All Verbal Energy
Things we may know that aren鈥檛 soThere鈥檚 a way to claim something as a 鈥榝act鈥� when it鈥檚 not, and linguists have a word for it.
Anatomy of a malapropismEnglish is full of troublesome pairs of words 鈥� if they look alike and sound alike, and share a common thread of meaning, no wonder we confuse them.
How our language branches right and leftA little understanding of what linguists call parse trees can help writers put sentences together better.
In other words of the year: shirtfront?The Australian premier鈥檚 tough talk against Putin has snagged a 鈥榳ord of the year鈥� designation, but what was Tony Abbott really trying to say?
How to avoid being led down a garden pathThis problem is common enough that linguists have their own special nickname for it.
The words that help us all think betterHas the trickling down to the larger public of technical terms such as 鈥榗ircular argument鈥� or 鈥榗ost-benefit analysis鈥� helped people think better?
We have issues around this turn of phraseHas 鈥榓round鈥� started elbowing 鈥榓bout鈥� out of the conversation?
Stories in the stones of a Roman churchVocabulary lessons from a visit to an ancient church in Rome.
Reliable quotes in the age of the Internet?Tracking down a quote ascribed to Thomas Edison provides an object lesson in online fact-checking.
Browsing in a handy little word storeA new guide from Oxford University Press helps occasional writers build their vocabularies.
How to bridge a 30-million-word gapThe idea that poor children are starved for words.
Lifting the 鈥榗urse of knowledge鈥�Steven Pinker鈥檚 new style guide draws on what cognitive scientists know about how human minds process language.
Making my peace with 'mentoring'The Monitor鈥檚 language columnist has made peace with 鈥榤entor鈥� as a verb; 鈥榤entee鈥� as the term for the one being mentored, not so much.
More than one land of the rising sunHow did our words for east, west, north, and south come to refer to places and not just direction?
Reorienting ourselves to the LevantThe Obama administration has reached back to an earlier era for its preferred designation for the latest major terrorist threat.
A college education in just 10 wordsIt鈥檚 not all Greek: Merriam-Webster鈥檚 list of top 10 words on campus includes some Latin, too.- 'Hostile' architecture on the defensiveWhat do we call these building elements meant to keep certain kinds of people out?
Spacing out, but just one at a timeA single space after a period, or two? Inquiring minds want to know, but the single space has been established typographical convention.
What's not to like about 'like'?Does memory of an old advertising jingle keep people from using a perfectly good preposition?
As we say, an old standard still holdsA rule we thought would be gone by now, the one about avoiding like in favor of as, proves more durable than expected
