Language and words in the news – 3rd April, 2015

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

Be Your Guest? How About I Just Pay and Leave?
Somehow, at some point, the queued-up masses at drugstores, grocery checkouts, banks and retail establishments from Uniqlo to Staples became “guests” in the common service lexicon, instead of “customers.”

Global English

What’s a Newfoundland Accent Worth?
The growth of linguistic tourism from Louisiana to Ireland.

Improve your English

Litotes: the most common rhetorical device you’ve never heard of
If you’ve ever been asked if you like something and replied “it’s not bad”, you were using litotes.

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..

Books, science, words and language

Clean Reader app scrubs sex and profanity from e-books, causing authors to fight back
The most vocal critic has been “Chocolat” author Joanne Harris, who decried “censorship, not by the state, but by a religious minority.”

Dirty Reader App Adds Profanity to Books
“You decide how dirty your books should appear and Dirty Reader does the rest,” claimed the ad. But it was just an April Fool.

A Linguistic Comparison of Letters of Recommendation for Male and Female Chemistry and Biochemistry Job Applicants
Letters of recommendation are central to the hiring process. However, gender stereotypes could bias how recommenders describe female compared to male applicants.