A commenter writes, Actually, anyone with a brain disrespects all of rap and anyone in it. In mitigation, those of us who can actually speak and write English have accepted the black verb “disrespect,” which itself would be laughed out of existence but for the constant threat of black rioting. No justice, no peace. The […]
Archive | Language
Contractions vs. Spelled-Out Versions
We usually think of contractions, such as “it’s” or “can’t,” as directly interchangeable with the full versions, such as “it is” or “cannot.” You can just replace “it’s” with “it is,” or vice versa. Both versions are commonly used, both have the same meaning, and the difference is just in degree of formality. But in […]
Redundancy?
Okay, I am giving in to the Popular Will, against my better judgment. What do VAT tax, PIN number, ATM machine, all have in common? Feel free to list more in the comments, including your views on whether this is acceptable language usage or not. (Put them here, rather than the comments to the VAT […]
Converse and Obverse
Okay, now I can’t get my brain around it. In my post below, I wondered about converse versus obverse. Can someone do two things for me, in the language usage category. First, give me a clear definition of the distinction between the two. Second, and harder, I believe but maybe am wrong … give me […]
“Refutes”?
An ABC News headline reads, “Rep. Maxine Waters Refutes Ethics Charges”; the opening sentence of the story uses the same word — “Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., today adamantly refuted charges brought against her by the House Ethics Committee.” But is this quite right? As I understand, Rep. Waters denied the charges; one might also say […]
Losing the Serial Comma Battle:
A random walk through yesterday’s NY Times pulled up the following: In a story about the Fox v. FCC decision from the Second Circuit, page B1: “The decision, which many constitutional scholars expect to be appealed to the Supreme Court, stems from a challenge by Fox, CBS and other broadcasters to the FCC’s decision in […]
“Pour encourager les autres”
Running around the track tonight, I found myself musing over the famous ironic expression by Voltaire in Candide: “pour encourager les autres.” The more I thought about it, the less convinced I was that I understood it, in the sense of being able to come up with cleverly parallel situations in which the irony of […]
To Meld – What Does “Meld” Mean?
And like me, did you “learn” the meaning from the Vulcan mind-meld? (Continuing a discussion with Michelle from comments to an earlier post.) I have to say, I did “learn” the word by hearing its repeated use on Star Trek. To meld, so far as I’ve ever been concerned, means … whatever it is that […]
Hyphenation, Descriptivism, and Rules
Prof. Geoffrey Pullum (Language Log) has a post that strikes me as so apt that it’s worth quoting at length, though with some extra emphasis on my part (see the original for the links, reader comments, and some more text): See Plethoric Pundigrions for screen shots showing a version of Microsoft Word (I don’t know […]
Writing Well Matters, Even in Academia
A while back, a prominent law review asked me to review a book on a topic of interest to me. I readily agreed, on condition that the review be relatively short. When it came time to sit down and read the book, however, I found it extremely difficult to understand; the book was loaded with […]
Which Is the Correct Way to Say the Current Year — “Twenty Ten” or “Two Thousand Ten”?
Seems to me that the answer is “both,” because both fit standard well-established patterns of English speech. On top of that, both are clear in context. The One Right Way theory leads some people to insist that it must be just one, usually by analogy to other usage. Some, for instance, argue that it must […]
Unfriend Me Here
Michael Skapinker has a great column in today’s Financial Times, “Give diligencing its due in the lexicon of 2010,” on words newly included in the New Oxford American Dictionary. (Behind the subscriber wall, alas.) He quotes Steven Pinker estimating that “a fifth of English verbs started as nouns, including ‘to progress’, to contact’, and to […]
Immersion vs. Bilingual Education
In the City Journal, Heather Mac Donald has an interesting article showing how California’s 1998 ban on bilingual education (a referendum initiative that passed despite the opposition of most of the political and education establishment) has improved English Language acquisition by immigrant Hispanic students. Unsurprisingly, young children learn new languages better by immersion. Mac Donald […]
Commas and Periods — Inside Closing Quotation Marks or Outside Them?
A reader asks: I’m trying to finalize a “stylebook” for briefs our office files and am stuck on one thing and am asking around for views of people who might have an opinion to share. Given your interesting takes on language and usage, I’d love to get your thoughts. The issue is whether to use […]
Commoner and Cleverer
I just read a Language Log post on the recurring debates about whether the “Xer” comparative form of various adjectives is correct, or whether one has to say “more X.” The post is in general quite worth reading, but here’s a particular passage that I was quite amused by: Back in August 2005, Jon Lighter […]