I've been resisting topics like "words for coup" and "the meaning of insurrection" — we'll see how long that resolve lasts — but this morning's distraction is the rebirth of something I wrote about many years ago, namely an online service for identifying instances of passive-voice verbs. In my review of 'The Passivator" (4/6/2004), I […]
This is a passage from chapter 3 of Dan Brown's Digital Fortress (1998) Eventually one of them [VHM: NSA cryptographers] explained what Becker had already surmised. The scrambled text was a code‑a “cipher text”‑groups of numbers and letters representing encrypted words. The cryptographers’ job was to study the code and extract from it the original […]
[The following is a guest post by Georgi Mladenov] I am another student who seems to have hit a brick wall in learning Mandarin, and I would like to ask you for advice. I have thoroughly read most of your forum posts and I totally share your opinions on language learning, especially as expressed in […]
[This is a guest post by Nathan Hopson] An unfortunate cultural misunderstanding has occurred in the attached image:
No, that is not a typo for "A woman". It is meant to be the feminine gendered equivalent of "Amen". Rep. Emanuel Cleaver closes Congress’ opening prayer with ‘amen and awoman’ By Emily Jacobs, New York Post January 4, 2021 A House Democrat tasked with leading the body in an opening prayer for the new […]
Over the years, we've periodically discussed the Trent Reznor Prize for Tricky Embedding. Today's nominee, submitted by Joe Stynes, comes from "The Hilaria Baldwin Story: 'I'm Living My Life'", NYT 12/30/2020: “We’re all bored and it’s just seemed so strange to me that no one had ever come out and said it, especially for someone […]
[The following is a guest post by Amara Hasa] We are longtime fans of Language Log and wanted to share a project we've been working on that we believe might be right up your alley. We believe as much because it combines two subjects you've written about in the past: teaching languages through comprehensible input […]
Today's shocking news story: "‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’: In extraordinary hour-long call, Trump pressures Georgia secretary of state to recalculate the vote in his favor", WaPo 12/3/2020. The full audio and transcript of the call is here. But since this is Language Log, and not Political Chicanery Log, my take on the […]
Photos taken and curated (also here) by Ruan Qi: 1. "Chī duōshǎo ná duōshǎo 吃多少拿多少" – "Take as much AS YOU CAN" –> "Take as much as you eat". This is from a hotel in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, serving buffet.
As we start a new year, and yet another election-reversal case is dismissed for lack of "standing", it's appropriate (or at least amusing) to revisit what Herbert Brün once wrote about (some other senses of) standing and understanding: Not many people know how passionately dedicated they are to the society which they can not stand. […]