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FILTER RESULTS ►Cupertinos in the spotlight
About seven years ago, in March 2006, I wrote a Language Log post about "the Cupertino effect," a term to describe spellchecker-aided "miscorrections" that might turn, say, Pakistan's Muttahida Quami Movement into the Muttonhead Quail Movement. Show More Summary
SOS for DARE
Many Language Log readers are no doubt familiar with the Dictionary of American Regional English, which I hailed in a Boston Globe column last year as "a great project on how Americans speak — make that the great project on how Americans speak." At the time I was previewing DARE's fifth volume, which completed [...]
KUMAMOTO FESTSCHRIFT.
Victor Mair ended a recent Language Log post by mentioning that "upon his retirement after teaching in the Department of Linguistics at Tokyo University for nearly a quarter of a century, Hiroshi Kumamoto (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, 1982) was recently gifted with a magnificent Festschrift by his colleagues. Show More Summary
Ask Language Log: SAT "Identifying Sentence Errors" questions
From reader Q.C.: I'm writing to you as your article "The SAT Fails a Grammar Test" came to my mind the other day when I happened to stumble on the following Identifying Sentence Error question from a PSAT: Opposite to the opinion of several respected literary critics, Jane Austen does not make good taste or manners in [...]
Ask Language Log: There's cookies involved
T.L. writes: One of my wife's pet peeves is the use of "there's" instead of "there are," as in the last line here. What's up with this? It's very common. Is it simply easier to articulate? "Plural there's" was discussed a few years ago on LL: "Leading questions and frickin' cooks", 8/31/2005 "When 'there's' isn't 'there is'", 9/1/2005 In those [...]
A glazed panel in the absence of manifestations
From E.L. at The Guardian:
I saw this sign (photo attached) at the Guardian offices in London and, as a frequent (albeit non-linguist) reader of the site, I thought Language Log might be able to assist. I'm genuinely baffled as to its meaning. It may be something to do with being careful about walking into see-through [...]
Delving deeply into the question whether the Chinese have a word for "nerd."
You remember the discussion after NYT columnist David Brooks asserted that the Chinese don't have a word for "nerd." Victor Mair at Language Log has a lot to say on the subject: First of all, we have to know what "nerd" itself means....Show More Summary
"Your passport has just been stamped for entry into the Land of Bullshit"
A couple of years ago, Geoff Pullum put it this way: Long-time Language Log readers will recall that we have often said here before that whenever someone says that the X people have no word for Y in their language you should put your hand on your wallet — to make sure it's still there. The [...]
Rage in Kunming
We at Language Log are already quite familiar with Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province. That's where the completely fake Apple store was discovered by a blogger named BirdAbroad (see "Your friendly fake Apple Stoer in Kunming"). It's also where we located some of our most amazing airport Chinglish. Now, in the same airport, a [...]
Quintuple Negative
(Eugene Volokh) Prof. Mark Liberman (Language Log) quotes one, from The Age (Feb. 5, 2013) describing a litigant’s assertion: Justice Sifris erred in not finding Mr Goldberg was wrong in failing to set aside the summonses.
Ask Language Log: "Span"?
Victoria Ward, "Rowan Atkinson's McLaren car repair costs insurers almost £1 million", The Telegraph 2/7/2013: The actor and comedian span off the road and crashed the high-powered vehicle into a tree in August 2011, suffering a fractured shoulder blade in the process. J.B. asks: "Span"? I've never seen or heard this before in my life. Is this a [...]
Ask Language Log: preference as a verb
Jessica Mason Pieklo, "Texas GOP Considers Turning State Into Tax Dodge Over Contraception Mandate", RH Reality Check 1/30/2013 (emphasis added): To be considered constitutional, a state tax generally cannot discriminate against interstate commerce. Show More Summary
Ask Language Log: "In wildcat form"
Joseph Berger, "Modesty in Ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn Is Enforced by Secret Squads", NYT 1/29/2013 (emphasis added): “We give out proclamations,” said Rabbi Yitzchok Glick, its executive director. “We don’t enforce. It’s like people can decide to keep Shabbos or not. If someone wants to turn on the light on Shabbos, we cannot put him in jail for [...]
Ask Language Log: "build out", "build-out", or "buildout"?
MDS wrote: I have been frustrated in trying to figure out how to use verbal phrases consisting of a verb plus a preposition/adverb in an adjectival or noun context. I'm sure I didn't use the right linguistic phraseology there, so let me tell you what I mean. I'm speaking of verbal phrases such as "build out," [...]
Eskimo argument is a snowstorm in a teacup
The linguist Geoffrey K. Pullum criticised our feature "Are there really 50 Eskimo words for snow?" on his Language Log blog. Read our editor's response
Counting words
Far be it from me to pervert the noble institution of Language Log by exploiting it as a place to rant about the shortcomings of an unusably vile word processor. I know you wouldn't want that. This is Language Log, not Vile Word Processing Software Log. However, since the topic seems to [...]
Japanese postcard puzzle
In "Postcard language puzzle", Mark Liberman enlisted the aid of Language Log readers in deciphering the writing on two old postcards mailed from Mallorca in 1912-1913. The result was a swift and stunning success, an amazing demonstration of spontaneous online collaboration of linguists spread across the globe.
Now, Bruce Balden has sent in an even [...]
New WB250F/WB200F, WB800F, WB30F, DV150F and ST150F bring together optical performance with enhanced usability Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, announced the launch of upgraded SMART CAM
The latest and greatest from Swype Beta includes: Smart Editor Living Language Download Swype Beta without Registering! Download Swype Beta without Registering! You asked for it, you got it! No more registering and logging in on this website or within the Swype Beta Installer to download Swype Beta. Show More Summary
Data Are or Data Is?
Language Log, in a discussion of "usage fetishes," takes on the question of "data are" versus "data is":... Copy editors are meant to be gnomes working invisibly below decks to ensure that the engine of prose runs smoothly. They...
Descriptivism vs. Prescriptivism / Left vs. Right
(Eugene Volokh) Prof. Mark Liberman (Language Log) has an interesting post on usage debates and political debates; you should read the whole thing, but here’s an excerpt: [T]he insistence on regulation by prescriptive “rules”, in whatever...Show More Summary
