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Language and words in the news – 17th May, 2013
Posted by Kati Sule on May 17, 2013
This post contains a selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English, language change, education in general, and language learning and teaching in particular.Feel free to contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include, or just add a comment to the post, with the link(s) you’d like to share.
Global English
The 10 most scandalous euphemisms
followed by:
20 of your favourite euphemismsMore on grammar
Much discussion of language, particularly on the web, goes nowhere because those involved are very often talking about different things. In considering approaches to language, as in all else, it’s important to be clear what we’re talking about. In particular, the word ‘grammar is bandied around without much thought as to what it might be.Language change and slang
30 days of BuzzWords
A selection of BuzzWords from Mashables, including big data, synergy, second screen, and many many more…Language teaching and resources
Are language teachers leading the way with education technology?
There are a plethora of possibilities for enhancing language learning with technology as there are colleagues willing to help from language fora and social media. The stumbling block for many is not having the time to seek out new tools and become familiar with them, as well as the fear of relinquishing control to their pupils who may be more techno-savvy than they are.Books, science, dictionaries, words and languages
Your Brain Catches Grammar Errors Even When You Don’t Realize It
The brain does all kinds of amazing things while you’re not paying attention (you know, like regularly remind you to breathe). But it’s also engaged in less critical but equally interesting tasks, like correcting the grammar of the person sitting across from you at dinner. A University of Oregon study has logged hard evidence that the brain processes and compensates for errors in grammar and syntax without your being aware of it.Video
Dictionary of Numbers: browser extension humanizes the numbers on the Web (0:58)
Dictionary of Numbers is a Chrome extension that watches your browsing activity for mentions of large numerical measurements and automatically inserts equivalences in real-world terms that are meant to clarify things. For example, a story about a 300,000 acre forest fire would be annotated to note that this is about the area of LA or Hong Kong; or that 315 million people is about the population of the USA.Get your dancing shoes on – courtesy of Puma (2:45)
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The brand collaborated with some of the most high-profile freestyle dancers from around the world and choreographer Super Dave to invent dance moves for 280 words (see behind the scenes photographs by Alex Hulsey below). The Dance Dictionary also includes a comprehensive inventory of dance moves and their definitions for freestylers.
Recent Comments
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Posted by Michael Rundell to Stories behind Words: blagrant on May 17, 2013 Great story, Andrew. The Urban Dictionary (admittedly not a reliable source) has an entry for "blagrant" and it's quite different:it's seen as a blend of "blatant" and "fragrant" and refers to "someone who wears too much perfume or cologne". I prefer your interpretation - maybe you should send it in to the UD
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Posted by Liz to Stories behind Words: blagrant on May 16, 2013 Andrew: this is a lovely piece and blagrant is a great word (though you shouldn't have given the game away about perhaps sneaking it into a dictionary one day. You wouldn't be the first...) I too grew up in a family that loved wordplay and word games. I think I may have mentioned before in this forum my parents' penchant for inventing adverbs that end in -lily ("Go away," he muttered surlily), a game they got...
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Posted by Gill to “A dangling modifier walks into a bar …” on May 15, 2013 Elizabeth: I always liked the ‘call me a cab’ joke; there are not many that are strictly grammatical. As for the dangling modifier one, all those of its ilk are instructive rather than funny, e.g “A bar was walked into by the passive voice", "A question walks into a bar?", "A synonym ambles into a pub" etc. You get the idea. They’re pretty basic, but have the advantage of being self-explanatory.
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Posted by Peter to The dominance of English: a view from Japan on May 15, 2013 I was in Japan a long time ago, but am still haunted by the bizarre English I saw on T-shirts ('boy sister', 'vigorous throw up' etc) drink cans, and in branding: I couldn't resist a pair of walkman earphones labelled 'Turbo Nude Club' - I just had to join!
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Posted by Gill to “A dangling modifier walks into a bar …” on May 14, 2013 boater: I recently read about a piece of research carried out by Dr Nicola Yuill in the University of Sussex into the understanding of ambiguity by 7-9-year-old children: she found that children’s reading comprehesion improved after sessions in which they worked in pairs to discuss and explain multiple meanings in joking riddles like “How do you make a sausage roll? Push it down a hill”. For details of her current work, look at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/psychology/chatlab/ ...
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Language tip of the week: exciting synonyms
In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are based on areas of English which learners find difficult, e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc. This week’s language tip gives useful advice on the adjective excited: Adjectives for describing things that make someone feel excited: [...]
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Stories behind Words: blagrant
My father, who was an exuberant talker and storyteller, used to conflate words, creating inadvertent coinages on the fly in the middle of a conversation or anecdote. He tended not to notice that he’d done it, but my brothers and I, and Mum, would pounce on them with glee. One time he mentioned someone’s razier-like [...]
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The dominance of English: a view from Japan
Our series on English as a lingua franca continues with a post from Japan. We asked Jim Ronald, Professor of English Linguistics at Hiroshima Shudo University, to provide a perspective on Japan’s engagement with English. Jim has discussed the subject with four of his students, and they give their views here. __________ What impact is [...]
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“A dangling modifier walks into a bar …”
You may be familiar with the not-very-funny jokes based on the old formula “someone/something walks into a bar…”. They usually involve a play on words, as in ‘A drunk walks into a bar. “Ouch!” he says.’ Exactly – they aren’t very funny. But some of them make useful points about grammar: A dangling modifier walks [...]
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Language and words in the news – 11th May, 2013
This post contains a selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English, language change, education in general, and language learning and teaching in particular. Feel free to contact us if you would like to submit [...]
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“Say the Word” competition: we’ve got a winner!
A big thank you to everyone who took part in our “Say the Word” competition. The brief was to find any words in Beatles songs which are not ‘red words’ in the Macmillan Dictionary. And this isn’t easy. We mentioned in an earlier post that the Beatles’ lyrics are mostly made up of basic, high-frequency [...]
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Language tip of the week: thousand
In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are based on areas of English which learners find difficult, e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc. This week’s language tip gives advice on the number thousand: After a number, or after several or a few, use [...]
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Stories behind Words: eye of the tiger
As non-academic and uncool as it may sound and after a few hour glasses of thought, my chosen phrase is going to have to be eye of the tiger. It has become a phrase that is so frequently used in the confines of my immediate family that it’s simply become part of the furniture, part [...]
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LOL slash grammar, knowmsayin?
New vocabulary appears constantly: we invent words, or more usually modify existing ones, to meet the needs of expression – or just for fun. Sometimes, too, existing words get repurposed, switching grammatical classes or incorporating new ones: verbs and adjectives are converted into nouns, and vice versa. This attracts predictable criticism, but it’s a thoroughly [...]
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Language and words in the news – 3rd May, 2013
This post contains a selection of links related to language and words in the news. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting websites related to global English, language change, education in general, and language learning and teaching in particular. Feel free to contact us if you would like to submit [...]
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Language tip of the week: news
In this weekly post, we bring more useful content from the Macmillan Dictionary to English language learners. These tips are based on areas of English which learners find difficult, e.g. spelling, grammar, collocation, synonyms, etc. This week’s language tip gives advice on the noun news: Although the word news has an -s on the end, [...]
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Bye bye, palm reading! Welcome, gene reading! DNA and other clinical metaphors
Today’s guest post comes from Janet Byron Anderson. Dr. Anderson is a medical editor and runs Medical Linguistics Consulting. Her book Sick English: Medicalization in the English Language is available at Amazon.com. _______________ If you’re of a certain cast of mind and want to know your prospects for life, death, and happiness you can open [...]
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