linguistics

Anyone who's been in or around the military knows that to "police up" the area is to pick up trash, and "police call" is a morning ritual to do same... But in response to a Quora question today, I tried for about 20 minutes to find the origin of this term... How "police" became a synonym for...

I've been amused for some time that the word "black", when applied to people, has become a default proper noun, and is therefore initially capitalised. Here are a couple of examples from today's news: The Hill: Allen Russel, a 38-year-old Black man, will still serve a life sentence CBC...

Maybe, in the grand scheme of things, this isn't that big a deal but I do think it's worthy of discussion. Rep.Emmanuel Cleaver D-MO closed the Congress' opening prayer with "Amen and a-woman." Now, I am all for inclusivity and recognizing gender inequalities and all that; but, "Amen" has...

From the wiki: I first read about E Prime 20 years ago. I like it because it helps avoid attribution errors/bias in my thinking and writing. At various times I've made more or less effort to integrate it into my thought processes, only to slip back to regular English. Using it consistently...

I wasn't quite sure where to put this video because a number of topics come up, so I put it here in one of the more popular subforums where it is likely to be seen by a lot of people. I think these topics are of general interest to a lot of people here. Lawrence Krauss introduces Chomsky and...

Lede

I want to write some stuff about this subject in the morning. This is to remind me. Interesting stuff. I'll be back Too tired now.

I was watching an old movie from my childhood the other day, Nell. On the description I read from netflix it said "Nell an inhabitant from the backwoods of North Carolina appears to have created her own language." It's not the exact description, but that was the most important part. Of course...

I am writing a blog entry that has something to do with linguistics, and would like a reality check from anyone who knows more about the subject than I do. It seems logical that there should exist languages associated with primitive cultures that have no means of expressing lofty ideas such as...

There have been many "histories of English" published over the decades; a quick search using those keywords finds over 1 million on Amazon.com. I myself have read several of the well-respected and well-rated books on the subject. But McWhorter's Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue focuses on issues...

"roo" turns up at the end of several odd and vaguely humorous words, like switcheroo, buckaroo or just kangaroo. Is it a coincidence, or is -roo a suffix that actually means something?

I've been following the news in Iran, but the news reports are scarce. I will be away from computers for about 60 days, and would like to learn Farsi, but I'm almost certain Arabic would be a better use of my time, since it is more widely used. 1) What's the learning curve like, and 2) is there...

My friend and I find much humor in the word "Jewess," given that it sounds so outdated and odd in any conversation, which is why we always find reason to use it anyway. We were both troubled that no word specifically referring to a female Christian existed in English, thus gave rise to the word...

I just listened to this parrot called N'KISI, after looking at a webpage about him at wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%27kisi) and the conversation it has is amazing. I thought it was fake when I read the transcript, until I actually listened to the clip, but you can tell its a parott...

I did my graduate degree in theoretical linguistics using a theory called "transformational generative grammar" in the '70s when Chomsky, Ross, and Lakoff held sway. They were heady times for the study of syntax, phonology and semantics. Seeing the handwriting on the wall after completing my...

Hello, I was at a friend's place yesterday, and his Japanese girlfriend was doing her Swedish homework (both my friend and I are Swedish, by the way). She became a bit frustrated at what she perceived as a random switch between prepositions. We found nothing in their large Swedish grammar book...

http://www.homestead.com/edenics/whatisedenics.html#top Well............this poor person that wrote this, he bashes science, yet pleas to it to substantiate his claims, then he clearly comes off from a theological "side" yet says that the only way a person could agree that words from completely...

I have not been a member of this forum for long, but have noticed that many threads quickly resort to focusing on the definition or meaning of a word or term posted, often to the detriment of the original intent of the OP. I realize that in many cases clear definition is necessary, as the...

Okay- have at it. This should have been done a long time ago. The majority of the "Thought Without Words" thread is based on this claim completely off the topic. So, in response to your claim: No one on the prior thread agreed with you. And as I stated before- in scientific inquirey...

Hi all. I'm involved in a little debate about atheism on a yoga board. I'm putting this in the science forum because I'm asking mainly about the scientific claims, and whether they are acurate. Anyway, someone brought up some points about linguistics to suggest that words and definitions...

In a book I am reading is the following: "Mathematical proofs are merely matters of form, with the question of meaning put aside....axioms are strings of uninterpreted symbols....any interpretations of the symbols play no role at all in deducing theorems." My question is not a challenge of...