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inuse.blogspot.com

Invented Usage: 06.2008

http://inuse.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html

A manifesto and call for submissions. Language is constantly changing. this truism has always been the foundation of this blog, but i wonder whether i've ever really written about it directly. language changes. i can't begin to think of a counter argument. who believes that it doesn't? Even the most stalwart grammar nazis must admit, grudgingly, that language does change. Language changes according to some predictable patterns, some semantic, some syntactic. Invented usages also have effects beyond their...

inuse.blogspot.com

Invented Usage: 12.2007

http://inuse.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html

I've sort of buried the hatchet. There's at least one reasonable prescriptivist out there, and she blogs here: Red Pen, Inc. I feel like I've got an evil twin. It's a cute, snarkily written blogspot website with a home-made, annotated banner. But she consistently uses capitalization. (I have too, for the last few posts. More on that later.) We exchanged a nice series of emails regarding this post. But it's this one. About the Red Sox, that I want to take issue with. Curt Schilling will remain a Red Sox.

inuse.blogspot.com

Invented Usage: 03.2010

http://inuse.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html

I was just directed to a hilarious post over at 'And I am Not Lying', called 'Types of Bitches'. About a list written by third graders at an inner-city Washington DC school, detailing almost 100 types of bitches. But the real linguistic gem is the blogger's subsequent post. Analyzing the comments people (presumably mostly adult, educated people) left on the original post. The blogger and some of the commenters he quotes really seem to get that a language prejudice issue arose out of this. This is languag...

inuse.blogspot.com

Invented Usage: 05.2008

http://inuse.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html

A pretty, preettty, pretttty invented usage. A german exchange student i hosted in high school asked me, "what does 'pretty' mean? Schoen," i said. "beautiful.". But you just said, 'it's a pretty good movie,'" she said. Pretty." and i discovered i really couldn't define what i'd meant. Not only that - i wasn't completely sure what i'd meant in the first place. did i like the movie "to a fair or moderate degree" as per the dictionary.com definition of "pretty"? More than a lot? Less than a little? Some fr...

inuse.blogspot.com

Invented Usage: 03.2008

http://inuse.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html

The prestige hierarchy of domain names. Please slide your eyeballs on up to the top of your browser window and look at the url in your browser. Language in the realm of computers is particularly interesting because of its ability to command. one writes to a computer and, by doing so, actually acts. some liken this to the ancients' belief in the mystical power of language in the form of runes or charms. I recently laughed when a friend recently directed me to his old website, "phoenix web." "oh," I sa...

inuse.blogspot.com

Invented Usage: 04.2010

http://inuse.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html

Cataloguing lost languages in New York. NYTimes.com has a pretty touching article. This morning about linguistic research in New York City. Many small immigrant groups there are the largest speech communities remaining for their rare languages. Linguists are combing these enclaves and recording the speech of some of the last surviving users of dozens of languages. How would you teach it to your kids, and why? 8220;It’s hard to use a word like preserve with a language,” said Robert Holman. Claiming to tel...

inuse.blogspot.com

Invented Usage: Prisencolinensinainciusol

http://inuse.blogspot.com/2009/12/prisencolinensinainciusol.html

Prisencolinensinainciusol" is a song composed by Adriano Celentano. And performed by Celentano and Raffaella Carrà. Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom). Pain in the English. Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries. Im a Mac (Smug) / Im a PC (Stuffy). Funnest. Usage. Ever. All the Sudden, Its Windows 7. Cristi Laquer and Scott Kolp are graduates of Brown University in Linguistic and Literary Arts respectively. Lets discard the apostrophe. Its pointless.

inuse.blogspot.com

Invented Usage: on scrabble

http://inuse.blogspot.com/2007/09/on-scrabble.html

Seb makes an interesting suggestion, though i'm inclined to think he's just upset that i used the word 'sunns' in online scrabble. he suggests that "there's room for an invented usage scrabble variant." and, as usual, i'm inclined to disagree! How do i reconcile my love of scrabble with my "anarchic linguistic crusade"? Help myself or hurt my opponent? Conserve resources but risk being unable to use them later? To make language an appropriate game environment, it has to be solidified. this crystaliza...

inuse.blogspot.com

Invented Usage: Dude, what's the meaning of 420?

http://inuse.blogspot.com/2010/04/dude-whats-meaning-of-420.html

Dude, what's the meaning of 420? The internet is abuzz this 4/20 with stories of high-class weed smoking promotional events in California. And college pot heads run amok. But HuffingtonPost has a great article. Claiming to tell the 'true story' of the origin of the term that connects pot smoking to April 20, and 4:20pm. Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom). Pain in the English. Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries. Cataloguing lost languages in New York. Dude, whats the meaning of 420?