Language Log

In our "unfair but funny" series —  Nathan Sanders has  provided an Alignment Chart for subdisciplines of linguistics:

As the Washington Post explains ("Europe, not the U.S., is now the most powerful regulator of Silicon Valley", 5/25/2018): Europe implemented a sweeping overhaul of digital-privacy laws on Friday that has reshaped how technology companies handle customer data, creating a de-facto global standard that gives Americans new protections and the nation’s technology companies new headaches. […]

Photograph accompanying Jun Mai, "Why Beijing isn’t Marxist enough for China’s radical millennials:  President Xi Jinping may have called for a recommitment to Karl Marx’s ideology, but excuse some young Marxists if they are a little sceptical", SCMP (5/24/18):

Just when you thought you'd never have to worry about this vexing acoustic phenomenon again, "Yanny vs. Laurel: an analysis by Benjamin Munson" (5/16/18) and the comments thereto having carried out such a probing, exhaustive investigation, a 3:44 video (5/15/18) surfaces that attempts to explain it in a way that has not yet been mentioned:

Joshua Capitanio has written a fascinating, pathbreaking article on a highly esoteric, but also tremendously significant, topic: "Sanskrit and Pseudo-Sanskrit Incantations in Daoist Ritual Texts", History of Religions, 57.4 (May, 2018), 348-405. When Buddhism came to China in the early centuries of the Common Era, its Indic texts were brought by speakers of Indo-Iranian languages.  […]

The "Frequency Illusion", introduced here in 2005, has made the big time in today's SMBC:

Bro I had to be the dumbest preschooler out there😐 pic.twitter.com/0AGIk1tBa9 — Sal Perez (@Sal_Perez4) May 19, 2018

From June Teufel Dreyer: Have you noticed that suddenly “curated,” previously almost exclusively used to refer to museum exhibitions, is turning up everywhere? A talking head recently said she was “curating [her] thoughts,” the floral arrangements for a society wedding were described as “curated” by a local florist… and so on. I have a feeling […]

The Washington Post published an opinion piece earlier today by Dennis Baron, with the self-explanatory title "Antonin Scalia was wrong about the meaning of ‘bear arms.’" The crux of the article: By Scalia’s logic, the natural meaning of “bear arms” is simply to carry a weapon and has nothing to do with armies. He explained […]

As I was browsing some search results in Google Scholar, I came across a listing for a paper titled, "Communication and Community: The Pragmatics of ESP." After reading the title, I asked myself, If you have ESP, why would you need pragmatics?

Thought-provoking observations by a native speaker: "Racism in Hong Kong: why ‘your English is very good’ is not a compliment, it’s actually very insulting:  An Australian of Chinese descent reveals why she is offended every time she is praised for her excellent English-language skills", by Charmaine Chan, SCMP Magazine (5/19/18)

From Francis Miller:

A peculiar audio clip has turned into a viral sensation, the acoustic equivalent of "the dress" — which, you'll recall, was either white and gold or blue and black, depending on your point of view. This time around, the dividing line is between "Yanny" and "Laurel." What do you hear?! Yanny or Laurel pic.twitter.com/jvHhCbMc8I — […]