language change and slang
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Posted by Stan Carey on November 02, 2011
Impact is part of the core vocabulary of English, ranking as a three-star red word in Macmillan Dictionary. Yet it is subject to constant dispute and ire, appearing frequently in lists of pet peeves and inspiring lengthy discussions in usage dictionaries. Why is this? The noun first denoted a physical strike or collision, such as [...]
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Posted by Orin Hargraves on November 01, 2011
Moving on from theatre and acting to music, subcultural English month brings you a guest post by Orin Hargraves, an independent American lexicographer and author of books about English, including Slang Rules!, a lesson book for English learners about American slang. _____________ The music that we call rap today can be heard in nearly every [...]
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Posted by Stan Carey on October 19, 2011
Slang, I wrote recently, is a perennially active frontier of language, where words and usages emerge, spread, mutate, and typically fade – though some are eventually assimilated into the common vocabulary. Overlapping with slang is thieves’ cant, the old jargon of the underworld. The more general sense of cant is insincere talk: affected language often [...]
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Posted by Dan Clayton on October 18, 2011
Subcultural English month brings you a guest post by Dan Clayton on the topic of street slang. Dan has taught English Language A level for the past 10 years in south London and is currently working as a Research Fellow at UCL’s Survey of English Usage on the Teaching English Grammar in Schools project. He [...]
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Posted by Natalie Hunter on October 07, 2011
Discussion of online English here on Macmillan Dictionary Blog comes to a close with a guest post by Natalie Hunter. Natalie grew up wanting to be a teacher, and is addicted to learning and research. As a result she is grateful for the invention of the Internet because it allows her to spend some time [...]
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Posted by Stan Carey on September 28, 2011
No doubt you’re familiar with the following line from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay on self-reliance: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”. In a comment to my recent post about hopefully, Marc Leavitt quoted it in relation to the strange persistence of outdated and unfounded rules of grammar and usage. Most people know [...]
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Posted by Laine Redpath Cole on September 27, 2011
This month we’ve been looking at how the Internet has influenced the English language in ‘What’s your online English?’ and there’s been some interesting discussion generated. We thought that it might be quite nice to ask our guest bloggers and regular contributors what their favourite online English word was and why. Here is what they [...]
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Posted by Lindsay Clandfield on September 26, 2011
We continue the discussion of online English with a guest post from author, teacher and teacher trainer Lindsay Clandfield. Lindsay writes about the resurgence of the exclamation mark. _________________ Great! It’s time for another post for this blog! Looking back at those two sentences I see a liberal use of exclamation marks. What am I [...]
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Posted by David Crystal on September 21, 2011
Online English month continues with a guest post from writer, editor, lecturer, broadcaster and blogger David Crystal. Professor Crystal’s most recent book The Story of English in 100 Words is published on 6th October by Profile Books. ___________ It’s the penalty of linguistic success. You invent a name for your product, and it takes off. [...]
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Posted by Stan Carey on September 20, 2011
When people lament the state of the English language, they often criticise new vocabulary, such as the slang, buzzwords and jargon that arise from young people, advertising, and technology. But new vocabulary marks linguistic change only in a relatively superficial way. Significant changes in language happen more slowly. In a short video for Global about [...]
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