My friend Alan just sent me a link to a New York Times article on Twitter and recipes. I’m not interested in Twitter, but I think what this woman is doing with it is amazing and wonderful. Read it, it’s great. It fits in six of my blog categories!
Archive for the ‘language’ Category
I wish I’d thought of this
Posted in computer doodah, food, interesting sites, language, recipes, writing on April 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Throwing things away
Posted in language, plastic and its relatives, random blab, yoga, tagged Iyengar yoga, waste on December 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Here are a couple of things I’m wondering about throwing away:
The “holiday gift pack” I received containing body splash and lotion, heavily perfumed. Scented stuff drives me nuts, but I hate to throw it away. I don’t know anyone I’d be willing to give it to. The bottles are not recyclable, by the way.
Linguistic note: [...]
Business jargon
Posted in language, tagged business jargon, businessspeak on April 24, 2008 | 3 Comments »
I know a guy who is a fountain of business jargon. He’s always checking on being on the same page with other people, of course, but that’s old jargon. Somehow he always has the newest expressions, so that at first you have to stop and think – what does that mean? Then you [...]
Man up
Posted in language, tagged language, man up on April 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Something about this expression makes me laugh. What is it? I’ve only recently been hearing it. Someone on the Homesteading Today list was talking about leaving her husband, who didn’t want to look for work. She said he wouldn’t man up. It clearly means something like step up and take [...]
Effect vs. effectuate
Posted in language, tagged effect, effectuate, language, like on March 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
As a linguist, I always try to remain descriptive about language rather than prescriptive. Some things still bug me.
I can’t stand the word ‘utilize’ instead of ‘use’. But I did just look it up, and it turns out that ‘utilize’ means ‘to use in a way other than intended’ as in “He often [...]
Best. Post. Ever.
Posted in language, tagged best.X.ever., culture, language on February 6, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I’m really interested in the proliferation of this grammatical structure + intonation pattern. Where did it come from? Forms I’ve seen:
Best. [noun]. Ever.
Worst. [noun]. Ever.
[Any superlative]. [noun]. Ever. (e.g., Stupidest. Excuse. Ever.)
It’s been turning up in writing lately in addition to speech. The source that springs to mind is the Comic [...]
