Language and words in the news – 11th July, 2014

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.

Language change and slang

Before you tweet your outrage about grammar…
You get to use whatever language is consistent with your tastes and apt to the purpose. What you do not get to do is to impose your idiosyncratic preferences as strictures on other writers and speakers.

The bacteria has been decimated: how much should we care about what words used to mean?
The thing is, if you want to use “bacterium”, or only use “decimate” to mean “reduce by a tenth”, then you can, of course. It’s a stylistic preference.

The Long Voyage of Mission Creep
‘Mission creep,’ a phrase with roots in the early 1990s, has been creeping back into the political conversation.

Please Advise Your Verb of Choice
Stan Carey has some fun with business speak’s propensity for linguistic pomposity.

From a language point of view, what’s happening in Iraq, Syria, and environs has revived words that have not been common for many years. – See more at: http://www.cjr.org/language_corner/language_corner_063014.php?utm_content=buffer811d0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#sthash.WQopCEDs.dpufFrom a language point of view, what’s happening in Iraq, Syria, and environs has revived words that have not been common for many years.From a language point of view, what’s happening in Iraq, Syria, and environs has revived words that have not been common for many years..

Global English

anti-clockwise and counterclockwise
Why do UK and US have different words for going in a circle as if going backward(s) on a clock? Blogger lynneguist has some answers.

Language teaching and resources

What publishers and writers can do about piracy right now … and in the future
In a follow-up to the recent post about ELT piracy, Mike Boyle suggests some steps that could be taken.

Why students need to be Han Solo
Han Solo was definitely an autonomous learner. Orphaned at a young age, he dropped out of formal education at 8 and taught himself to read.

Books, science, dictionaries, words and language

Alice is 150 next year
Macmillan is marking the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll by re-releasing a number of fiction and non-fiction titles in 2015. The highlights include a reprint of the abbreviated The Little Folks’ Edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, first published in 1903, with the original Tenniel illustrations.

Lack of languages stifles Brits and Americans
More on the ongoing debate about English speakers’ lack of foreign language skills.

What Language Should I Learn?
And for would-be polyglots, here are some thoughts on which languages we should be learning.