My latest article for TheWeek.com is about the way different languages codify the sound of, say, knocking your shin against a piece of furniture… and your response to it. From language to language, it’s similar in some ways, but different in others:
Imagine if someone, instead of saying your name, replaced the first consonant of it with “tsk!” – for instance, “Tsk! ames” for “James.” Now imagine that that was somehow more polite than just saying your name. Now imagine that English started adding clicks to its words just for that sort of reason. Well, it’s already happened in Zulu and Xhosa – it’s how they got their clicks. Find out more in my latest article for TheWeek.com:
My latest article for TheWeek.com is on motherese, a.k.a. infant-directed speech, a.k.a. baby talk. Specifically, does it do any good? I mean aside from making the person speaking that way feel all parental and letting them project childish enthusiasm. If that’s any good. Find out what research says… and what I think:
Posted in The Week
Tagged baby talk, caregiver speech, infant-directed speech, motherese, The Week
This week is a double-header on TheWeek.com for me. The second article of mine they’re running is about birds and animals that are named after their cries – and the important differences between those names and the actual noises:
Posted in The Week
Tagged acoustic phonetics, animal names, animal noises, animal sounds, bird calls, bird names, onomatopoeia, The Week
My latest article for TheWeek.com is on English spelling reform – a few people who have tried it, some who succeeded, some who failed, some who succeeded but should have failed:
Apostrophes are an invasive species in English: imported from France to serve a specific useful purpose, but quickly getting into places they don’t belong – first mistakenly added to possessives, then spreading unbidden into plurals. English would likely be better off with no apostrophes at all than it is in the current state. Is that likely to happen? Of course not. Would a more moderate solution – say, limiting them to places where letters have actually been omitted and could be added back in – perhaps be better? Likely. But what the heck. Sometimes you just want to take the most extreme position for the sake of argument. Heh heh. Thus I present my latest article for TheWeek.com:
We would all be better off without it
🙂
My article this week for TheWeek.com is on dashes – the title is rather provocative, but the text is useful:
To go with it, I present another poem from my book Songs of Love and Grammar:
My boyfriend is the dashing type.
He writes – whips off – with vim – and hype.
He goes – he comes – cycle completing –
and yet – I feel – he may be cheating.
Last week he sent a note – “Dear N –
I hope – so soon – we join – again!”
But then – missent – another too –
“Dear M—can’t wait—to meet—with you!”
From N – to M—his life’s a whirl!
He’s dashing—yes – from girl to girl!
I think I should have picked a man
with more breath & attention span.
I’ll find & marry someone bland
who’ll come & stay with ampersand.
My latest article for TheWeek.com is on semicolons. Kurt Vonnegut didn’t like them; I do; I’m not alone in this; I explain. I hope you will not give it a tl;dr. 😉
As a companion piece to my piece from last week, “How do prescription drugs get such crazy names?”, I also wrote a piece focusing on ten of the crazier generic names for prescription drugs. It’s up live now on TheWeek.com:
My latest article for TheWeek.com is about the generic names for drugs and where they come from:
Inspired by the topic, I made a video for your entertainment:
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Sesquiotica 