Paul Payak of the Global Language Monitor is claiming the 1 millionth English word is coming soon. He says a new English word is coined every 98 minutes, so the 1 million marker will arrive about 15 days hence. The CBS article that tipped me off to this is pretty amusing in the quotes it [...]
Posts Tagged ‘english’
The One Millionth English Word is ‘Rubbish’
Posted: 26 May 2009 in UncategorizedTags: bullshit, english, hype, language, linguistics, words
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Linguistic Homogenization and Power
Posted: 12 January 2009 in UncategorizedTags: black iron prison, english, history, language, linguistic homogenization, linguistics, philip k dick, power, sociolinguistics, thought, uniformitarianism
This is a subject much larger than the treatment I am about to give it. Linguistic homogenization occurs in modern states where regional dialects are marginalized and a standard dialect is advanced as the primary method for acceptable public communication. The powerful favoring a single dialect is nothing new, but now more than ever, states [...]
Overgermanification
Posted: 8 February 2008 in UncategorizedTags: ai, chris mckinstry, english, german, orthography, push singh, suicides, wunderkind
I was just reading a Wired article about the deaths of two AI researchers: Chris McKinstry and Pushpinder Singh. Both were working on strong AI (or at least, had the hope of it). Both committed suicide and did it within a month of each other. McKinstry claimed that his system would be aware in a [...]
Nanoblahblah, borne forth from the blagoblag
Posted: 31 January 2008 in UncategorizedTags: blagoblag, dictionaries, english, language, nanoblahblah, neologisms, words
It’s a morning of fun new words! First I hear greenwashing on the Today Show, which Donna likes to watch while she eats brekkie. Then, Language Log delights me with nanoblahblah, henchgoon, and celebufreak. Erin McKean, the Dictionary Evangelist, twitters words of the day so I also got a nice infusion when I examined her [...]
To ebay this, to google that
Posted: 26 January 2008 in UncategorizedTags: brands, ebay, english, google, hoover, internet, language, linguistics, twitter, user friendly, verbing nouns, verbs
There is nothing unusual about verbing nouns in English. Despite the fact that your English teacher may have told you not to do this, it is common practice, especially on the intarwebs. Verbing brand names to mean the primary action performed by the chief product of that brand is less common, but we all know [...]
Richard M. Hogg Prize in Linguistics
Posted: 19 November 2007 in UncategorizedTags: computational morphology, english, linguistics, old english, richard hogg, scholarships
A couple months ago, I wrote about Richard Hogg dying. He was a professor at the University of Manchester who edited the Cambridge History of the English Language and did a lot of work on Old English morphology. I had corresponded with him briefly a few months before he died about a lab project on [...]
Ultrafast thumb-only keyboard
Posted: 28 September 2007 in UncategorizedTags: code, computational linguistics, corpora, english, kannuu, keyboard, language model, n-grams, python, startup, startups, typing
In a recent press release, kannuu is claiming to have revolutionized text entry. They claim that you can now perform text entry with just your thumb at the same speed of a regular keyboard. Too good to be true? Here is their method, complete with Hype™. “Advancing text entry exponentially, kannuu’s powerful and precise Partial [...]
Another think coming
Posted: 28 September 2007 in UncategorizedTags: assimilation, english, language, language change, linguistics, phonology, weird words
Language Log brought up the usage of the phrase another thing coming today. This is the only way I’ve ever heard it or seen it used. But it turns out, the original is another think coming. The thing version is winning out on the interwebs, but the post on Language Log indicates that the two [...]
Women read more than men?
Posted: 21 September 2007 in UncategorizedTags: battle of the sexes, biology, brain, brizendine, computer science, controversy, english, gender, gender bias, language, larry summers, men vs women, society
I came across a story on NPR today about why women read more than men. They quote from Louann Brizendine who wrote the book The Female Brain. The issue of gender differences and the brain always starts fights. Men have larger brains and more gray matter, which handles information processing. Women have more white matter [...]
