Language Log

Tank McNamara has been exploring the psychological implications of thought balloons. Here's yesterday's strip, which illustrates the point that despite the crucial role of "theory of mind" in human evolution and child development, the ability to attribute beliefs, knowledge and emotions to others is not always a good thing.

(As usual, click to embiggen.)

In the June 16 Doonesbury, Duke makes some additional suggestions about Tony Hayward's accent, adding to the GEICO gecko idea that we discussed yesterday:

In today's Get Fuzzy, Bucky explains why a "universal remote" is hard to operate in the earthly here-and-how:

Doonesbury's view, imagining that BP has hired Uncle Duke to handle its PR:

The Onion's take: "Massive flow of bullshit continues to gush from BP headquarters".

From Toothpaste for Dinner, 5/27/2010:

Martin Gardner would have like the mouseover title text on the latest xkcd:

And of course I had to redo this like three times because I kept writing 'UNTIE'; I kept doing 'doing 'doing it wrong' wrong' wrong.

A recent xkcd, under the heading "The Tell-Tale Beat":

(As usual, click on the image for a larger version.)

The most recent xkcd:

The title text (visible on mouseover as usual): "The article has twenty-three citations, one of which is an obscure manuscript from the 1490's and the other twenty-two are arguments on LanguageLog."

Among the many classic cartoons at Barnacle Press is Ed Carey's The Troubles of Dictionary Jaques [sic], from 1912-1913.

The strip's premise: Jaques is dependent on a dictionary for the interpretation of one critical word or phrase in each instruction he's given, while being unaware of the existence of polysemy and completely devoid of common sense.

In the example from which the illustrative detail on the right is taken, Jaques' employer introduces the new kitchen maid and tells him to "present her to the chef". Jaques looks up present:

"Zee deectionary say 'present' mean 'exhibit to view' — now I look up 'exhibit' Ah! Ze word 'exhibit' mean  – 'force into notice'. I do so at once."

But it turns out that he wasn't actually supposed to shove her into the kitchen, grasp her firmly and lift her up so that the chef is forced to notice her.

From The Oatmeal…

[As Kate notes in the comments, Geoff Pullum evoked the "kitten on the keyboard" image a week ago. And see Mark Liberman's two recent posts for more on the name and its pronunciation.]

Allie Brosh, over at Hyperbole and a Half, is annoyed by people who leave out the space in "a lot" ("The Alot is Better Than You at Everything", 4/13/2010):

Today's Non Sequitur:

This recent SMBC has a slightly odd idea of how today's (prospective) great scientists spend their time:

Certainly not an instance of the Fourth Paradigm, or even the third, or for that matter a stereotypical representation of the first or the second.