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 ‘language’
The One Millionth English Word is ‘Rubbish’
Posted: 26 May 2009 in UncategorizedTags: bullshit, english, hype, language, linguistics, words
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Language, Commerce and Google Translate
Posted: 10 February 2009 in UncategorizedTags: commerce, creoles, economics, google translate, guest blogging, history, language, language change, linguistic homogenization, linguistics, machine translation, pidgins, trade
I just completed my first guest blogging post over at mind x the + gap where I talked about the mutual history of language and commerce, as well as some thoughts on how that will continue into the future. Since the focus of Mil Joshi‘s blog is more towards psychology and economics, the following is [...]
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 [...]
Does NACLO need a better name?
Posted: 22 June 2008 in UncategorizedTags: computational linguistics, high school, language, linguistics, logic, NACLO, outreach, problem solving
The North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad is an annual competition open to US high school students that introduces kids to computational linguistics at a much younger age than people normally hear about it. I didn’t hear about CL until I was three years into my undergrad program. The instant I did hear about it, I [...]
Effin Clean
Posted: 22 April 2008 in UncategorizedTags: blagoblag, blogging, brainfuck, cussing, language, profanity, Uncategorized
Created by OnePlusYou Apparently, I run a rather clean shop. Whodathunkit. And probably most of the cussing comes from my posts on brainfuck. [Via]
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 [...]
Dictionaries
Posted: 12 October 2007 in UncategorizedTags: dictionaries, dictionary, language, lexicography, lingoz, meaning, oed, wikis, wiktionary, word sense
I find myself using dictionaries a lot. Because I generally subscribe to the view of language as a fluid construct embedded in the mind of individuals and as an emergent phenomenon of a group of speakers, I don’t believe dictionaries are the final arbiters of correct word usage. In high school, things were different. I [...]
Childrens and chilluns
Posted: 30 September 2007 in UncategorizedTags: charleston, children, covert discourse, dialects, gullah, language, linguistics, south carolina, W
The things Bush says are so awesome sometimes. My new favorite quote is “Childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured.” [source] At first the White House transcriptionists corrected the mistake, but then press secretary Dana Perino instructed them to include the mistake, saying that the integrity of the transcriptions is very [...]
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 [...]
