Archive for the ‘Such Language!’ Category
French Frogs
In high school I had a lively and effective French teacher named Martha. Martha told us that her absolute favorite word in French was "grenouille", meaning "frog". She taught us carefully to pronounce it thus: gre-noy-ye, more or less. It was a marvelous word, weird and fun to say. Across the years I've said it […]
In: All, Reflections, Such Language!
Chandler on Speed Limits
A few nights ago Isaac and I had a treat and watched the film "Double Indemnity" again–our second time, although Isaac claims not to remember the first. I remembered liking it but I'd forgotten just how good I thought it was. You'll recall that this is Billy Wilder's trend-setting film noir, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred […]
In: All, Music & Art, Such Language!, Writing
Miss Analyst Regrets
Call me perverse if you like, but when some link someplace showed me this headline Sony Tumbles After Forecasts Miss Analyst Estimates [from Bloomberg Business Week, 13 May 2010] I read it with the sense that would be implied by punctuating it thus: "Sony Tumbles After Forecasts, Miss Analyst Estimates". I found myself wondering who […]
In: All, Raised Eyebrows Dept., Such Language!
Bad Analogies
At the moment there are at least two tools of language and writing whose abuse puzzles and irritates me substantially, perhaps out of proportion to logic, but there you go. One is stupid puns, by which I mean a punning word drawn against its will into a sentence because it might sound somewhat like another […]
In: All, Feeling Peevish, Such Language!
A Minuscule Pullum Miscellany
Oh, dear. Again and again and again, American professors with absolutely no background in English grammar insist that their 21st-century college students should study this unpleasantly dogmatic little work, written by men born in the 19th century. But the dictats given in The Elements of Style range from the redundant to the insane. Anyone who […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Such Language!
Make a Crescendo to Reach a Climax
1962 saw the release of "The Manchurian Candidate", directed by John Frankenheimer, and starring Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey. Building to a shattering crescendo…. [John Farr, "Presidential Pictures: Top Movies About The Top Job", Huffington Post, 25 April 2010.] Sorry, stop right there! "The Manchurian Candidate" is a perfectly good movie that I quite enjoyed […]
In: All, Feeling Peevish, Such Language!
See a Scientist Being Scientific
Today in my email I got a link to a video* with this startling title: NASA Oceanographer Uses Science to Study the Sea Right there, in a video under two minutes in length, we were being offered the chance to see an actual scientist using science! Not only that, it was an oceanographer using science […]
In: All, It's Only Rocket Science, Such Language!
Professional Verbs
I was interested to discover that a number of things I have done professionally have no verbs. How did we ever get anything done? (Although, I also find it interesting that I've worked at times as an "engineer", whose professional noun is exactly the same as the verb of the professional activity, "to engineer".) It […]
In: All, Laughing Matters, Such Language!
Learned Heredity?
I tried to believe in nothing. And I failed. It was simply too difficult for me to let go of a belief in God that is as innate to me as the English language. [Lauren Cahn, "Why I Failed As an Aethist", Huffington Post, 31 August 2009.] I find this last statement very odd. The […]
In: All, Such Language!, Will Rogers Moments
"Hiking the Appalachian Trail"
Given the example of wacko Governor Mark Sanford (see, e.g.), a Republican defender of "traditional marriage", I'm thinking that saying one is out "hiking the Appalachian trail" could become a euphemism for "boinking one's mistress at taxpayer's expense while defending 'traditional marriage' ". Sure, it may not gain the currency of "saddlebacking", which is shorter […]
In: All, Snake Oil--Cheap!, Such Language!
Phony Moralizing
Earlier today I hear a news headline / story on NPR (see also, for one more example) that quoted Dick Cheney* as referring to objections to waterboarding# as "phony moralizing". I naturally presume that this is directed at liberals like myself, particularly atheistic moral relativists who don't believe that a god is necessary to account […]
In the World of Linguistic Peevery
In the world of linguistic peevery, there are several levels of hell. [Arnold Zwicky, "Prejudices, egocentrism, impositions, and intransigence", Language Log, 21 April 2009.] I don't really feel the need to explain, beyond saying that I found the sentence great fun to read and I thought I'd like to read it again sometime.
In: All, Common-Place Book, Such Language!
Be My Ombuddy
Arnold Zwicky recently got* something from his institution's "Ombuds Office", and he reflected a bit on the words "Ombudsman", "Ombudswoman", and the apparent modern compromise "Ombuds". It's an odd, ungainly word that I've never cared for but it seems that recent years has seen a rise in popularity of ombudsing and that ombudsers are even […]
In: All, Laughing Matters, Such Language!
Don't Baste that Lamb!
I will not argue with the point this author is making, because I agree with here that there is just too, too much hysteria on the topic of "child pornography". However, I did have to pause a bit to enjoy this interesting new eggcorn variant on the word "lambaste", for which "lamblast" and "lambash" are […]
In: All, Laughing Matters, Such Language!
Tooth & Neck
I'm sure it says something deep and revealing about me that as financial markets crumble about my head I listen to how people talk. Perhaps it's just the result of my long years of aching to be recruited for the grammar police, or perhaps my few years in the crucible of the usenet group "soc.motss", […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, Such Language!
Nonexistent Lifestyles
Andy Towle, in reference to the recent story (see, for example, here) about Hallmark's introducing greeting cards that celebrate same-sex marriage, quotes a reactionary "family values" group promoting their own boycott of Hallmark as saying Let them know you do not appreciate Hallmark promoting a lifestyle which is illegal in 48 states. Now, aside from […]
In: All, Faaabulosity, Such Language!
Ennuyeuse
Matthew Guerrieri was writing about the reasons for the relative popularity of avant-garde painting over avant-garde music. It seems an interesting essay that I'll finish later because that's not the point right now. Near the beginning he quotes fellow art critic Charles Baudelaire (i.e., the Baudelaire) on the superiority of painting to sculpture. Again, it's […]
In: All, Briefly Noted, Such Language!
Tag-Cloudy Januaries
I am amused, sometimes delighted, occasionally perplexed, by tag clouds. Regardless, I had wanted to make my own. So today I found out about TagCrowd, and now I can make my own. About what? Well, the obvious answer is: about me. I'm still thinking of processing all the text from Bearcastle Blog, but that will […]
In: All, Reflections, Such Language!
abstemious & facetious
For years I have occasionally mentioned at appropriate points in conversation that there are two words in English that have one of each of the vowels in alphabetical order. One of them is "facetious", but I never could remember the second one, which rather spoiled the fun. Fortunately Miss Cellania came to the rescue today […]
spamorass
The other day I was pondering some details of a project that I am considering getting started — the details don't really matter here except to know that the project would invite public participation through an automated web interface. Naturally, such an arrangement could very well become a spam magnet, so the system would have […]