Pronouns — as well as other linguistic tidbits — continue to be an issue far beyond what one might expect. Linguist Dennis Baron continues to be the primary authority on the topic of pronouns, and only partly because of their… Read More ›
Linguistics
Sigh, Gone
A coming-of-age memoir by a Vietnamese refugee. That’s a flat, factual description of this powerful book. It doesn’t capture much of what it is like. The full title — Sigh, Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the… Read More ›
What— hieroglyphics in AI??? (and in Google?)
You’ve heard of Fabricius, right? Actually, probably not. I hadn’t either. Here’s Google’s description of it: Fabricius, a Google Arts & Culture Lab Experiment that uses machine learning to help translate ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. That sounds implausible, but it’s true…. Read More ›
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso
Two or three weeks ago I wrote a piece about the complications of Hispanic surnames. Despite the complications, there is definitely something appealing about taking your surname from both parents, not just from the father. The problem, of course, comes… Read More ›
High school students! You can learn linguistics online!
Linguistics is the science of language. While most often classified as a social science, it’s really an interdisciplinary field that sits at the intersection of social sciences, humanities, and STEM – language is such a fundamental piece of our collective… Read More ›
He’er, his’er, him’er: Pronouns in the news, 1912 edition
Pronouns again! There are (at least) two different issues swirling around pronouns: Singular they, which I wrote about in 2018 Calling someone by their preferred pronouns (in terms of gender), which I wrote about earlier this month Both of these issues… Read More ›
Your last name is always your last name, right?
“Of course my last name comes last,” you reply! “That’s why it’s called my last name!” Well, no. Your surname is not always your “last” name. And I’m not talking about the “Doe, Jane” construction used in bibliographies and official class lists… Read More ›
The Just City: science fiction and Plato
I am overwhelmed! By unanimous consent, Jo Walton’s The Just City has now been added to my top-ten books list (which already had 12 books on it). There was no doubt about it. In a sense, this book is science fiction…. Read More ›
What’s up with Hispanic surnames?
Over the years I have taught many students with Spanish-language surnames, and I’m never sure how to alphabetize them, since it seems that there are multiple systems of doing so. It turns out that it not only seems that there are multiple… Read More ›
Irregardless of what you may think, “irregardless” is a word.
OK, so I slightly modified the headline on an NPR article from last week. Go read this short article to find out what I did, and to learn something. I will wait. … The problem is that the world is… Read More ›
Performances? Performances!
A published book is a performance. A translation is a performance. Actually, I never used to think of either of them that way, but John Talbot and James Harbeck have convinced me. In JT’s case it was an oral conversation… Read More ›
Justice Alito has strong views about pronouns (and gender).
Justice Samuel Alito warns that Bostock not only opens up bathrooms and locker rooms to sexual predators, it runs afoul of the First Amendment by forcing people to use gender pronouns against their will. … Alito implies that somehow this deluge… Read More ›
Is this an offensive slur?
QOTD: Is it OK for a young Jewish woman to call another young Jewish woman a JAP, or is it an offensive slur? Here’s the three-part context behind that question: A friend (Jewish and female) replied to my post about… Read More ›
Eye chart
Stand 20 feet away. Good luck!
Resources for non-linguists
So you want to dip your toe into the waters of linguistics, but you don’t want to take a linguistics course? A course would be full-body immersion, after all, not just dipping a toe. So what do you do? There… Read More ›
Karen
Who is Karen? As Gretchen McCulloch explains, language changes more rapidly today than in the past, because internet. One current meaning of Karen is new. According to Wikipedia: Karen is a term used in the United States for a person perceived to… Read More ›
Minority languages
Simon Agre says: Speakers of majority languages often belittle them, claim they are not proper languages, that they don’t have their own grammar, and/or that they are ‘just’ dialects, patois, or distorted / corrupted versions of a majority language, and… Read More ›
What does “defund” really mean?
“Defund the police.” That means… what? Does it mean eliminate police departments? Does it mean reduce their funding? Does it mean anarchy? Here are three posts I saw on Facebook yesterday — one posted by a friend, two from a… Read More ›
Ἅρειος Ποτῆρ καὶ ἡ τοῦ Φιλοσόφου Λίθος
No cheating now: Based on the Greek letters that you’ve learned from math and science, can you figure out what the title of this post says? If you can’t figure out any complete words, try sounding them out. There are… Read More ›
Because Language
Just over a year ago, I published a blog post in which I added Talk the Talk to my short list of favorite linguistics podcasts. The bad news is that Talk the Talk is no more. The good news is… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 