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

Metaphors about space come at us so thick and fast in talking about the digital world that we don't even notice that they are there, and that's probably a good thing: it helps us to make sense of complicated phenomena.  Continue reading...

Freedom gas. Molecules of freedom. In appreciation of these insane terms, I'd like to look at some past terms that freedom has spawned in the cesspool of English.  Continue reading...

If you ask me to complete the phrase "hotter than ________", "July" is what comes to my mind first. The calendar inspires the subject of this month's column, which I might characterize as "uses and abuses of the comparative".  Continue reading...

I dunno if dueling fact perceptions is an iota less ridiculous than partisan facts, or the ever-popular alternative facts. Any way you slice it, you're choosing to live in a thin bubble of baloney. Speaking of baloney, the drivel deli is always open here at Evasive Maneuvers.  Continue reading...

Regardless of where your views fall on the political spectrum, there's a pretty good chance that you subscribe to the idea that we are in a new age of inauthenticity. The modern world makes it even more of a challenge to "get real" when we are communicating with language.  Continue reading...