david-crystal.blogspot.com
DCblog: March 2014
http://david-crystal.blogspot.com/2014_03_01_archive.html
Tuesday, 4 March 2014. On 'I would have liked to have studied'. A correspondent writes to ask if I could explain the difference in the meaning between the following sentences: (1) I would like to have studied philosophy. (2) I would have liked to study philosophy. (3) I would have liked to have studied philosophy. The underlying issue is one of focus. Where is the perfective meaning inherent in the auxiliary verb have. Note the 'usually'. A lot depends on the context. If this is unequivocally pas...John ...
david-crystal.blogspot.com
DCblog: May 2014
http://david-crystal.blogspot.com/2014_05_01_archive.html
Monday, 12 May 2014. I’ve been appalled, this week, as most language-aware practitioners have, with the misinformation being presented in the media about the proposal to use examples of celebrities’ language along with classical literature in the proposed Language and Literature A-level specification. Russell Brand seems to have been the focus of most of the comment, along with Dizzee Rascal, Jeremy Paxman, and others. Excellent responses have already been forthcoming from the English and Media Centre.
david-crystal.blogspot.com
DCblog: June 2014
http://david-crystal.blogspot.com/2014_06_01_archive.html
Thursday, 26 June 2014. On the next OP production. A correspondent writes to ask what's the latest on the OP ('original pronunciation') front. A timely question, as it happens, as next month sees Shakespeare's Globe renewing its association with OP for the first time in almost a decade. Readers with long memories will recall that the Globe initiated the modern OP movement (in relation to Shakespeare) with its productions of Romeo. So: if you're interested in OP and would like to act as a supporter for th...
david-crystal.blogspot.com
DCblog: April 2014
http://david-crystal.blogspot.com/2014_04_01_archive.html
Friday, 4 April 2014. On talking about language to little ones. A correspondent tweeted a problem: 'My 5 year old keeps asking who decided all the words. Can you recommend any reading around this for her age? What a sharp 5-year-old! And a tricky one to answer. I've written about language for young people, but never as young as that. A Little Book of Language. She pulled no punches. In 2012 the NSPCC published a lovely little book called Big Questions from Little People. Why can't animals talk like us?
david-crystal.blogspot.com
DCblog: On being a pedant with power
http://david-crystal.blogspot.com/2015/06/on-being-pedant-with-power.html
Sunday, 21 June 2015. On being a pedant with power. Michael Gove is instructing his civil servants on grammar' said the headline in today's Independent. And Mark Leftly went on to describe how instructions posted on the Ministry of Justice intranet, after Gove was appointed Lord Chancellor last month, warned officials about the kind of English they shouldn't be using. Nicholas Lezard in the Observer. The Lord Chancellor has told officials that they must not start a sentence with 'however'. Celia, now, pl...
david-crystal.blogspot.com
DCblog: April 2015
http://david-crystal.blogspot.com/2015_04_01_archive.html
Friday, 24 April 2015. On cups and mugs. I wake up from a period of bard-hibernation to find a fascinating debate going on in social media about the distinction between cup. It was started by Heinz, who used the word cup. In its product name Heinz Cup Soup. And then cleverly got a PR campaign going by asking the question 'did we give it the wrong name? In the beginning, there was only the cup. The Anglo-Saxon word was cuppe. A borrowed word from Latin cuppa. Then developed a very wide range of senses, in...
david-crystal.blogspot.com
DCblog: September 2014
http://david-crystal.blogspot.com/2014_09_01_archive.html
Friday, 26 September 2014. My correspondent this time is Nicola Burton of Oxford University Press, who's been looking after the publicity for my recently published Words in Time and Place. And who has come up with a novel way of presenting the word-clusters in the book. She's taken the word-cloud motif on the cover - all the words for nose. But this is an example, using the words covered in the category 'terms of endearment'. From calligraphy. I have examples in my Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language.
david-crystal.blogspot.com
DCblog: June 2015
http://david-crystal.blogspot.com/2015_06_01_archive.html
Sunday, 21 June 2015. On being a pedant with power. Michael Gove is instructing his civil servants on grammar' said the headline in today's Independent. And Mark Leftly went on to describe how instructions posted on the Ministry of Justice intranet, after Gove was appointed Lord Chancellor last month, warned officials about the kind of English they shouldn't be using. Nicholas Lezard in the Observer. The Lord Chancellor has told officials that they must not start a sentence with 'however'. Celia, now, pl...
david-crystal.blogspot.com
DCblog: On feeling closer, via Henry, to Shakespeare
http://david-crystal.blogspot.com/2015/07/on-feeling-closer-via-henry-to.html
Tuesday, 28 July 2015. On feeling closer, via Henry, to Shakespeare. The original pronunciation (OP) production of Henry V. Has the ability to code-switch - able to talk to tapsters in their own language as well as to match diplomats in their linguistic games. Henry also knows that kings set fashions - he says as much to Kate - so his OP reflects a formal style - for example, with word-initial h's pronounced - that the other English nobles emulate. At the Wanamaker last year. Henry's mind wanders as ...
david-crystal.blogspot.com
DCblog: On saying potato
http://david-crystal.blogspot.com/2014/10/on-saying-potato.html
Thursday, 9 October 2014. The associated 'record your accent' survey is gathering pace, with over a hundred recordings up already at this website. My idea is to collect as many versions of the way people say a single word ('potato') as possible, on a worldwide scale, so that we can hear the subtle gradations that occur from place to place, and of course even within a place. Isnt potato an odd choice? I guess Ill have to read the book to find out! 12 October 2014 at 17:10. 14 October 2014 at 21:20. The co...
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