#geoffrey pullum

[ukfrislandembassy]

Anti-Chomskyan masterpost

Sticking this up as a compilation (ever expanding) of all the material I've read and would recommend you read to get a handle on the criticisms of the linguistic ideas of Chomsky. This isn't just intended to be a criticism of Chomsky personally, but also the manner of linguistics that he engendered (basically anyone that uncritically cites Chomsky as a source on the nature of language). I have ordered these by date of publication in an effort to get across how long this has been around for.

I've tried to find publically accessible links where possible, but unfortunately not everything is so available even though it should be, so I've linked in some cases to JSTOR or similar (you might be able to get a copy if you e.g. request through researchgate but that might be it if you can't get Sci-Hub to work). Also, I've not directly linked to any PDF files, so for some of these you might have to do a little crawling through a long list of publications to find them, though that should be easier given these things are usually ordered by year, a piece of information I've given you.

I do expect to be adding to this post, so expect regular updates, as well as it being pinned on my blog.

What Did John Keep the Car That was In? (1972) - in merely six pages Dwight Bolinger Destroys Chomsky's Argument (in the New Yorker) with Facts and Logic (specifically making an early point that polar question inversion doesn't make the point Chomskyans want you to think it makes).

Cognitive versus Generative Linguistics: how commitments influence results (1990) - George Lakoff (the metaphor guy), gives his take on how the baseline assumptions of the generative model influence the results that emerge from its research.

Concerning the generative paradigm (1994) - Esa Itkonen's comprehensive criticism, including a criticism of e.g. generativism's conception of what 'Language' is, as well as the more specific points about acquisition, UG etc.

Grammaticality as evidence and as prediction in a Galilean linguistics (2009) - Nick Riemer makes a specific criticism of the notion of grammaticality in the context of Chomskyan argumentation. Follow-up after Chomskyan complaining is On not having read Itkonen: empiricism and intuitions in the generative data debate (2009), continuing the point.

The Incoherence of Chomsky's 'Biolinguistic' Ontology (2009) - Paul Postal gives his take on Chomsky's claims to being based in biology (note Postal is problematic in many ways, especially politically; I think on this one he has the right points, but I thought it worth noting).

Why Chomsky doesn’t count as a gifted linguist (2010) - a post from Dominik Lukeš that makes the point explicit, and provides alternative suggestions of actually good linguists who have had a positive impact on the field

Pullum sobre Chomsky en la UCL (2011) - Geoffrey K Pullum reports (in English, contra the title) on a talk given by Chomsky and outlines the major flaws in his rhetorical argumentation (and I mean rhetorical, there's not much in the way of actual argumentation, as you'll see)

What Chomsky doesn't get about child language (2012) - child development academic Dorothy Bishop lays out the problems with Chomsky's perspective on acquisition and how it has been superseded by pretty much all of the research by actual acquisition specialists in the decades since.

On the logical necessity of a cultural and cognitive connection for the origin of all aspects of linguistic structure (2015) - Randy LaPolla points out how odd it is to claim that Language isn't influenced by extralinguistic factors.

What exactly is UG and has anyone seen it? (2015) - Ewa Dąbrowska's title says it all with this one, arguing that part of the problem with UG as a hypothesis is that it is so vague that none of its proponents seem to actually agree on what it is, as well as debunking the key (so-called) arguments in favour.

The description-comparison approach and the audacious Chomskyan approach (or: how to frame better) (2023) - not technically anti-Chomskyan per se, but rather Haspelmath trying to frame/put a name to the overall camp that he (and many others such as myself) reside in.

[phoenixtawnyflower]

my favorite uses of the english language

This will not make you the most popular person in the room. This will have an effect roughly equivalent to pouring fifty gallons of thick oatmeal into a harpsichord during a baroque recital. ~Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language.

The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t. ~Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

This is gospel for the vagabonds, Ne'er-do-wells and insufferable bastards Confessing their apostasies Led away by imperfect impostors ~"This Is Gospel," Panic! At the Disco

Cause I hate the ocean, theme parks, and airplanes, talking with strangers, waiting in line ~"Everything Is Alright," Motion City Picture Soundtrack

[kagenoneko]

I find this to be an interesting article. Such an odd place for this kind of this article.

[tongue-tales]

Unravelling the Quirky World of Eggcorns: When Acorns Turn into Eggcorns

Have you ever encountered a linguistic gem that made you chuckle and reflect on the playful nature of language? I bet many of you have used the phrase "butt naked" without a second thought, and you're not alone! But, did you know that "butt naked" is actually an eggcorn? Yes, you read that right - an eggcorn!

Let's dive into this whimsical world of eggcorns and explore the fascinating tale behind "butt naked" and its correct form, "buck naked." The eggcorn may tickle our linguistic funny bone, but it's intriguing how it still makes sense when you think about it. After all, when you're naked, you are, quite literally, showing your butt!

Another delightful eggcorn, often heard from my students, is the misinterpretation of the idiom "off my own bat" as "off my own back." Students would proudly declare, "I'm attending your English class off my own back," meaning they choose to join voluntarily. When I correct them, explaining the cricketing origin of "off my own bat," referencing a lone batsman scoring against the opposing team, they sometimes meet me with incredulous looks, insisting, "Everyone says off my own back!" - a classic case of language change in action.

The intriguing aspect of eggcorns lies in their potential to become the accepted norm over time, shaped by widespread usage of the misheard version. Language is a dynamic entity, and eggcorns exemplify its fluid nature, adapting to the creativity of its users.

Eggcorn, a term coined by linguistics professor Geoffrey K. Pullum, finds its roots in the word "acorn." The logic behind this linguistic play is that people unfamiliar with the term "acorn" (from Old English æcern) may mistake it as a compound of "egg" and "corn" due to the size and shape of acorns. Thus, an eggcorn is a charming example of folk etymology, born out of an honest mistake.

The enchanting world of eggcorns reminds us that language is a living entity, continuously evolving and adapting to the creativity of its users. Like acorns that grow into majestic oaks, eggcorns breathe new life into our vocabulary, adding colour and charm to our everyday conversations.

So, the next time you hear "butt naked" or "off my own back," embrace the linguistic quirkiness and appreciate how these playful eggcorns enliven our language. After all, in the playful realm of words, even an acorn can turn into an eggcorn, and therein lies the magic of language!

[linguisten]

As I have often observed before, when it comes to language, people seem to think they can just make stuff up. Even patently absurd claims about language elicit no fact-checking. Editors limply allow any kind of nonsense to flow into print. I’ve pointed this out in journalism about artificial intelligence and robots, and especially about language in gorillas and orcas and dolphins and dogs and various other species. But in all my years of reading such absurd claims, I’ve never seen anything like the recent article by Charles Hymas, published on September 16 in the National Post, a fairly conservative Canadian newspaper. (The Telegraph also ran the story in Britain, behind a paywall — they will charge you money for this balderdash!)

Hymas reports that “two of the original architects of social media,” namely Aza Raskin (a feature designer and programmer who invented the endless scroll) and Britt Selvitelle (an early engineer at Twitter), are on the brink of “using artificial intelligence to create a translation system that will understand what animals are saying and what they think of us.” Raskin and Selvitelle claim to have “analyzed 70 human languages to establish that all have a universal ‘shape,’ such that a computer can translate one into the other without any prior understanding or knowledge” (emphasis added).

[magratmakethetea]

This is a great post, OP, and I think the analysis of current YA stylistic trends is absolutely accurate. If you'll forgive a little pedantry, though, I think you're confused about what the passive voice is. Sorry, but this is a personal bug bear of mine. Please don't take it as an attack on you, it's not your fault.

Specifically, I suspect you've been taught that passives should be avoided and yet haven't been taught properly about what a passive is. Instead you've been told they're to do with the word "to be" or with a lack of action or an unclear agent and that you should look out for and avoid such constructions. Probably through vague reasoning about passives being "weak," or too wordy, or a cowardly attempt at masking the agent of the sentence.

If so, this isn't your fault. A certain obsessive dislike of the passive voice blew up in prescriptivist guides to English prose and grammar in the mid 20th century. This is largely the result of Strunk and White's excreable little book "The Elements of Style." Now, I have nothing against Strunk and (especially) White as people or as writers — I loved Charlotte's Web as a kid — but they weren't linguists and they didn't have a great grasp of English grammar. Notably, they were quite shockingly bad at identifying passive and active voice — their own example sentences are riddled with mistakes, and thanks to their undue influence generations of people have been left confused.

For a detailed but imo surprisingly readable explanation and defense of the passive voice in English I can't recommend Geoffrey Pullum's "Fear and Loathing of the English Passive" enough. For a rule of thumb I recommend the Z test: add "by zombies" to the clause and see if it makes sense. It works pretty well to identify passives, but personally I think people should know how they work, so I really do recommend Pullum.

Which bits in your post are confused? See below:

If you have to say "A staircase climbs the wall" instead of "There was a staircase on the far wall," you may have YA Style Disease. And yes, I will maintain that "There was [x]" is sometimes superior to somehow working an active verb in there.

"Was" is an active verb. It's the first and third person singular active preterite (simple past) of "to be."

"There was a staircase" is no more passive than "I was tired" or "She was a pedant" (or indeed than their present tense equivalents "there is a staircase," I am tired" or "she is a pedant"

And yes "XYZ was..." is a ubiquitous construction for good reason. Absolutely nothing wrong with it.

I think technically "was" may be what's called a copula here and in all your other examples, but it's really late and I might be wrong so I'll leave that to Pullum.

Sometimes things are literally not doing anything except "being."

Precisely.

Like, "There was an explosion," is a bad use of passive voice, because exploding is not very passive,

Not passive voice. "There was an explosion" is a perfectly standard active sentence in the simple past (preterite) with verb "to be." It's quite as active as "a bomb went off"

Nothing particularly wrong with it stylistically imo, but personal taste

If this sentence were written in the passive voice you would be looking for something more like "a bomb was set off" but this isn't really a sentence that can easily be made passive.

but "There was a shed out back" is not wrong because it's just a fucking shed.

It's not wrong at all, but it's also not passive.

If you wanted to put a sentence like this in the passive you could say "the shed out back was built (a long time ago/of wood)" but again this subject doesn't really lend itself to the passive as things stand

[...] Sometimes an object literally is just existing and inventing a metaphor every time you describe the thing just to avoid passive voice gets into soggy purple prose territory.

Yep

If you are trying to avoid "There was" you will quickly head into very unidiomatic English. And not that there's anything wrong with the passive at all, it's a wonderfully useful and efficient construction when used well, but most of the clauses you rewrite won't have been passive in the first place.

This isn't the post to evangelize about how great the passive voice can be, but can I just say, it can often be the best available option

For more: this extremely old fashioned web page maintains links (scroll to bottom) to a swathe of articles about the passive on Language Log. Language Log is generally pretty great imo, would recommend

Finally, a challenge for anyone who read this far and finds themselves unaccountably enthusiastic about counting sentences on Tumblr: how many passive voice constructions have I used?

NB: I haven't counted. It's 1am, and I need to sleep

do you have any advice for someone who writes urban fantasy and sword and sorc fantasy and for some reason, always gets compared to YA? I don't write YA. My characters tend to be in their late 20s or 30s-40s. And yet people keep comparing it to YA. Is there just too much YA in our collective lexicon now? Is there something I should avoid doing? I realize this is a bit vague but I also don't want you to have to read my plots or something.

People like to say "if you write diverse books they'll label your work YA"...but also there absolutely is a stylistic YA Voice

YA tends to ONLY use active voice, even when it's objectively weird in context, use very "visceral/bodily" descriptions for every sensation (e.g. "Anger pools in my gut," "Ice climbs up my spine,") have very short/choppy paragraphs, and utilize little to no narrative distance (the writing is very 'grounded' in the POV character—so a description of a character slipping on a banana peel would be describing the sensation of hitting the floor on your back, instead of being like a camera panning over someone slipping on a banana peel).

YA also tends to have very adjective-heavy description that makes things very vague. For instance, a robe being described as "plush" and "sumptuous" but not giving the color, material, style etc.

If you have to say "A staircase climbs the wall" instead of "There was a staircase on the far wall," you may have YA Style Disease. And yes, I will maintain that "There was [x]" is sometimes superior to somehow working an active verb in there. Sometimes things are literally not doing anything except "being."

Like, "There was an explosion," is a bad use of passive voice, because exploding is not very passive, but "There was a shed out back" is not wrong because it's just a fucking shed. It sounds weird to say "The shed slumbered/loomed/squatted in the back yard" every time. Sometimes an object literally is just existing and inventing a metaphor every time you describe the thing just to avoid passive voice gets into soggy purple prose territory.

Also, using present tense and/or first person is pretty particular of YA in today's environment. Especially either of these things combined with multiple POVs.

My main advice is to read books that 1) aren't YA and 2) aren't influenced by the "contemporary" YA. So like. Anything 20+ years old.

But maybe the people telling you this just don't know what they're talking about. Or maybe they've only read YA books of your category/genre themselves.

[allthingslinguistic]

Geoff Pullum has a good mythbusting description of sentence types on the Lingua Franca blog. 

Grammar books, and hundreds of websites out there, are appallingly confused about statements, questions, orders, and exclamations. Most of the problem lies in their failure to distinguish syntax from semantics. I want to try and sort things out a bit, and provide a little homework exercise.

Clause type is syntactic, not semantic. It shouldn’t be confused with any element of meaning or use. Standard English has four clause types (five if you treat 2a and 2b as separate), differing with respect to which words you put where:

Declarative   Characteristic use: making statements. Example: He was polite. Key syntactic properties: subject precedes auxiliary and/or predicate.

Interrogative   Characteristic use: asking questions.

Closed interrogative: for expressing questions having a fixed, finite list of answers that the form of the question suggests. Example: Was he polite? Key syntactic properties: auxiliary before subject.

Open interrogative: for expressing questions having an unbounded range of answers. Example: How polite was he? Key syntactic properties: wh-phrase at beginning of clause; auxiliary before subject if wh-phrase is not the subject of its clause.

Imperative   Characteristic use: issuing directives about desired behavior by others. Example: Be polite. Key syntactic properties: plain form of verb; subject often missing.

Exclamative   Characteristic illocutionary force: making exclamatory statements. Example: How polite he was! Key syntactic properties: wh-phrase at beginning of clause (headed by either how or what); subject before auxiliary.

Crucially, the characteristically associated meanings are only a default. Using an interrogative (e.g., What’s your name?) is the stereotypical way to express a question, but declaratives can also in effect convey questions, through a combination of literal meaning and pragmatic implication:

I want to know your name. I’m asking you to tell me your name.

Imperatives, too, can be used to convey the effect of questions:

Tell me your name. Tell me what your name is.

Even an exclamative can come pretty close to implying a question:

How I’d love to know what your name is.

Grammar books and grammar websites are particularly confused about exclamatives, which they often call “exclamatory sentences” (see the hopelessly confused page here for a random example). They imagine that any kind of sentence that might intuitively be used for exclaiming and/or ends with ‘!’ must belong, so they give examples like I can’t figure this out! (a declarative), or Out of my way! (not a clause at all).

Read the whole thing.

I’m a bit surprised that conditionals, subjunctives, counterfactuals and that whole set of commonly confused terms didn’t make the list, but perhaps that’s a topic for next week’s post. 

[snowgall]

The voice recognition system in the iPhone operates entirely on the basis of acoustic physics, not at all on linguistic phonetics. It attempts to match sounds with signal types that it has been trained to respond to in certain ways, but beware of imagining that it knows when you are saying something, or even what "saying something" means. The truth is that it cannot tell the difference between a labiodental fricative and an anal fricative. Let alone distinguish between when you're saying something sensible and when you're talking out of your ass.

Geoffrey K. Pullum, “Siri and Flatulence”

[spikygurl89]

Books Read / To Be Read in 2023

Updated 1/29/23

Read in 2023 How to Write a Song That Matters - Dar Williams How Language Began: The Story of Humanity's Greatest Invention - Daniel L. Everett Currently Reading in 2023 The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within - Stephen Fry Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music - Hugh Barker Piranesi - Susanna Clarke The Red House Mystery - A. A. Milne To Be Read in 2023 - Non Fiction Dear Mr Andrews - Latham, Lotte Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose - Cowart, Leigh How to Read Literature Like a Professor - Foster, Thomas C. The Anatomy of Anxiety: Rethinking the Body, Mind, and Healing of Anxiety - Vora, Ellen The Lexicographer's Dilemma: The Evolution of "Proper" English, from Shakespeare to South Park - Lynch, Jack Noise: a Human History of Sound and Listening - Hendy, David Rude: Stop Being Nice and Start Being Bold - Reid, Rebecca The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters - Rachel, Daniel Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life - Nagoski, Emily The Embodied Mind: Understanding the Mysteries of Cellular Memory, Consciousness, and Our Bodies - Verny, Thomas R. Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good - Brown, Adrienne Maree First Light: Switching on Stars at the Dawn of Time - Chapman, Emma Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages - Deutscher, Guy Music, Lyrics, and Life: A Field Guide for the Advancing Songwriter - Errico, Mike Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation - DuMez, Kristin Kobes A Sense of Self: Memory, the Brain, and Who We Are - O'Keane, Veronica Priestdaddy - Lockwood, Patricia Appetites: Why Women Want - Knapp, Caroline Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love - Prioleau, Elizabeth The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You - Aron, Elaine N. You're History: The Twelve Strangest Women in Music - Chow, Lesley Burn It Down: Women Writing about Anger - Dancyger, Lilly Fear Is My Homeboy: How to Slay Doubt, Boss Up, and Succeed on Your Own Terms - Holler, Judi Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance - Tan, Siu-Lan How Music Works: The Science and Psychology of Beautiful Sounds, from Beethoven to the Beatles and Beyond - Powell, John Together: Why Social Connection Holds the Key to Better Health, Higher Performance, and Greater Happiness - Murthy, Vivek Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious - Damasio, Antonio R. Fierce Love: A Bold Path to Ferocious Courage and Rule-Breaking Kindness That Can Heal the World - Lewis, Jacqui The Kindness Cure: How the Science of Compassion Can Heal Your Heart and Your World - Cousineau, Tara How to Write One Song: Loving the Things We Create and How They Love Us Back - Tweedy, Jeff Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? - Smith, Julie The Sunny Nihilist: A Declaration of the Pleasure of Pointlessness - Syfret, Wendy Awake Where You Are: The Art of Embodied Awareness - Aylward, Martin The Wakeful Body: Somatic Mindfulness as a Path to Freedom - Baker, Willa I Didn't Do the Thing Today: Letting Go of Productivity Guilt to Embrace the Hidden Value in Daily Life - Dore, Madeleine A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution - Popkin, Jeremy D. The Atoms Of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules Of Grammar - Baker, Mark C. The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language - Pullum, Geoffrey K. The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos - Batalion, Judy A Molecule Away from Madness: Tales of the Hijacked Brain - Peskin, Sara Manning Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters - Monroe, Marilyn The Assertiveness Guide for Women: How to Communicate Your Needs, Set Healthy Boundaries, and Transform Your Relationships - Julie de Azevedo Hanks, PhD Not Nice: Stop People Pleasing, Staying Silent, & Feeling Guilty... And Start Speaking Up, Saying No, Asking Boldly, And Unapologetically Being Yourself - Gazipura, Aziz The Nice Girl Syndrome: Stop Being Manipulated and Abused -- And Start Standing Up for Yourself - Engel, Beverly Miss Leavitt's Stars: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Discovered How to Measure the Universe - Johnson, George Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman - Petersen, Anne Helen Your Brain Is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time - Buonomano, Dean Music, Math, and Mind: The Physics and Neuroscience of Music - Sulzer, David Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics - Benade, Arthur H. Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts - Bell, Matt How to Write Like Tolstoy: A Journey Into the Minds of Our Greatest Writers - Cohen, Richard A. Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You - Nerenberg, Jenara Bow Down: Lessons from Dominatrixes on How to Be a Boss in Life, Love, and Work - Goldwert, Lindsay Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald - Fitzgerald, F. Scott Bodyfulness: Somatic Practices for Presence, Empowerment, and Waking Up in This Life - Caldwell, Christine Sex Outside the Lines: Authentic Sexuality in a Sexually Dysfunctional Culture - Donaghue, Chris The Art of Possibility - Zander, Rosamund Stone Physics and Music: The Science of Musical Sound - White, Harvey E. Music and Mantras: The Yoga of Mindful Singing for Health, Happiness, Peace & Prosperity - Girish The Sound Book: The Science of the Sonic Wonders of the World - trevor cox Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World - Kraus, Nina Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger - Traister, Rebecca The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again - Price, Catherine Big Wild Love: The Unstoppable Power of Letting Go - Murray, Jill Sherer Sensitive Is the New Strong: The Power of Empaths in an Increasingly Harsh World - Moorjani, Anita Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief - Kessler, David Equipment for Living: On Poetry and Pop Music - Robbins, Michael Saved by a Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting - Gauthier, Mary The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination - Le Guin, Ursula K. How a Poem Moves: A Field Guide for Readers Afraid of Poetry - Sol, Adam The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain - Flaherty, Alice W. Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection Club - Edwards, Martin Writing Poetry To Save Your Life: How To Find The Courage To Tell Your Stories - Gillan, Maria Mazziotti Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein - Bernstein, Jamie It's Too Late Now: The Autobiography of a Writer - Milne, A.A. Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships - Ryan, Christopher Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love - Levine, Amir Mating in Captivity: In Search of Erotic Intelligence - Perel, Esther You Are Your Own: A Reckoning with the Religious Trauma of Evangelical Christianity - Finch, Jamie Lee #ChurchToo: How Purity Culture Upholds Abuse and How to Find Healing - Allison, Emily Joy The Journey from Abandonment to Healing - Anderson, Susan How to Be Alone: If You Want To, and Even If You Don't - Moore, Lane From Heartbreak to Wholeness: The Hero's Journey to Joy - Carlson, Kristine How to Not Die Alone: The Surprising Science That Will Help You Find Love - Ury, Logan Anxiously Attached: Becoming More Secure in Life and Love - Baum, Jessica The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You to Read - Leedom, Tim C. Leaving the Fold: A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving Their Religion - Winell, Marlene A Manual for Being Human - Mort, Sophie Whenever You're Ready: How to Compose the Life of Your Dreams - Kim, Jeeyoon Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive - Neff, Kristin This Is Not a Book about Benedict Cumberbatch: The Joy of Loving Something--Anything--Like Your Life Depends on It - Carvan, Tabitha Find Your True Voice: Stop Listening to Your Inner Critic, Heal Your Trauma and Live a Life Full of Joy - Brunner, Emmy Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession - Bolin, Alice No Kidding: Women Writers on Bypassing Parenthood - Mantel, Henriette Sex and the Single Woman: 24 Writers Reimagine Helen Gurley Brown's Cult Classic - Smith, Eliza No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Need to HearBowler, Kate Little Weirds - Slate, Jenny The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth - Spitzer, Michael Why Good Sex Matters: Understanding the Neuroscience of Pleasure for a Smarter, Happier, and More Purpose-Filled Life - Wise, Nan The French Revolution: From Enlightenment to Tyranny - Davidson, Ian The Golden Age of Murder - Edwards, Martin Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty - Etcoff, Nancy L. Real Men Don't Sing: Crooning in American Culture - McCracken, Allison Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood - Mann, William J. Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them - Prose, Francine The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language - Bragg, Melvyn Seven Types of Ambiguity - Empson, William The Literary Mind: The Origins of Thought and Language - Turner, Mark Blood Relations: The Selected Letters of Ellery Queen 1947-1950 - Goodrich, Joseph Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language - McCulloch, Gretchen Mind – A Journey to the Heart of Being Human - Siegel, Daniel J. The Consciousness Instinct: Unraveling the Mystery of How the Brain Makes the Mind - Gazzaniga, Michael S. The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity—and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race - Lieberman, Daniel Z. The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness - Solms, Mark Rethinking Consciousness: A Scientific Theory of Subjective Experience - Graziano, Michael S.A. Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive - Brackett, Marc The Empathy Effect: Seven Neuroscience-Based Keys for Transforming the Way We Live, Love, Work, and Connect Across Differences - Riess, Helen Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion - Tolentino, Jia The Self Delusion: The New Neuroscience of How We Invent—and Reinvent—Our Identities - Berns, Gregory The Power of Agency: The 7 Principles to Conquer Obstacles, Make Effective Decisions, and Create a Life on Your Own Terms - Napper, Paul Don't Read Poetry: A Book About How to Read Poems - Burt, Stephanie Singing School: Learning to Write (and Read) Poetry by Studying with the Masters - Pinsky, Robert The Sound of Poetry / The Poetry of Sound - Perloff, Marjorie The Sounds of Poetry: A Brief Guide - Pinsky, Robert The Poetics of American Song Lyrics - Pence, Charlotte The Poetry of Pop - Bradley, Adam Laziness Does Not Exist - Price, Devon In Awe: Rediscover Your Childlike Wonder to Unleash Inspiration, Meaning, and Joy - O'Leary, John It Didn't Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle - Wolynn, Mark The Child in You: The Breakthrough Method for Bringing Out Your Authentic Self - Stahl, Stefanie The Good Girl’s Guide To Being A Dck: The art of saying what you want, asking for what you need and getting the life you deserve - Reinwarth, Alexandra The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully - Ostaseski, Frank Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger - Chemaly, Soraya Late Bloomers: The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement - Karlgaard, Rich Why You Like It: The Science and Culture of Musical Taste - Gasser, Nolan Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women - Engeln, Renee A People's History of the United States - Zinn, Howard The Future of the Brain: Essays by the World's Leading Neuroscientists - Marcus, Gary F. The Brain: The Story of You - Eagleman, David Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts - Dehaene, Stanislas How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed - Kurzweil, Ray Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom - Hanson, Rick Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain - Damasio, Antonio R. Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life - Johnson, Steven The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness - Damasio, Antonio R. Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain--and How it Changed the World - Zimmer, Carl How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain - Barrett, Lisa Feldman Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain - Eagleman, David Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space - Levin, Janna The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime - Flanders, Judith The Art of the English Murder: From Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes to Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock - Worsley, Lucy To Be Read in 2023 - Fiction The Lost Apothecary - Penner, Sarah The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - Schwab, V.E. Wakenhyrst - Paver, Michelle Garden Spells (Waverley Family, #1) - Allen, Sarah Addison Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception (Books of Faerie, #1) - Stiefvater, Maggie All the Crooked Saints - Stiefvater, Maggie Heartsick (Archie Sheridan & Gretchen Lowell, #1) - Cain, Chelsea Not Even Bones (Market of Monsters, #1) - Schaeffer, Rebecca If We Were Villains - Rio, M.L. Eileen - Moshfegh, Ottessa A Certain Hunger - Summers, Chelsea G. Wild is the Witch - Griffin, Rachel The Whalebone Theatre - Quinn, Joanna The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, A Rún, Vol. 1 (The Girl from the Other Side, #1) - Nagabe Siren Queen - Vo, Nghi Poison for Breakfast - Snicket, Lemony The Essex Serpent - Perry, Sarah A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians (The Shadow Histories, #1) - Parry, H.G. We Are the Fire - Taylor, Sam Flyaway - Jennings, Kathleen Hild (The Light of the World Trilogy, #1) - Griffith, Nicola Ring Shout - Clark, P. Djèlí Anatomy: A Love Story - Schwartz, Dana Comfort Me with Apples - Valente, Catherynne M. In the Ravenous Dark - Strickland, A.M. Small Favors - Craig, Erin A. The Bone Maker - Durst, Sarah Beth The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home (Welcome to Night Vale #3) - Fink, Joseph You Feel It Just Below the Ribs - Cranor, Jeffrey Deathless - Valente, Catherynne M. Tripping Arcadia: A Gothic Novel - Mayquist, Kit Nothing But Blackened Teeth - Khaw, Cassandra Damnable Tales: A Folk Horror Anthology - Wells, Richard Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead - Tokarczuk, Olga The House in the Cerulean Sea - Klune, T.J. The Wilds - Elliott, Julia Foul Lady Fortune (Foul Lady Fortune, #1) - Gong, Chloe Spells for Forgetting: A Novel - Young, Adrienne Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution - Kuang, R.F. Nettle & Bone - Kingfisher, T. Tell the Wolves I'm Home - Brunt, Carol Rifka Villainous: An Anthology of Fairytale Retellings - Ward, L.T. The Glass Woman - Lea, Caroline For the Wolf (Wilderwood, #1) - Whitten, Hannah The Wolf and the Woodsman - Reid, Ava What We Devour - Miller, Linsey Down Comes the Night - Saft, Allison The City Beautiful - Polydoros, Aden Wake the Bones - Kilcoyne, Elizabeth The Other Girl - Major, C.D. Plain Bad Heroines - Danforth, Emily M. The Year of the Witching (Bethel, #1) - Henderson, Alexis Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1) - Muir, Tamsyn Rebel Rose (The Queen's Council, #1) - Theriault, Emma Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1) - McGuire, Seanan The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home (Fairyland, #5) - Valente, Catherynne M. The Boy Who Lost Fairyland (Fairyland, #4) - Valente, Catherynne M. Radiance - Valente, Catherynne M. The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories - Clarke, Susanna The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Shaffer, Mary Ann To Be Read in 2023 - Folklore The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales - Zipes, Jack D. Nonsense: Aspects of Intertextuality in Folklore and Literature - Stewart, Susan The Mythology of Fairies: The tales and legends of fairies from all over the world - Keightley, Thomas Discovering the Inner Mother - Webster, Bethany Maiden to Mother: Unlocking Our Archetypal Journey into the Mature Feminine - Wilson, Sarah Durham Beowulf: A New Translation - Unknown, Maria Dahvana Headley Fearsome Fairies: Haunting Tales of the Fae - Dearnley, Elizabeth The Fairy Tellers - Jubber, Nicholas Folklore 101: An Accessible Introduction to Folklore Studies - Jorgensen, Jeana Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre - Zipes, Jack D. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales - Bettelheim, Bruno The Book of English Magic - Carr-Gomm, Philip On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears - Asma, Stephen T.

[youkeepusinthatword]

Eggcorn

I just learned a new and delightful word!

In linguistics, an eggcorn is an idiosyncratic substitution of a word or phrase for a word or words that sound similar or identical in the speaker's dialect. The new phrase introduces a meaning that is different from the original but plausible in the same context, such as "old-timers' disease" for "Alzheimer's disease". An eggcorn can be described as an intra-lingual phono-semantic matching, a matching in which the intended word and substitute are from the same language. Together with other types of same-sounding phrases, eggcorns are sometimes also referred to "oronyms".

So this blog talks a lot about eggcorns!!

The term eggcorn, as used to refer to this kind of substitution, was coined by professor of linguistics Geoffrey Pullum in September 2003 in response to an article by Mark Liberman on the website Language Log, a blog for linguists. Liberman discussed the case of a woman who substitutes the phrase egg corn for the word acorn, and he argued that the precise phenomenon lacked a name. Pullum suggested using eggcorn itself as a label.

[cupidcore]

r there any resources you’d recommend to read up on aave? i have.. very little exposure to it in my life and i. kinda rly want to learn

YES!!!!

My favourites! just ecosia these titles (or whatever search engine you use)

Neighborhood effects on use of African-American Vernacular English

African-American Vernacular English Is Not Standard English with Mistakes by Geoffrey K. Pullum

Negation in African American Vernacular English* by Darin Howe University of Calgary (woot! woot!)

Other Resources compiled for you! (Haven't read)

What is Ebonics (African American English)? by John R. Rickford for the Linguistic Society of America

Other feel free list your favourite resources!

[emf1947]

“linguists are not kidding when they say … that your command of English enables you to understand sentences that have never occurred before in the entire history of the human species.”

Geoffrey K. Pullum

there will never be another headline that comes close to comparing with this

[abitmoredetail]

[WRITING] Five #writing links: Yeats and Hyde-Lees, Duane, Phil Brown, Penelope Mortimer, schedules

[WRITING] Five #writing links: Yeats and Hyde-Lees, Duane, Phil Brown, Penelope Mortimer, schedules

Starting with the W.B. Yeats and his wife, the “spirit medium” Georgie Hyde-Lees, JSTOR Daily takes a look at how women become major contributors to literature through the medium of spiritualism. (That they were unsung contributors goes without saying, sadly.)

This Diane Duane anecdote about the importance of detail, even unseen detail, speaks to me.

This Phil Brown articleat NOW Toronto talking…

[ebouks]

A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar 2nd edition-- solution manual

A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar 2nd edition– solution manual

A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar 2nd edition– solution manual Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, Brett Reynolds Categories: Languages – English as a Foreign Language & Reference Language: english ISBN 10: 1009085743 ISBN 13: 9781009085748 File: 25 MB