Topic : LinguisticsLanguage LoungeA Monthly Column for Word LoversAnd Forget the He and She December 2, 2019 By Orin Hargraves
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.
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Article Topics:Language LoungeA Monthly Column for Word LoversLips That Touch Liquor October 2, 2019 By Orin Hargraves
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.
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A valuable new tool has become available for linguists — armchair and professional alike — to explore the language of contemporary news.
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Article Topics:Language LoungeA Monthly Column for Word LoversThe Notional Space of the Digital World August 1, 2019 By Orin Hargraves
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.
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Article Topics:Dog EaredBooks we love"Because Internet": Celebrating the Way We Talk Online July 17, 2019 By Nancy Friedman
Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language is a sparkling new book by the linguist Gretchen McCulloch whose title is both a description and an example of one of the "new rules."
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Article Topics:Language LoungeA Monthly Column for Word LoversHotter Than the Doones' Bonfire in July July 1, 2019 By Orin Hargraves
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".
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Article Topics:Language LoungeA Monthly Column for Word LoversThe Most Influential Lexicographer You've Never Heard Of June 3, 2019 By Orin Hargraves
Lexicography has been and continues to be a gig occupation for many who do it, and that is the case for Charles Sanders Peirce. One place he found work was in writing definitions for the Century Dictionary, which may be the greatest dictionary you've never heard of.
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