Category Archives: news

Features

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Robin Straaijer

We have added a new page to the blog; it’s called Features. While our blog posts are usually short and to the point, we occasionally want to post longer pieces. These features can take different formats: they can be a … Continue reading →

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500 mistakes of daily occurrence

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

Today, I managed to get hold of a copy of the first edition of Walton Burgess’s Five Hundred Mistakes of Daily Occurrence in Speaking, Pronouncing, and Writing the English Language, Corrected, New York. It was published in 1856, and it is, … Continue reading →

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Punctuation. In Political. Contexts.

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Cynthia Lange

There have been many interesting articles about language use related to the 2012 presidential election in the U.S. Some of my favorites include this recent one on the ‘mass-nounification of vote’ by Ben Zimmer and this one on the use … Continue reading →

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On being a pedant

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

And I thought I was a pedant! Read more in the article In a Word from the New York Times Online (and tell us what you think). Btw: searching for the author’s name, Philip Corbett, shows more interest on his … Continue reading →

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Discussing correctness with Bryan A. Garner

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

Matthijs Smits sent us a link containing a discussion in the New York Times Online between American usage expert Bryan Garner and Economist journalist Robert Greene. The interview deals with the usual descriptivism/prescriptivism question, and by way of an illustration … Continue reading →

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Webster’s ain’t

Posted on October 26, 2012 by BtU Admin

Just out, The Story of Ain’t by David Skinner, editor of Humanities magazine, is not about the verb form in the title but about “the controversy over Webster’s Third” when it was published “with much fanfare in 1961″. The book sets out to explain why … Continue reading →

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Annoying Anglocreep

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

So the irritation is mutual! We’ve reported several times on Americanisms in British English in this blog, but if you want to read on the increase of British expressions in American English (toff, cheers, brilliant, loo), take a look at … Continue reading →

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4th Bridging the Unbridgeable Lunch Lecture

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

Our fourth lunch lecture will take place on 29 October 2012, from 12 to 1 pm, in van Wijkplaats 4, room 004.  This time, the lunch lecture will take the shape of a small mini-symposium, with two papers on usage … Continue reading →

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A Partridge first edition

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

It sometimes pays off to visit second-hand bookshops in search of usage guides: yesterday, I found a first edition of The Concise Usage & Abusage by Eric Partridge. A signed copy as well! The book was published in 1954, there is a … Continue reading →

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Britishisms (try pronouncing this!)

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

One of our readers alerted us this morning to an article in the online BBC News Magazine called “Britishisms and the Britishisation of American English“. She commented: “Isn’t it interesting how it’s the opposite to what I looked at in my … Continue reading →

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