Can you identify who wrote a big chunk of text, if you remove all the words and examine only the punctuation. This new study says that in many cases yes, you can: “Pull Out All the Stops: Textual Analysis Via Punctuation Sequences,” Alexandra N.M. Darmon, Marya Bazzi, Sam D. Howison, and Mason Porter, SocArXiv. January […]
Tag: words
Abulziement and Abusion
Abulziement and Abusion can each be found in James B. Montgomerie-Fleming‘s Notes on Jamieson’s Scottish Dictionary, published by W. Hodge in 1899. Here is a photograph of Major James B. Montgomerie-Fleming displaying his knees. This photo was taken during Major Montgomerie-Fleming’s lifetime. One might note that Major Montgomerie-Fleming’s left and right hands are not displayed:
“Yummy!” “Yucky!” and irony – some philosophical viewpoints
When it comes to food, if someone says that “X is yummy” it can usually be taken to mean that they very much like what they’re eating. But what if they say “X is yummy” in an ironic way rather than in a sincere way? The philosophical implications are pondered by Professor Nick Zangwill, Ferens […]
‘Sort of’ – academic study
When did English-speaking people start saying “sort of”? The phrase can be found at least as far back as 1788 – as is explained in this paper ‘History of the sort of construction family’ (presented at ICCG2: Second International Conference on Construction Grammar, Helsinki.) by David Denison FBA, Professor Emeritus of English Linguistics at the University […]
Kinda Sorta Linguistic Research
If you ever say “kinda” or “sorta”, there’s a good chance you’ve been using ‘Pragmatic Halos’ without even knowing about it. Linguistically speaking, ‘Pragmatic Halos’ can include phrases that are not strictly true (but that are neither lies or mistakes) and which are a normal part of honest, error-free discourse. “It is a truism that […]
Professor D’Arcy on like a contemporary vernacular
“The selective attention paid to the language of adolescents has led to the enduring belief that young people are ruining the language and that, as a consequence, the language is degenerating. One feature of contemporary vernaculars that is often held up as exemplification of these ideological principles is like, the ‘much-deplored interjection… that peppers the […]
Plain-words challenge: Wedding Words
Today’s challenge is to translate a paragraph into clear language that anyone can understand. This paragraph appears in the study “Consumption as common sense: Heteronormative hegemony and white wedding desire,” by Patricia Arend [pictured here], published in the journal Journal of Consumer Culture [vol. 16, no. 1, 2016, pp. 144-163]: “[This] article examines the white wedding desires […]
Using big words to argue that you are right and other people are wrong
If you believe that science is all about using big words to argue that you are right and other people are wrong, here’s an article that uses big words to argue that you are right and other people are wrong: “The Role of Science in Evangelical Hermeneutics,” John B. King Jr., Theology and Science, epub […]
Can Sopranos Be Understood?
“Can Sopranos Be Understood—Are high-voiced good singers necessarily hard to understand?”, in the special Music issue of the Annals of Improbable Research, gathers research about that high-pitched question. Read the article free (PDF). Then, if you dare, purchase the issue, or subscribe to the magazine.
SIL e-Books – the bees’ knees for rhyming jingles (linguistics study)
If you’re after in-depth information about hanky panky, tittle tattle, or even argy bargy then where better to look than the pages of SIL e-Books ? In particular, chapter 16 of ‘A Mosaic of languages and cultures: studies celebrating the career of Karl J. Franklin*‘ – ‘Helter skelter and ñugl ñagl: English and Kalam Rhyming […]