Talking ABOUT the Word War WINS The Word War!
The War of Words. Between Conservatives and Progressives. Are We Losing? Why? Are the Voters Too Dumb? Do We Need The Noble Lie to Win Elections? Would We Be Corrupted? What If We Made The War On Words...
View ArticleSantorum: that frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the...
We all know that this term was created by Dan Savage, writer for the Seattle weekly The Stranger and has entered the common lexicon, at least on the liberal side of the Blogosphere. It Strikes me that...
View ArticleLanguage Is A Virus From Outer Space
Language is a virus from outer space. William S. Burroughs, noted American author Bill Burroughs for all of his demons, was capable of blasting away the facade of deception and uncovering the truth....
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Landscape of Numbers
Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant. He has Asperger's Syndrome, has developed the skills to live independently, and runs his own language learning business, Optimnem. Hammet sees numbers and words...
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pegleghippie-ism, or, way too many semantics
you cant see the pegleg but its there. and i have that cool beard. for reals. I was in the shower and i had a cool idea that turned into a content-lite link-heavy essay. Yay! So here's the idea....
View ArticleDems! Do Something Right!
This letter, in today's New York Times, says it all, but. . . : November 3, 2007 Letter: Welcome the Translators To the Editor: Re "Help Wanted" (editorial, Oct. 31): Translators, interpreters and...
View ArticleLinguistics for Administrators
crossposted from howtheuniversityworks.com I completed my app. with style and perfection Now I wonder how long before you make your selection I hope you don’t mind that I’m being persistent But, I...
View ArticleMay 14, 1796, 1939, '61 and '70: The ties that bind lives
Life ends in death. (Should I have included a spoiler warning for that?) So it's entirely appropriate that the first two of today's significant events deal with new life and protecting it. And it is a...
View ArticleHow racist are you? (Or are you a good guy like me?)
Racism is word that has had a lot of use during this primary campaign. It is always a good idea to see what the user means when the word is used- for, like all words, especially those with emotional...
View ArticleObama/Osama
Why do so many politicians and media figures keep saying "Osama" when they mean "Obama"? Sure some of them are jackasses who think they're being clever. But what about the rest of them who should know...
View ArticleMultilingualism and you
Want to improve your spelling? Study word formation cause: the roots of many long words were born in other languages. This is also a great way to build mental hooks for often-misspelled words like...
View ArticleI was changed, were you?
I was profoundly changed tonight. I want to write this while the excitement is peak! Did I really see what I think I did tonight? I'll tell you, I'm writing this because I want to grab your hands...
View ArticleWhat Words Will We Outlaw Next?
Susan Senator, in a heart rending, and totally misguided attempt to protect her cognitively impaired son, wants us to stop using the word "retarded". We are admonished, daily, by overly sensitive...
View ArticleSpeaking to the reptilian brain
Granny Doc has penned a spot-on diary about how we hurt ourselves when we let political correctness water down our political speech. Those that try to control, and determine the meanings of words,...
View ArticleIs Sarah Palin the pig or the lipstick?
George Lakoff has written a number of important and informative works on language that are relevant and illuminating with regards to the recent flap over Barack Obama's "lipstick on a pig" comment. As...
View ArticleFun with Linguistics - Thanks, Sarah Palin!
Why Palin sounds so weird & how to make sense of her rambling "sentences" If you're anything like me, you love anything involving: 1) dialectal analysis of spoken American English, and 2)...
View Article/'pɔkistan/
So, the right wing is all a-fwitter over Obama's pronunciation of "Pakistan" in the debate and wherever else he happens to talk about that country. Conservatives on the right (I know, that's like...
View ArticleOpen Thread for Night Owls, Early Birds & Ex-Pats
It’s hilarious to hear people who speak in flat Midwestern English tones argue that they "don’t have an accent" just because they sound so much like nomadic television newscasters everywhere. In fact,...
View ArticleDon't Throw 'em an Anvil, Throw 'em a Mack Truck. (And Aim it At Their...
Right now, there's a lot of talk about who President Obama (I love the sound of that so much, I purposefully leave off the "elect" part) will select as his cabinet members, and what his first...
View ArticleMeaning of "Democrat Party"
I've never been sure why I'm supposed to find the term "Democrat Party" insulting, other than that Republicans pronounce it as if I should. Why does chopping off a syllable turn the word into a slur?...
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