We've been having a vigorous debate on the nature of Sinograms: "Character crises". It started on June 15, but it is still going on quite actively in the comments section. A new reader of Language Log, a scholar of late medieval Chinese literature from Beijing was prompted by her reading of this lively discussion and […]
From the first panel of the most recent Scenes From a Multiverse, an example of what Wikipedia calls "Type 2 Zeugma" or "semantic syllepsis":
In addition interpreters being needed to help detainees communicate with their lawyers, there is an urgent need for medical personnel who can speak Central American indigenous languages (or, failing that, presumably for interpreters to work with English- and Spanish-speaking medical personnel). This is a Facebook post that Emily Bender has sent me:
PLS RT. NEED HELP. Looking for people who speak Meso-American indigenous languages (e.g., zapotec, nahua, ma'am, quich'e, maya, mixe, mixteco) to translate remotely (via telephone) for immigrant families speaking with their lawyers. Email support@l4gg.org. — #L4GG (@lawyers4goodgov) June 22, 2018 Please spread the word.
Last week there were large scale truckers strikes in many parts of China. China watchers around the world were stunned, especially since some of the strikers were shouting out what sounded like "overthrow the Communist Party!", as at 3:48 in this video. Here's the audio portion of the leader of one of the strikes shouting what sounds like […]
When I saw a large sign reading "ABSOLUTORIA 2018" on a vaguely ecclesiastical-looking building in Poznań last week, my first ignorant thought was that maybe there was a sort of special on indulgences. But that was wrong, and so was my second thought that it might be a vodka festival. A quick inspection of the […]
Wikipedia explains that "right node raising" is "a sharing mechanism that sees the material to the immediate right of parallel structures being in some sense 'shared' by those parallel structures, e.g. [Sam likes] but [Fred dislikes] the debates." This construction is alive and well in modern English, but it flourished to a much greater extent […]
In response to the discussion of "Realistic limitations" on telephone conversation, Anne Cutler sent in a link to her 1989 New Scientist article "The new Victorians": "My dear Hooker,” wrote Charles Darwin to Joseph Hooker on 6 March 1844, “I will not lose a post in guarding you against what I am afraid is … […]
Today's Dumbing of Age features Amber performing a daring physical feat in order to help her friend Walky: The mouseover title is "let's set realistic limitations for ourselves", and in the last panel, Amber remarks about what she's doing that "It's rough, sure, but it's not impossible, like calling anyone on the phone".
Pro-Taiwanese language poster on a wall in Tainan (courtesy of Tim Clifford):
From Bob Bauer: You may have heard that the famous HK-based novelist by the name of 劉以鬯 recently passed away at the age of 99. [VHM: I have intentionally left his name without transcription for reasons that will soon become apparent.] I did not know how to read/pronounce the third character in his name, so […]
Yesterday, while I was sitting in an interesting session at Speech Prosody 2018, I got a phone call that I didn't answer. The caller left a message that Google Voice transcribed this way: Lowell is an installer sensor Grace call me. I'll pick it up. That was a break was thinking. Because you had to […]