MetaFilter posts tagged with words and linguistics

That's what they said

escabeche — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 10:14:00 -0800

The Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English is a searchable collection of almost 2 million words of transcribed spoken English from the University of Michigan, including student study groups, office hours, dissertation defenses, and campus tours. Researchers use the Michigan corpus to investigate questions about usage, like "less or fewer?" (cf. this contentious Ask Meta thread) and more general topics, like "Vague Language in Academia." Browse or search MICASE yourself.

Death of the dirty word

weapons-grade pandemonium — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:43:14 -0800

Why would an evolutionary biologist study words? It turns out there is an astonishing parallel between the evolution of words in a lexicon and the evolution of genes in an organism. The word two, for example, has been around much longer than most, and will likely be with us for millennia, whereas the comparatively rare and recent word dirty has undergone many mutations, and will probably be extinct in a few hundred years. Professor Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading, UK, tells us why on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's program As It Happens. Pull slider to 16:00 to start the seven minute interview.

Dictionary

robbyrobs — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 07:09:31 -0800

Merrian-Webster open dictionary "Have you spotted a new word or a new sense for an old word that hasn't made it into the dictionary yet? Well, here's your chance to add your discovery (and its definition) to Merriam-Webster's Open Dictionary"

Why does Albanian need 27 words for 'moustache'?

Slithy_Tove — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 04:14:26 -0800

Charming and unexpected vocabulary from many languages. Why did Persians need a word, alghunjar, to express 'the feigned anger of a mistress'? Could there really have been that many insincere mistresses in Persia? Why does Russia need a word meaning, 'dealer in stolen cats'? Or 'someone with six fingers'? And who can resist the Chinese xiaoxiao, meaning, 'the whistling and pattering of rain or wind'? "These are more than funny foreign vocabularies; they are tiny windows into the way other people live, and the obsessions that drive them." [via]

The Little Prince in a 100 Languages

gregb1007 — Tue, 17 May 2005 19:01:08 -0800

If listening to sound of different languages is something you may be interested in, visit the multimedia language project website hosted by the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. It features the sound files of a small blurb from Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince read outloud in a 100 different languages. The blurbs are also textually transcribed. [See more inside]

Favorite Words of 2004

weepingsore — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 11:42:47 -0800

Linguists Gone Wild Linguists from The American Dialect Society and the Linguistic Society of America recently met to vote for the Words of the Year, in various categories—Most Useful, Creative, Unnecessary, Outrageous, and Euphemistic; Most and Least Likely To Succeed; and an overall Word of the Year... no one really cares unless we pretend that These Are Important Words That Define Us as Americans. Still, that's marginally better than the alternate interpretation: This Is How Scholars Waste Their Time When They Could Be Doing Real Work.

Dude, where's my safely heterosexual intimacy?

owenville — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 08:56:05 -0800

Deconstructing Dude A linguist from the University of Pittsburgh has published a scholarly paper deconstructing and deciphering the word "dude," contending it is much more than a catchall for lazy, inarticulate surfers, slackers and teenagers. An admitted dude-user during his college years, Scott Kiesling said the four-letter word has many uses, all of which express closeness between men in a safely heterosexual manner. How about you? Do you do the dude? If so, does that mean you're white [PDF]?

Sex At Noon Taxes

anastasiav — Sat, 24 Jul 2004 10:44:21 -0800

Palindromes
::shamelessly stolen from plep::

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. -- Mark Twain

anastasiav — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 06:47:54 -0800

Oxymorons

Blissymbolics ~ Handywrite ~ Teeline ~ Gregg ~ Pitman

anastasiav — Mon, 05 Jul 2004 10:53:58 -0800

A Guide to Alternative Handwriting and Shorthand Systems

One person’s gaffe is another’s peccadillo

anastasiav — Sun, 20 Jun 2004 20:11:00 -0800

Common Errors In English :: an internet guide

The Limerick packs jokes anatomical ...

anastasiav — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 12:47:52 -0800

Wordcraft, an on-line community of linguaphiles, best known for its extensive collection of eponyms, has taken on a new and fairly ambitious project -- they're trying to rewrite the entire Oxford English Dictionary -- in limerick form. So far they're only on the a's, but they do seem optimistic.
Shamelessly stolen from languagehat's blog

The Web's #1 Axe In My Head Page

anastasiav — Tue, 15 Jun 2004 15:38:10 -0800

"Oh my god! There's an axe in my head"

Here's one for Languagehat

anastasiav — Fri, 04 Jun 2004 13:56:45 -0800

Double-Tongued Word Wrester :: Words from the fringes of English

Forthright's Phrontistery

hama7 — Mon, 03 May 2004 09:25:38 -0800

Forthright's Phrontistery: English word lists and language resources.

Here's one for Languagehat!

anastasiav — Mon, 12 Jan 2004 09:35:19 -0800

Ask A Linguist is designed to be a place where anyone interested in language or linguistics can ask a question and get the response of a panel of professional linguists. Be sure to browse their archived questions (with answers, of course).

... Shenanigans ... Antidisestablishmentarianism ... Medulla Oblongata ... Zog ...

anastasiav — Tue, 25 Nov 2003 07:06:39 -0800

Dave's List of Words That Are Fun To Say

Pirates of the Common Media

wendell — Thu, 18 Sep 2003 01:27:24 -0800

It's OK to Talk Like a Pirate, Just Don't Pirate Words!
from Dan Gillmor and David Weinberger, found via The Boingers, who disabled comments.

Introducing the work of user 1747

anastasiav — Wed, 10 Sep 2003 08:03:36 -0800

Luciferous Logolepsy: Dragging obscure words into the light of day.
::with thanks to Madamjujujive

Compendium of lost words

adamrice — Sat, 16 Aug 2003 10:57:11 -0800

Compendium of lost words You may have been wondering what "triclavianism" means. You may have been disappointed when dictionary.com couldn't help. Look no further.

world languages

stbalbach — Wed, 02 Apr 2003 12:44:13 -0800

The World has at least 6,800 active languages and countless more dialects ranging from Alacatlatzala to Zoque Tabasco. These are the Top 10 languages.

geoff. — Mon, 21 Oct 2002 13:13:28 -0800

Worthless Word for the Day. Ever feel as if an "obscure, abstruse and/or recondite word" was forced into a newspaper/magazine/quote? Now there's a site that finally finds and provides wwftd! Impress your friends.

120degrees — Tue, 26 Jun 2001 08:43:13 -0800

Not that this link is of any importance. I just wanted to recognize Schadenfreude as "Word of the Day" today at merriam-webster.com.