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October 13, 2017 @ 9:26 am
· Filed under Humor, Language and politics, Prescriptivist poppycock
Someone with a knowledge of usage controversies, German language, and modern political history put this on the web somewhere; I haven't been able to find out who or where: [Hat tip: Rowan Mackay]
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December 2, 2010 @ 6:03 pm
· Filed under Prescriptivist poppycock
Spot the horrible effect introduced here by an over-picky Wall Street Journal subeditor: Quite often, these games don't even turn out to be good: Fewer than half of them have been decided by 10 points or fewer. That "10 points or fewer" phrase on the end is a desperate and quite ridiculous effort at obeying […]
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February 9, 2020 @ 8:24 am
· Filed under Bilingualism, Borrowing, Humor, Language and computers, Words words words
From Nathan Hopson: Can't believe I had never heard this marvelous Japanglish until now: トップレス‐ミーティング(toppuresu mītingu = "topless meeting")or トップレス会議 (kaigi = meeting)
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April 4, 2016 @ 5:48 pm
· Filed under Language change, Writing systems
In a comment to "Character amnesia and kanji attachment " (2/24/16), I wrote: For the last 40 years and more, I have informally tracked kanji usage in Japanese books, newspapers, journals, magazines, signs, notices, labels, directions, messages, reports, business cards (meishi), packaging, etc., etc. and the conclusion I reach is that the proportion of kanji […]
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October 21, 2012 @ 11:35 am
· Filed under Grammar
In a message about the "excruciatingly slow internet speed in China" that I privately circulated to some friends, students, and colleagues, I made the statement that "in many cases that I have personally experienced, the internet speed in China is actually hundreds of times slower than it is in the United States and elsewhere in […]
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December 5, 2010 @ 10:03 am
· Filed under Prescriptivist poppycock
Looking over the comments on Geoff Pullum's recent post "Stupid less/fewer automatism at the WSJ", I see one point — implicit in many contributions, and explicit in a few — that deserves to be underlined with some empirical evidence. When a numerically-quantified plural noun phrase refers to an amount that may be fractionally divided (grams, […]
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April 16, 2009 @ 9:11 am
· Filed under Linguistics in the comics, Usage advice
Rhymes With Orange plays with less/fewer: This is a familiar topic here on Language Log. Some previous postings: ML, 11/15/06: If it was good enough for King Alfred the Great… (link) AZ, 8/10/08: 10 English majors or less (link) AZ, 8/31/08: More on less (link) AZ, 9/4/08: Still more on less (link)
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November 11, 2008 @ 10:00 am
· Filed under Language and politics
We've spent a lot of electrons attacking the Bushisms industry — but we've never tried to make the argument that John Hinderaker put forward a couple of days ago, apparently in earnest ("The importance of being careful", 11/9/2008): In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. […]
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September 4, 2008 @ 3:59 pm
· Filed under Prescriptivist poppycock
The BBC News Magazine, expanding on earlier BBC News coverage of the Tesco "10 items or less" flap (reported on here), passes on more misinformation from various sources about the usage of fewer and less. The piece ("When to use 'fewer' rather than 'less'?") begins inauspiciously: Tesco is changing its checkout signs after coming under criticism […]
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August 31, 2008 @ 2:27 pm
· Filed under Prescriptivist poppycock
Further linguistic adventures at grocery store check-out counters: last time it was a New Yorker cartoon in which "10 items or less" was altered to "10 items or fewer", mimicking real-life episodes like the one in which (under grumbling from customers) the Marks & Spencer chain replaced its "6 items or less" signs with "6 […]
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August 10, 2008 @ 7:16 am
· Filed under Linguistics in the comics, Prescriptivist poppycock
From the New Yorker of 28 July, a cartoon by J.C. Duffy (p. 60), showing a man, working a cash register at a grocery store, who is addressing a shopper staring at the sign at his counter. The sign has "10 items or less" on it, with the "less" crossed out and "fewer" written in. […]
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January 4, 2024 @ 4:56 pm
· Filed under Language and the law
"The Times Sues OpenAI and Microsoft Over A.I. Use of Copyrighted Work", NYT 12/27/2023: The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement on Wednesday, opening a new front in the increasingly intense legal battle over the unauthorized use of published work to train artificial intelligence technologies. The Times is the first major […]
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December 29, 2023 @ 11:41 am
· Filed under Creoles and pidgins, Language and music, Language extinction, Language preservation
There are many things about Papua New Guinea (PNG) that make it unique (the abundance of its flora and fauna, its ritualistic cannibalism, its political complexity, etc.), but above all for me is the huge number of its languages, especially considering its relatively small population on such a large amount of land (see below for […]
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