Author Archives: brinton

Or is it even possible? The answer is complicated: https://theconversation.com/do-accents-disappear-192548?fbclid=IwAR3EDIgIcS_eyd2AgoFV9azJx25lKmW_x-UsUdSGq0vnSiMSIycZTwnmNGM

And what about “sir”? https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/12/us/maam-sir-polarizing-words-cec

Judges and lawyers are making use of linguistic corpora in court cases, but it’s not clear that they know how to use them correctly: https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/7/23153218/legal-corpus-linguistics-mask-mandate-judges

Here is a thoughtful article about “like”: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/may/15/why-do-people-like-say-like-so-much-in-praise-of-an-underappreciated-word?CMP=share_btn_link  

This article makes the — pretty obvious — point that hesitation markers and “fillers” serve an important conversational purpose: Filler Words and Floor Holders: The Sounds Our Thoughts Make

Here is an informative and interesting article about how dictionaries are written and updated. A new online dictionary of Australian English is expected in 2023.

Here is another article about the use of “they” with singular (or indefinite) reference. Despite some residual resistance, this usage finally seems to have become accepted. https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/singular-they-history

The Canadian Oxford Dictionary has not been updated since 2004 and the entire staff of the dictionary at Oxford University Press was laid off in 2008 (and the editor Katherine Barber sadly died last year). This means that any Canadianisms … Continue reading →

The English language lost the distinction between singular and plural addressees about 1700, but this hasn’t prevented speakers from restoring the distinction in various ways. “Y’all” seems to be spreading from the southern US to other parts of the US … Continue reading →

Research shows that sentences containing emojis can be processed very quickly, but “sentences” consisting entirely of emojis cannot. Thus, they will never replace text. This article argues that emojis function much like tones of voice, hand gestures, facial expressions, etc. … Continue reading →