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 » Language and the “Arts of Resistance”.

Monday 27 November 21:55:44 UTC 2017

I have long revered James C. Scott for his fierce focus on (to quote Wikipedia) strategies of resistance to various forms of domination, but I have also suspected that (like many scholars with an ideological focus) he was oversimplifying and ignoring facts that didn’t fit his theory, so I was glad to read Susan Gal‘s sympathetic but critical “Language and … [Link]

Language Log » Ask Language Log: Unnecessary disyllabism?

Monday 27 November 20:16:54 UTC 2017

From Thorin Engeseth: I was doing some reading this morning on the magpie, and the Wikipedia page states: Similarly, in China, magpies are seen as an omen of good fortune. This is even reflected in the Chinese word for magpie, simplified Chinese: 喜鹊; traditional Chinese: 喜鵲; pinyin: xǐquè, in which the first character means "happiness". I'm almost entirely illiterate when … [Link]

Language Log » Evangelical over/under

Monday 27 November 11:44:22 UTC 2017

Ross Douthat, "Is There an Evangelical Crisis?", NYT 11/25/2017 (emphasis added): But it’s also possible that evangelical intellectuals and writers, and their friends in other Christian traditions, have overestimated how much a serious theology has ever mattered to evangelicalism’s sociological success. It could be that the Trump-era crisis of the evangelical mind is a parochial phenomenon, confined to theologians and … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » speak on that

Monday 27 November 8:30:00 UTC 2017

A phrase that entails the other speaker in the conversation to elaborate on their point. It is usually used to propel the energy of the conversation. Similar to the phrases "dayuum", "sheeeet" and "preach brotha" "You're so fucking dumb that you think "Mytosis" is another way to refer to your own toes. "ooooh damn speak on that" "yeh" … [Link]

languagehat.com » Real-Time Translation via Headphone?

Monday 27 November 1:07:36 UTC 2017

Hayley Tsukayama reviews “Google’s translating headphones” for the Washington Post: Google has set out to make its mark on the headphone world with Pixel Buds — wireless headphones that can control your phone and that claim to translate conversations in real time. But how do they stack up? Google sent us a pair to review to find out. […] To … [Link]

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