Monthly Archives: January 2013

Jafaican: “Ali G would understand it perfectly”

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Morana Lukač

In recent years, linguists across Europe have described new language varieties spoken by young people living in multicultural and multilingual communities of large cities. In Germany the variety is referred to as Kiezdeutsch (“neighbourhood German”), in Norway as kebabnorsk (“kebab … Continue reading →

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Spellergies, or the Rise of the Usage Problem

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Viktorija Kostadinova

Over the last couple of years I have been plagued with an unusual allergy, and to this day I have no idea what the cause might be. I have been tested for pollen, dust mites, particular types of food groups, … Continue reading →

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The aim of my REsearch

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Ingrid Tieken

What is happening to the word “analysis”, or perhaps “study” (though this might be considered a bit grand for a student paper)? Marking large batches of BA and MA essays this month, I’m beginning to realise that this is developing … Continue reading →

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Gruesome Twosomes

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Morana Lukač

The above picture, in which persecution is confused for prosecution, was featured in a recent episode of a sitcom aired on Fox Extended, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”. To remind the reader about the distinction between the two, The Oxford … Continue reading →

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Tape your ducks in a row!

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Robin Straaijer

Sometimes you’ll find interesting explanations about why specific usages are problematic. This one caught my eye recently. It’s from the entry for duct tape in Bryan Garner’s Dictionary of Modern American Usage. Garner quotes a newspaper articles to explain why people … Continue reading →

Posted in usage features, usage guide | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: 4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 21,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this … Continue reading →

Posted on January 3, 2013 by BtU Admin | Leave a comment