Language Log: The Inspiration-o-meter
Molly Fitzpatrick, "Know. Here. More. The top 100 words used in 2015 commencement speeches are oddly inspiring, even out of context", Fusion 5/21/2015: Is there a formula for inspiration? If so it...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Cassia Forest
Chilin Shih is spending the summer doing fieldwork in China, and she has started a weblog, Cassia Forest, to document her journey. There are two posts so far. I've posted a sample of the beginnings...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Blatter beast
Is it just me, or does "Sepp Blatter" sound like the name of an alien creature in a Star Wars episode or some other sci-fi story? Put together the sep of (e.g.) septic tank of corruption and the...
View ArticleLanguage Log: The shape of a spoken phrase in Spanish
Or maybe in Chilean Spanish; more specifically in the Audible audiobook version of Isabel Allende's La Casa de los Espiritus: The number of phrases averaged in those plots: Word Count # of Phrases 1...
View ArticleLanguage Log: The BDLPSWDKS Effect
Today's xkcd: Definition of a liberal education: What you need to learn in order to get this joke. To wit: the Bernoulli effect; the Doppler effect; the Leidenfrost effect; the Pelzman effect; the...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Eggcorn makes it into Merriam-Webster
And NPR commemorates the event: Mark Memmott, "'Eggcorns': The Gaffes That Spread Like Wildflowers", Weekend Edition 5/30/2015. Here's the LLOG post where the term was first suggested: "Egg corns:...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Water control
The exoticization of Chinese, yet again This time it's the alleged, essential aqueousness of governance: "The Water Book by Alok Jha review – this remarkable substance", by Rose George (5/14/15). The...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Dilige et quod vis fac
A few weeks ago, Eric Baković organized a "Short 'schrift" in honor of Alan Prince's forthcoming retirement, asking for – a paean – a poem – a story – a greeting – an expression of gratitude – a work...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Tormented in Taiwanese
A couple of weeks ago, we encountered the case of Chang Chun-ning being asked by her fěnsī 粉絲 ("fans") on the Mainland to change one of the characters in her name that they weren't familiar with:...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Mystery message
Email from Diego Viana: I am a Brazilian journalist and reader of the Language Log blog. I'm writing to you because the blog came immediately to my mind when a friend showed me a piece of paper she...
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