What a linguist does
This past Friday I went with my fiancée to [Mrs. Dalloway’s](http://www.mrsdalloways.com/) bookstore in Berkeley to see [Deborah Tannen](https://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/tannend/) talk about her new...
View ArticleUmbrellas
This past Tuesday it was raining down hard, so most people had their umbrellas out. I witnessed one umbrella that I thought I should mention to some friends. Here’s how it came out: > There was this...
View ArticleGoogle books in local weekly
This week’s issue of East Bay Express (a local alternative newspaper) features [a piece](http://www.eastbayexpress.com/news/the_case_against_google_books/Content?oid=1211860) on the controversies...
View ArticleNo shelf life
USA Today has an article on Bill Cosby with the headline [Bill Cosby prides himself on comedy that has no shelf life](http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2009-10-22-bill-cosby_N.htm). I thought that...
View ArticleCollaborative text re-creation
Yesterday [slashdot](http://slashdot.org/) posted a story about password security. In the comments, user sopssa [said](http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1438698&cid=30055146), > Websites...
View ArticleAn environment for hyponegation
A few times over the past year I’ve noticed a nice place where hyponegation (less negation than is necessary to convey the logic of what you want to say) happens: in wide scope negation involving...
View ArticleRemember the time when the beef was contaminated?
[Recent English Xinhua article headline](http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/29/content_12722691.htm): > Oklahoma firm recalls beef products might be contaminated I knew we forgot something!
View Article2010
Two thousand ten. Why? So that my kids and their friends can make fun of me for using some archaic turn-of-the-century nomenclature while hovercar-ing them to school. PS, I want someone who is a strong...
View ArticleLinguist in the…news?
I listened to Saturday’s broadcast of _Wait, Wait_ on the trip to work today, and did a double take (aurally) when I heard that guest Secretary of Energy Steven Chu was playing for “Susan Goldin-Meadow...
View ArticleSomething obvious
Sometimes people are busy, and cannot update blogs for a very long time. In case you hadn’t noticed. Basically, I’ve got so much on my plate at the moment that blogging is pretty much the furthest...
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