John Gordon Ross

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 » The quasi-compositionality of English compounds

Saturday 20 January 14:51:37 UTC 2018

Today's Frazz: Snowpants exemplifies a common case, where both elements of the compound retain their basic meaning, but the combination has an idiomatic aspect — the meaning is not entirely compositional, in that the reference is not to pants composed of snow (as in snowdrift, snow shower, snow bridge), and the morpheme choice is conventionalized, so that the first element … [Link]

Urban Word of the Day » murdered out

Saturday 20 January 9:00:00 UTC 2018

When a vehicle has both black paint and black aftermarket wheels. The window tint should also be really dark and other aftermarket accessories such as black taillight covers etc. should aid in blacking out the ride. That escalade is truly murdered out man. [Link]

Language Log » Further evidence of mixed script writing in Chinese

Saturday 20 January 7:58:13 UTC 2018

Michael Cannings relayed this tweet by Dave Flynn: When did replacing 很 with "hen" become a thing in Taiwan? pic.twitter.com/IHX8b5EWLZ — Dave Flynn 茶米 (@DaveFlynn) January 18, 2018 The writing in the bottom right corner says: yóuxì zhēn de HEN hǎowán 遊戲真的HEN好玩 "the game is really fun" On the grammatical function of hěn 很 ("very") in such sentences: "He's (very) … [Link]

languagehat.com » Linguistic Olfaction.

Saturday 20 January 1:24:00 UTC 2018

Josh Gabbatiss reports for The Independent on a study, “Hunter-Gatherer Olfaction Is Special” by Asifa Majid and Nicole Kruspe in Current Biology, in which (to quote the subhead) “Scientists use languages of indigenous groups to understand their sensory perception of the world”: Hunter-gatherers who live off the land in the forests of Malaysia are far more in tune with their … [Link]

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