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THE MOST INTERESTING LANGUAGE. - yesterday
Over at linguaphiles, ein_wunderkind asks: "What is the most interesting language you know of and...
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ALGERNON. - yesterday
This thread quickly wandered into a discussion of the wonderful 1952 film version of The Importance...
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IJ, EI, Y. - 2 days ago
Nico Muhly is an American composer (the biography section of his blog won me over by announcing "His...
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Language lessons: It's time for English teachers to stop teaching that the earth is flat - 15 hours ago
When I asked a class of prospective teachers to discuss the impact on students of prescriptive rules...
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Glenn Beck wins 2009 Doublespeak Award - 4 days ago
The National Council of Teachers of English has named Glenn Beck winner of the 2009 Doublespeak...
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The 2009 word of the year is "teabag," but the word of the decade has to be "wingnut" - 1 week ago
It's time once again to name the word of the year, and since we're coming up to 2010, it's also time...
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What is this question about? - 2 hours ago
Letter to the New York Times on November 30, about a November 21 article on admissions tests for...
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A gerund too far? - 5 hours ago
James Taranto starts out his latest Best of the Web column with some clever wordplay, based on the...
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Ditransitive prepositions? - yesterday
In "On beyond personal datives" (11/5/2009), we discussed examples like "I nearly stepped on me a...
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Nonce truncation - yesterday
From Dana Goodyear’s piece “Dept. of Hoopla: Celebromatic” (New Yorker of November...
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Short shot #24: douchefag - 2 days ago
A recent Language Log posting of mine on the rise of douche as an insult (directed at people)...
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On the noun watch - 2 days ago
A nouning, open (in a cold open), and a mass-to-count conversion, a slang ‘a slang...
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Cider Sentence Syntax - yesterday
Doug and Adam have been learning about the tragedy of the commons this fall. Every year we pick...
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Mayonnaise and Margarine - 1 week ago
It happened again. My wife asked me to hand her the mayonnaise, and I did. As soon as I did, I...
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Variations on Multiple-Level Coordination - 1 week ago
In the multiple-level coordinations I’ve written about before, the coordinated items (which...
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Job advertisement: Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre - 1 week ago
Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre SENIOR LINGUIST Key position available in one of...
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Book announcement "Endangered Languages of Austronesia" - Margaret Florey - 1 week ago
[from Margaret Florey] Endangered Languages of Austronesia (Oxford University Press, 2009), edited...
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Concluding the ELIIP workshop - 2 weeks ago
In a few weeks' time reports and powerpoints on the ELIIP workshop will be up on the ELIIP website...
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Senatorial abuse and apostrophe misuse - yesterday
Some short time ago, I stumbled upon a delightful blog known as the ragbag, which I quickly...
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Book Review: I love “Origins of the Specious” - 3 weeks ago
I am unabashedly in love with “Origins of the Specious”. It’s got a clever title,...
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The real difference between “between” and “among” - 4 weeks ago
I apologize for not posting much recently, but I’ve been bogged down with being a grad student...
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Improving Conversational Skills - 1 week ago
Marnie Kaur recently raised a question I’ve heard many times before. This time I will share my...
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More Shenanigans over Henanigans - 2 weeks ago
Lenn Zonder sent such profound comments on my recent treatment of the Good Word shenanigans that I...
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Language Consolidation - 4 weeks ago
A good deal has been written and is being written on the topic of language death. Linguists and...
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Now accepting nominations for the 2009 “word of the year” and the 2000-9 “word of the decade” - 2 weeks ago
The American Dialect Society is now accepting nominations for the "word of the year" of 2009, as...
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How much underworld slang is still used from 80 years ago? - 1 month ago
My latest column in the Malaysia Star: Underworld lingo. The column, as always, is written for an...
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Remembering William Safire - 2 months ago
I want to take a moment to remember William Safire for his kindness. He was unstinting with his...
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667-1: Feedback, notes and comments - 4 days ago
Slipshod? Many readers queried my invention of disopprobrium in this item last week. It was intended...
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667-2: Weird Words: Deliquescent - 4 days ago
Many people first encountered this word, as I did, during a school science lesson in which some...
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667-3: What I've learned this week - 4 days ago
Skywatchers What do you call a scientist who studies the heavens? Most of us would instantly say...
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It’s a braw bricht moonlicht nicht - 3 hours ago
I went for a walk with some friends last night and one of the things we were talking about was the...
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Puzzle - 2 days ago
Can anyone decipher the inscription below? It appears on a British sword from the 18th century...
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Language quiz - 3 days ago
Here’s a recording in a mystery language. Do you know or can you guess which language...
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Words of the Year 2009 - 1 week ago
I'm celebrating (for two-and-a-half minutes) a major milestone in the preparation of the book...
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Sesame Street - 2 weeks ago
While Grover takes/has her nap, a little reflection on her bi-dialectal language acquisition. She's...
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well done the - 3 weeks ago
Often these days my blogging consists of answering queries from readers wondering about this or that...
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On hip-hop Shakespeare - 5 days ago
A correspondent (son Ben in this case) has sent me a link to an amazing BBC Blast programme, being...
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On for/in ages - 1 week ago
A correspondent writes to ask why (2) is odd, for him, when (4) is OK:(1) That's the worst book I've...
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On Twitter prompts - 1 week ago
A correspondent from Valleywag wrote last week to ask if I saw anything interesting in the Twitter...
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