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linguistics

Plough Through Enough Dough to Make You Cough or Hiccough | Linguistics, Frankly

June 9, 2015 | Filed under: James Harbeck

You want some tough spelling for an English learner to plough through? Head to ough. There are six different ways it can be said at the end of a word, as in plough, through, dough, enough, cough and (for those who spell it that way) hiccough. (Never mind the versions …

Hand holding compass

Whom Do You Believe? | Linguistics, Frankly

January 20, 2015 | Filed under: James Harbeck

First of all: If you can avoid using whom, you should. Any but the most formal texts are better off without it; it’s a foreign word for most users, as evidenced by the general inability of even many language professionals to use it quite correctly all the time. Sometimes, however, …

English test

What’s English? | Linguistics, Frankly

November 12, 2014 | Filed under: James Harbeck

Here’s a quick quiz. Tell me which of the following are English and which aren’t. For each one, say why it is or isn’t English and, if it’s not, what language it is. There’s no place to plug your car in in the parkade. A wha dat dey dem people …

Scoop with salt

Seriously, What’s the Problem With Sentence Adverbs? | Linguistics, Frankly

September 9, 2014 | Filed under: James Harbeck

The English language is a very complex and powerful thing, capable of many nuances and quite resistant to simplistic attempts at tidying it up. Sadly, not everyone realizes that. Worse still, many people take very narrow and inconsistent views, focusing on pet peeves while letting parallel instances of usage pass …

Cape Breton

Notes From Away: Cape Breton English

August 5, 2014 | Filed under: Frances Peck

My first job, selling sundries the summer I was 12 to the cottagers and campers who flocked to Cape Breton’s fabled Mira River, was about as far from the language business as you can get. Yet a few days in, I learned a humbling linguistic lesson. Three times the customer …

butler holding silver platter

There’s No Way to Truly Split an Infinitive | Linguistics, Frankly

June 17, 2014 | Filed under: James Harbeck

You can’t split an infinitive. I don’t mean I don’t want you to. I don’t mean it’s not proper to. I mean it’s not possible to. This is for the same reason that I haven’t just broken one off three times, at the ends of the three preceding sentences. The …

cake

I Only Wanted to Explain This | Linguistics, Frankly

April 15, 2014 | Filed under: James Harbeck

Adverbs are a problematic and much-maligned class of words. Linguists often have trouble explaining exactly why they go where they go. Some sorts of adverbs are baselessly despised (hopefully, people will eventually get over those hangups, but I’m not hopeful). Some people think adverbs should be excised from writing altogether. …

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