The word “really”, expressed forcefully, was the crux of a long-running comedy routine more than a decade ago, on the American TV program Saturday Night Live. A recent study takes a really good look at the equivalent word in the Mandarin Chinese language. The study is: “Stance-taking and (inter)subjective roles of Mandarin zhende (ma/a),” Shuang […]
Tag: English
An English Lesson for Korean Speakers: Laugh First, and Then Think
We cannot help recommending this English language lesson, by Joey쌤, titled “중학교 3학년 천재(정사열) Lesson 3 Laugh First and Then Think : The Ig Nobel Prize 본문 해설“. It is intended primarily for Korean speakers:
The inconsistencies of animal-based insults in German and English
If you call an English person ‘a mole’ will it carry the same weight as if you call a German person ‘ein Maulwurf’? The power of insults that are based on the names of animal species can vary quite dramatically across different languages and cultures. Prof. Dr. Dagmar Schmauks who is a supernumerary professor at […]
“Swearing helps us battle pain – no matter what language we curse in”
A replication (with Japanese-language speakers and English-language speakers) of the Ig Nobel Peace Prize-winning experiment (with only English-language speakers) about swearing and pain, described by one of the researchers, in The Conversation: Swearing helps us battle pain – no matter what language we curse in The new study is “Swearing as a response to pain: A […]
