My family (well, really my mother) has established a New Year tradition for the last few calendar years: pick one word. Verbs are good; some nouns work too. Choosing your word is like setting your intention at the beginning of a yoga class: it's the one thing you most want to find, or aspire to,… Continue reading An intention for 2020
Category: Language
Elsewhere on the Internet: Language Acts and Artifacts
From The Toast, linguist Gretchen McCulloch offers a sort of taxonomy of doge, a meme which startled and perplexed me the few times I encountered it. Her explanation helps contextualize both the syntax of the doge meme and its appeal. Internet dialects are taking up the same kind of space as a silly accent or… Continue reading Elsewhere on the Internet: Language Acts and Artifacts
Words I frequently mistype and what they should mean
Please feel free to use the following words in a meaningful sentence. Apologues ("AH-poe-logs"). Noun, plural. Apologies (especially fauxpologies) given for show, in the manner of a Shakespearean monologue. Ex. Grantland's apology, taken apart at Aoifeschatology. Historican. Noun. A cross between a historian and a publican; one who purveys history as if ale. Ex: Jaya Saxena, living my… Continue reading Words I frequently mistype and what they should mean
Eggcorn
Originally posted on Peachleaves. You guys, I learned a new phrase for weird language behavior: eggcorn! How did I never hear of this before? Particularly since they’re a useful tool for writers of crossword puzzles. Now I know that saying chalk full and chock it up are not malapropisms but eggcorns. I like this better; now it’s a quirk,… Continue reading Eggcorn
When to use ellipses
To indicate an omitted word or phrase. To indicate a meaningful silence. [Colloq.] To indicate that a sentence has trailed off, leaving a meaningful silence.When not to use ellipses: In place of a punctuation at the end of a complete sentence.I keep getting Emails today in which requests or mere statements are punctuated with an… Continue reading When to use ellipses
“An I-word Salad”
This post originally appeared on Peachleaves blog. A friend sent me this link to an article about a psychologist’s study of pronoun use: The Secret Language Code In brief, the study notes the frequency with which speakers or writers use different pronouns (first person singular words like I, me, my vs. first person plural words… Continue reading “An I-word Salad”
