Practically everybody has heard of the fabled Grass Mud Horse (cǎonímǎ 草泥马), which is a pun for "f*ck your mother" (cào nǐ mā 肏你妈). China Digital Times, which pioneered research on "sensitive words", including "Grass Mud Horse", has just introduced a new feature, which should prove to be a useful resource for China scholars and […]
In a message about the "excruciatingly slow internet speed in China" that I privately circulated to some friends, students, and colleagues, I made the statement that "in many cases that I have personally experienced, the internet speed in China is actually hundreds of times slower than it is in the United States and elsewhere in […]
"President Strikes Blow for Finalize as English", NYT 11/30/1961: In the course of his highly articulate new conference today, President Kennedy struck one grating note for lovers of the English language. He used that bureaucratic favorite "finalize." "We have not finalized any plans," Mr. Kennedy said when asked about a possible trip overseas. The new […]
A note yesterday from Russell Gray: Hi Mark, we have a paper out in Science today. I've attached a copy plus a link to a website where we give a more accessible account of the paper. I expect this will be rather controversial again but we have been very thorough both with improving the quality […]
Daniel J. Wakin, "Met Reverses Itself on Reviews Ban by Opera News", NYT 5/22/2012: The Metropolitan Opera on Tuesday backed away from its decision to bar reviews of its productions in Opera News, its affiliated magazine and the leading opera publication in the country. The Met said an “outpouring of reaction” from opera fans on […]
Some elderly guys in northeastern Georgia have apparently been plotting diverse and extensive mayhem, in ways that I personally found surprising (Scott Shane, "4 Georgia Men Arrested in Terror Plot", NYT 11/2/2011): Four Georgia men who were part of a fringe militia group were arrested on Tuesday in what the Justice Department described as a […]
Psycholinguist Craig Chambers sent me this photo that he snapped recently inside a large pharmacy chain store (you know the kind, where you can avail yourself of all your better-living-through-chemicals products under one roof, whether it's anti-depressant, cough syrup, your favorite crunchy snack of Olestra and yellow dye #6, jet printer ink, or the entire […]
In "No word for 'lazy hack parroting drivel'?" (4/1/2005), Geoff Pullum quoted an exchange between the anthropologist Jacques Ivanoff and CBS 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon, discussing the response of some islanders near Thailand to a tsunami: Ivanoff: "Time is not the same concept as we have. You can't say for instance, 'When.' It doesn't […]
According to an email from Youssef Gaigi posted by Gillian York: Today’s speech shows definitely a major shift in Tunisia’s history. [Tunisian president Zine El Abidine] Ben Ali talked for the third time in the past month to the people. Something unprecedented, we barely knew this guy. Ben Ali talked in the Tunisian dialect instead […]
Six and a half years ago, in a Language Log post about the spread of texting in Japan, I commented on the lack of enthusiasm for texting in the U.S. ("Texting", 3/8/2004): I don't think that I've even seen anyone texting in the U.S. Now that I think about it, this is a bit surprising, […]
James McElvenney comes to the defense of Andrew Herrick ("Linguistic border security", Fully (sic) 8/16/2010). Shorter version: Herrick argued that Americanisms are polluting the clear pool of Australian English, and bringing social ills like mugging in their wake ("With American lingo, we've imported toxic US culture", The Age, 8/6/2010); I suggested that Herrick was prejudiced, […]
A funny thing happened to the abbreviation "PR" overnight. When I went to bed last night "PR" typically meant "public relations". When I woke up it didn't.
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