of july, labor day Im going to miss the barbeques now that the hotdog holidays are over [Link]

Language Log » Toxic clams

Monday 29 May 1:40:59 UTC 2017

Photograph of a sign at Sequim Bay, Washington taken by Stephen Hart: These are the same languages (Korean, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Spanish, Russian, Laotian, and Chinese) as on the sign discussed in this post: “Toxic shellfish warning in seven foreign languages ” (9/16/16) A big difference here, though, is that English designations (“butter clams” and “varnish clams”) are parenthetically added to … [Link]

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