Tag Archives: Linguistics

Amanda Cole, University of Essex; Ella Jeffries, University of Essex, and Peter L Patrick, University of Essex Teacher and artist Sunn M’Cheaux has been posting on social media about “linguicism” after a reader asked him about the word “ax”, saying: “Why did we struggle saying ‘ask’? Like when I was little, I always said ‘ax’. Like I couldn’t say the …

The Oxford English Dictionary tries to include all words in English (particularly British and American English) from 1200 onwards. dollar gill | unsplash, FAL Sara Pons-Sanz, Cardiff University Lexicographer and TV personality Susie Dent recently embarked on a curious, self-appointed mission. She is determined to bring the word “respair”, last used around 1525, back into common usage. “Respair”, Dent explains, …

J.K2507/Shutterstock Jane Setter, University of Reading A recent survey of 2,000 adults in the UK identified the top ten “mispronunciations” people find annoying. Thankfully the majority (65%) of annoyed people do not feel comfortable correcting a speaker in public. But leaving aside the fact that 2,000 is hardly a representative sample of the UK, with its population of over 66 …

Reading and writing can prevent cognitive decline. AJP/Shutterstock.com Roger J. Kreuz, University of Memphis When Toni Morrison died on Aug. 5, the world lost one of its most influential literary voices. But Morrison wasn’t a literary wunderkind. “The Bluest Eye,” Morrison’s first novel, wasn’t published until she was 39. And her last, “God Help the Child,” appeared when she was …

Reading and writing can prevent cognitive decline. AJP/Shutterstock.com Roger J. Kreuz, University of Memphis When Toni Morrison died on Aug. 5, the world lost one of its most influential literary voices. But Morrison wasn’t a literary wunderkind. “The Bluest Eye,” Morrison’s first novel, wasn’t published until she was 39. And her last, “God Help the Child,” appeared when she was …

The coronavirus forced the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary to break with tradition. Illustration by Anurag Papolu/The Conversation; dictionary photo by Spauln via Getty Images and model of COVID-19 by fpm/iStock via Getty Images , CC BY-SA Roger J. Kreuz, University of Memphis In April, the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary did something unusual. For the previous 20 …

shutterstock. gvictoria via Shutterstock Ahmed F Khaleel, University of York The British “Mesopotamian Campaign” of World War I took almost three years to get to Baghdad – and the occupying force faced many challenges once it arrived. In fact, Britain’s overwhelming predominance over Iraq from 1917 to 1947 was a time of rough and violent political and economic “communication”. But …