Speaking of Asia, why do so many Americans think that Asians mix up R and L? (Asians? East Asians? Chinese and Japanese? How far does this stereotype go?) Before we answer this question, I need to point out a more… Read More ›
Linguistics
Linguistics podcasts updated
A year and a half ago — forever, in tech terms — I reviewed four linguistics podcasts: Lingthusiasm, The World in Words, Very Bad Words, and Lexicon Valley. Since then, the second and third of these have unfortunately ceased to… Read More ›
A 5% discount (or is it a five percent discount? or a 5 percent discount? or a five % discount?)
Like many of you, I grew up learning the traditional rules about when to write out numbers in words and when to use numerals. Most professionals continue to use these rules today, as in the following awkward paragraph from Talking… Read More ›
Friends of Dorothy
In my naive youth, I had no idea what a “friend of Dorothy” was; in-group descriptors, after all, are always known to members of the in group (and allies) long before they are known to the general public. “Friend of… Read More ›
The top universities for linguistics?
Are these really the top universities for linguistics? That’s what the QS World University Rankings by Subject says. I’ve been skeptical of lists like this as I watched high-school ratings over two decades from publications like Boston Magazine and U.S. News, paying special attention… Read More ›
Bay State Model Railroad Museum Spring Model Train Show
Wow! Look at that title: a noun phrase consisting of nine consecutive nouns! Maybe the show should be called Buchtstaatsmodelleisenbahnmuseumsfrühlingsmodellzugshow. On second thought, maybe not. OK, enough fooling around with German. Let’s get back to the show itself, which was… Read More ›
Happy Exelauno Day!
Schools in this entire area (not just Roxbury Latin!) are closed today in honor of Ἐξελαύνω (Exelauno) Day. Or maybe there’s some other reason.
I found the missing R!
I found the missing R! Remember my recent post about my neighborhood barber shop with the missing R? (In case you missed it, here is the photo again of the storefront, showing that it’s a Baber Shop, not a Barber… Read More ›
Crime & Punctuation (and a cat)
Crime & Punctuation. No, not the novel by Dostoevsky that just happens to have a somewhat similar title — that one that only English majors and Russian lit students have actually read, although everyone else claims to. (Confession: at least… Read More ›
“Does verbing impact the language?” he asks.
I’m just starting to scenic my model railroad. Yeah, I know, using the adjective “scenic” as a verb is startling at first. I still don’t like it, though it has become standard. But let’s look at it in context. My… Read More ›
