Category Archives: technology

Our latest interactive feature in English Today: Usage advice online

Posted on May 2, 2016 by Morana Lukač

When in doubt about questions of usage, I do as I suppose most other people do as well: I google it. That is only, however, the starting point of most internet searches. What I wanted to find out when I … Continue reading →

Posted in announcement, polls and surveys, technology | Tagged English Today | 2 Comments

Halting language change: Wikipedia Grammar Vigilante

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Morana Lukač

Grammar vigilantes are not a novelty. Perhaps one of the best-publicized grammar crusades was the Great Typo Hunt, a nationwide mission by two young Americans who corrected hundreds of public typos during a three-month road trip and were imprisoned as … Continue reading →

Posted in technology, usage features | Tagged Bryan Henderson, COCA, comprised of, grammar wars, HUGE database, linguistic change, wikipedia | 3 Comments

user manual

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Robin Straaijer

The user manual for the HUGE database is finished! It can be downloaded as a pdf here. The manual contains a general introduction and information on the construction and content of the HUGE database, as well as example searches of all … Continue reading →

Posted in events, technology | Tagged HUGE database | Leave a comment

We are on YouTube!

Posted on October 28, 2014 by BtU Admin

We have expanded our social media presence with a brand new Bridging the Unbridgeable YouTube channel! In the very first video we’ve uploaded Robin Straaijer gives a very short introduction to the project and the HUGE database. You can watch it below, … Continue reading →

Posted in announcement, technology | Tagged HUGE, Michael Swan, OUP, YouTube | Leave a comment

A page from the history of linguistics

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Morana Lukač

In the next couple of months, I will be conducting research on diachronic changes in English usage at the University of Freiburg by looking into the “Brown family” of corpora. The Brown Corpus of Standard American English was the first … Continue reading →

Posted in technology | Tagged corpus linguistics, University of Freiburg | Leave a comment

Wikis and usage advice

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Morana Lukač

You have surely concluded from our recent polls that we are interested in your favourite online sources on language use. After receiving a large number of different answers from you when asked about your go-to online sources, I noticed that … Continue reading →

Posted in technology, usage guide | Tagged usage items, WikiAnswers, wikiHow, wikipedia | Leave a comment

The history of txt spk and Queen Victoria

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Morana Lukač

For years the language of instant messaging or text speak (txt spk) has been targeted in the popular media as hard evidence of the ongoing decline in literacy. In 2003, The Daily Telegraph published an article about a 13-year-old girl who … Continue reading →

Posted in technology | Tagged computer mediated communication, David Crystal, Language and the Internet, Queen Victoria, text speak | 1 Comment

Wanted: Usage Guide Writers (f)

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Robin Straaijer

Our current strategy for deciding which usage guides to enter into our database of English usage guides and usage problems has been to identify different categories of usage guides and focus our efforts on acquiring the guides that fit into these categories. … Continue reading →

Posted in technology, usage guide | Tagged crowdsourcing, database, HUGE, usage guide drive, women | Leave a comment

HUGE database

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Robin Straaijer

The creation of a database of English usage guides and usage problems: the Hyper Usage Guide of English, or HUGE-database, is one of the sub-projects within Bridging the Unbridgeable. It is the first database to combine more than two hundred years of usage advice … Continue reading →