This month marks the 50th anniversary of the merger of four railroads in the United States to create the longest railroad in the world by number of miles served. I note the anniversary as an item of linguistic curiosity, in light of the many ways that railroads and trains have made their way into popular and figurative English.  Continue reading...

If you've visited the world of online dating you may have noticed the disparities between the ways males and females present themselves, and the disparities between the ways that they seem to want to appear to each other.  Continue reading...

We are now far beyond the day when a product might be distinguished from its competitors with descriptors such as mild, strong, or rich. Lately I'm noticing what is surely a very common trope in consumer marketing: the enhancement of an adjectival descriptor for a product by introducing it with an adverbial.  Continue reading...

John Donne's poem The Undertaking, published in the early 17th century, suggests that forgetting the he and she would be "a braver thing than all the Worthies did." In a way, that is the same problem that's currently being considered in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.  Continue reading...

It's time to dive headfirst into that confoundingest of subjects: the formation of comparatives and superlatives.  Continue reading...

October marks the centenary of the Volstead Act, the enabler of Prohibition. This occasion licenses the Language Lounge to pop the corks a bit early and look at the linguistic legacy of the Prohibition era.  Continue reading...

A valuable new tool has become available for linguists — armchair and professional alike — to explore the language of contemporary news.  Continue reading...