Author Archives: brinton

Is there such a thing as “General American” – it depends … http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/is-there-a-place-in-america-where-people-speak-without-accents?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=atlas-page

Recent research has shown that there is a distinct cognitive advantage in being bilingual. Current research now seems to point to a similar advantage in speaking two dialects of the same language: https://theconversation.com/speaking-dialects-trains-the-brain-in-the-same-way-as-bilingualism-59022

Shakespeare is likely not responsible for as many words and expressions in the language as previously thought. A faulty impression of Shakespeare’s contribution is created by the OED’s practice of citing him extensively. https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/to-be-or-not-to-be-original

Like all languages, sign languages change. Read this recent article from Science: Science evolution of sign language

Here is a sensible, popular article about what emoji are and what they aren’t, and what possible effects they might have on the language: http://the-toast.net/2016/06/29/a-linguist-explains-emoji-and-what-language-death-actually-looks-like/ And, by the way, what is the plural of “emoji”? Is it “emojis” or “emoji”?

Is your image of a grammar pendant an elderly school marm? Well, a study by Robin Queen has shown that gender, age, and education play little role: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/29/grammar-pedant-personality-type?CMP=share_btn_tw

In a forthcoming book (Teen Talk: The Language of Adolescents, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press, see http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/sociolinguistics/teen-talk-language-adolescents), Sali Tagliamonte of the University of Toronto, examines teen talk. She is interviewed in this article from the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/teen-talk-book_us_56fc44dde4b0daf53aeea341 Note, however, … Continue reading →

An accent spoken on the Outer Banks of North Carolina is known as “Ocracoke Brogue”: http://www.greatbigstory.com/stories/hoi-toider-ocracoke-brogue-in-north-carolina?iid=ob_homepage_NewsAndBuzz_pool&iref=obnetwork

This article argues that English punctuation is not fixed and unchanging: http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21694497-punctuation-has-rarely-been-truly-stable-dont-pnic

Linguists point to the syntactic problems with Facebook’s new icons: http://www.wired.com/2016/02/linguists-not-exactly-wow-facebooks-new-reactions/