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 » From “reach out” to “outreach”
In response to “May I ask you a question?” (6/12/17), we’ve been having an energetic discussion about the origins and meaning of the expression “reach out”, culminating (as of this moment) in Nick Kaldis’ good question: This topic causes an interesting related neologism to come to mind: when did “outreach” come into currency? Our campus has, for instance, a “Community … [Link]
Omniglot blog » Closing out
On some podcasts I listen to, I’ve noticed that the presenters use the phrase close out when talking about the end of the show. For example, they say things like “Finally we will close out with an item about …”, or “It’s now time to close out the show.” To my British ears this expression sounds a bit strange – … [Link]
Language Log » (Not) not too crazy
Tom Recht sent in a link to a story in N.Y. Magazine with the headline “Trump is not too crazy to fire the special prosecutor”. His accompanying note suggested that …the intended but not quite computable meaning is “it isn’t the case that Trump isn’t crazy enough to fire the special prosecutor”. 
Or, as the headline now reads, “Trump is … [Link]
Urban Word of the Day » paris pullout
When you are having really great sex with the woman of your dreams, but decide at the last minute to pull out and go jerk off with your tiny little hands and shoot your dusty, clumpy load onto an American flag instead, to make sure no one else has as awesome and huge orgasm as you. Everyone at the orgy … [Link]
Language Log » The hot potato of interpretive responsibility
Below is a guest post by Elisabeth Camp. Mark posted part of a particularly linguistically juicy exchange from James Comey’s recent Senate testimony, in which Senator Risch “drilled down” on the “exact words” attributed by Comey to Trump, noting that Trump merely expressed his “hope” that Comey could “can see [his] way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn … [Link]
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