Category Archives: Uncategorized

This is Lizi Richards’ second blog post for the MA course Non-standard English: While browsing through my Twitter feed a few weeks ago, the following tweet appeared in my feed: The forty responses, forty-two retweets and two hundred and forty-nine … Continue reading →

‘Last February? Last February? Oh yes, I was here last February.’ He [the janitor]  pronounced it exactly as spelled.’  (p. 236) The passage is from Raymond Chandler‘s novel The Little Sister (1949). When I came across this metalinguistic comment, I was wondering … Continue reading →

I was reading the UK Autocar this week-end, and came across this: “My ghast is well and truly flabbered.” This stopped me in my tracks on two counts: (i) I could never say it, let alone write it; and (ii) … Continue reading →

And here is Emmy Stevens’s second blog post already! She also invites you to participate in her survey. Please do so: your input will be very useful for the paper she is writing for the course. When Huckleberry Finn “snuck” … Continue reading →

Good to know that the etiquette guide is still going strong, and still focusing on women’s social skills: “There is a course on ‘personal and professional impact’ for women, which emphasises body language, presentation and effective communication.” You can read … Continue reading →

Is this what language planning looks like in the modern world?

It’s not every day you discover a new word, or at least a new meaning for an old word. But when the Guardian asked its readers to contribute their favourite dialect words, it discovered not one, but two. “Webs” and … Continue reading →

And another piece from the UK Guardian, here.