"There even are places where English completely disappears. In America, they haven't used it for years!" So goes the lyric. But English is adaptable for special purposes.
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"There even are places where English completely disappears. In America, they haven't used it for years!" So goes the lyric. But English is adaptable for special purposes.
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A funny thing about the word funny is how frequently we use it to fill out the context of what we're about to say.
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Language LoungeA Monthly Column for Word LoversJoseph Stalin and Problems of Linguistics ![]()
Joseph Stalin came to power 100 years ago this month. His modern heir, Vladimir Putin, is every bit as adept as his ideological mentor at weaponizing language.
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Article Topics:Language LoungeA Monthly Column for Word LoversMetaphors We Live By (Updated) March 3, 2022 By Orin Hargraves
What's your go-to metaphor? Examination of corpora reveals that dreams have always been a basis of comparison but modern life gives us many more choices.
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Article Topics:Language LoungeA Monthly Column for Word LoversOf Dialects, Vernaculars, and Code-Switching February 3, 2022 By Orin Hargraves
We fit our speech to the circumstances we're in. Is there a basis for judgment when someone's preferred way of speaking is different from yours?
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What are the describable features of voices? How do we distinguish them, and more importantly, what language do we have for characterizing voices in a way that is meaningful to others?
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Article Topics:Language LoungeA Monthly Column for Word LoversLet Internet Randos Be Your Guide December 2, 2021 By Orin Hargraves
Online review aggregators collect information of a kind that used to be ephemeral but now is more enduring. Is this a good thing? I'm not so sure.
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