Our much-valued readers will all be wondering why Language Log has so far said nothing about the result of the US presidential election. That is an understandable question. Most of the newspapers seem to have managed to get out editions for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday; but not us. The answer is that we are in […]
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Maya Rhodan, "A Donald Trump Surrogate Strangely Accused Jay Z of Promoting ‘Mazel Tov’ Cocktails", Time Magazine 11/7/2016: A surrogate of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump accused Jay Z, who performed at a rally for Hillary Clinton last week, of promoting police violence in a video that featured “mazel tov cocktails.” “One of his […]
From J.D.: A friend of mine – philosophy professor – just got this comment from a copy editor regarding a paper he submitted for publication: Copy editor: "As per the style, 'fail to' (followed by a verb) should not be used." As in: "I fail to see why this sentence is ungrammatical" (my friend's […]
A 28-year-old Chinese citizen of Korean ethnicity, the activist Pyong Kwon (the Korean reading of his name would be Gweon Pyeong 권평; MSM Quán Píng 權平), has disappeared after telling a friend that he was planning to wear the t-shirt pictured below on the street on October 1, China's National Day.
At least they're new for me. I'm always learning new expressions, constructions, usages, etc. in Chinese. The Sinitic languages are changing so rapidly that it is a heady experience trying to keep up with them. The two new Mandarin words I just learned are good examples of the kinds of transformations that are constantly taking […]
Amy Stoller is a dialect coach operating out of New York City, known among many other things for her work with Anna Deavere Smith. This valuable advice is from her November newsletter — reprinted with permission.
From Chris Cooper: I was intrigued by this construction, which I'd never come across before. From the explanation of the German word "Bummel" in Jerome K Jerome's comic novel Three Men On The Bummel: A 'Bummel', I explained, I should describe as a journey, long or short, without an end; the only thing regulating it being […]
During the last few days, there has been a flurry of excitement over the circulation of photographs and information concerning an old Chinese textbook for learning English. Here are a couple of pages from the book (click to embiggen):
We have looked at the Chinese typewriter again and again: "Chinese Typewriter" (6/30/09) "Chinese typewriter, part 2" (4/17/11) "Chinese character inputting" (10/17/15) By now we are thoroughly familiar with this unwieldy contraption. Given that it has long since been consigned to the museum, where it properly belongs, it is strange that some folks continue to […]
Inspired by "Trumpchant in B flat", Joel Roston sent me a link to his 1/22/2014 post "How's Carl this time?", where he proposes that As the excitement builds over the course of each hour-long Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! episode, Carl Kasell’s exclamation of the last two syllables of the word “Chicago,” commensurately, rises in pitch. […]
The United States of America and Great Britain / United Kingdom are not the only countries in the midst of political crises. South Korea has a nasty one of its own involving the undue influence of a shamaness over their President. "Tens of Thousands Call on South Korea's President to Quit" (ABC News, 11/5/16)
The other day, someone asked me about the claim that "a whopping 78 percent of the words that Trump uses are monosyllabic". We've previously debunked the idea that Trump's speeches aim at a fourth-grade reading level ("More Flesch-Kincaid grade level nonsense", 10/23/2015). And long ago, we took aim at careless assertions about how young people/media/txting/etc. are degrading […]
From P.S.: Today I was reading a story in the Washington Post (online) about a response to “The Passive Aggressive Neighbor & His Wife”. It starts: “Re: I’m Finna Tell You What you Not Gon’ Do” . I am not sufficiently familiar with what I assume is AAVE and the expression "Finna". I was wondering […]