Archive for June, 2009
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Posted by Michael Rundell on June 29, 2009
You would have thought there was no sensible person left who believed that split infinitives were a crime to be avoided at all costs. But apparently not. In the space of ten minutes – while reading the Saturday Review in last week’s Guardian – I came across two clumsy sentences. In both cases, the culprit [...]
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Posted by Jonathan Cole on June 26, 2009
This post contains a weekly selection of links related to English language today. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting related websites. A new weekly review post will be posted every Friday. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include. News The new [...]
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Posted by Kati Sule on June 25, 2009
Move over Henmania, here comes Murraymania! Yes, it’s that time of year again: the Wimbledon championships have started. Images conjured up are immaculate grass courts, strawberries & cream, rain delay (fortunately Centre Court now has a retractable roof). The competition isn’t complete without pressure, from practically the whole nation, on the best British male player [...]
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Posted by Sharon Creese on June 23, 2009
Back when Henry Ford started mass producing cars, there was no need for clever names to differentiate them from the competition – there was no competition. ‘Model T’ worked, even if it wasn’t exactly exciting. Now, though, there are scores of manufacturers and hundreds of models, each with a name designed to make us want [...]
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Posted by Sarah McKeown on June 22, 2009
A couple of weeks ago I was reminded both of my north-east roots and sociolinguistic theory in quite an unexpected way. While pottering around the house one Saturday afternoon, I heard a knock at the door. Standing there, tracksuited and trainered, was a young lad of about 18 with a large sports bag. He launched [...]
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Posted by Jonathan Cole on June 19, 2009
This post contains a weekly selection of links related to English language today. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting related websites. A new weekly review post will be posted every Friday. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include. News One nation [...]
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Posted by Sharon Creese on June 18, 2009
I was amazed to discover today that there is actually such a thing as a PE (physical education) GCSE in the UK. When I was at school (and admittedly, it was a long time ago) ‘studying for a PE GCSE’ would have been some bright sparks’ explanation for what they were doing out on the [...]
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Posted by Sarah McKeown on June 16, 2009
It would be no exaggeration to say that I have a history of both triumph and tragedy in the kitchen. Delia Smith I am not. I don’t believe in recipes; I’m not going to be told what to do by all those egotistical, narcissistic celebrity chefs; I cook by my own rules. The result is [...]
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Posted by Brett Jocelyn Epstein on June 15, 2009
As a translator, I use dictionaries nearly every day. But contrary to what many people might believe, I don’t simply look up words in a bilingual dictionary and then write down the first definition offered. Translation is about much more than approximately equivalent words. That’s why actual people are needed to carry out translation, rather [...]
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Posted by Jonathan Cole on June 12, 2009
This post contains a weekly selection of links related to English language today. These can be items from the latest news, blog posts or interesting related websites. A new weekly review post will be posted every Friday. Please contact us if you would like to submit a link for us to include. News The Millionth [...]
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