Linguistics and Big Data have been a fruitful partnership since they first found each other, and new hookups with promising results are happening all the time. Here's a small sampling of the riches to be found in two new corpora — the TV Corpus and the Movie Corpus.  Continue reading...

Here are some of the euphemisms I've scraped, like barnacles, off the bloated boat of language. Do not attempt such hazardous, horsepucky-adjacent collection yourself.  Continue reading...

What happened (and is apparently still happening) in English-speaking societies that results in so much discourse about the problems in education? Here is some fodder for the discussion.  Continue reading...

It's that time of year when I choose a Euphemism of the Year. I've whittled the list down to four candidates, which are the lexical equivalent of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  Continue reading...

For the first time ever, a euphemism been chosen as the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year. The winning term has an innocent sound that masks a sinister reality.  Continue reading...

Unesco chooses a cultural theme to highlight and celebrate every year. Now, in 2019, indigenous languages are ready for a long overdue closeup.  Continue reading...