Tag: linguistics
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Original Pronunciation of Shakespearean Plays
This is a fascinating introduction to the differences in pronunciation of Modern English and Early Modern English (Shakespeare’s time). Explanations and examples are very clear by linguist David Crystal and his son Ben, an actor.
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English Phonetic Chart
Here is an English phonetic chart I had created based on Adrian Underhill‘s Sound Foundations. I highly recommend this book as a workbook for teachers.
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collocation
the node has centre stage as always, egotistical to no end handsome as a lover heavy as a smoker frequent to haunt joints come keep him company for loneliness is an eyesore
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Neighbours, highlighting and hiding
Consider this conversation: Tom: This is my neighbour, David. David: Hi. I’m his neighbour. Call me Dave. Harry: Harry. Nice to meet you, Dave. David is Tom’s neighbour from Tom’s perspective. So the focus of the conversation is with Tom. But in reality we tend to forget (or in Lakoff and Johnson’s term hide) the…
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No Egg in Eggplant
Of course there is no egg in eggplant. Apparently the name comes from a white egg-shaped variety cultivated by 18th century Europeans. More interesting is the original name ‘aubergine’ which (according to Concise Oxford Dictionary) has its roots from Arabic and therefore the route (no pun intended, again) through which it made its way into…
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English is a crazy language
I am going to have a great time analysing these. There are either cognitive or historical bases for all of these I am sure.
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The History of English in Ten Minutes (or we have a short attention span)
Here is the YouTube version of the great little podcast The History of English in Ten Minutes produced by Open University. As a matter of fact the history of English can be summarized in ten seconds with the chapter titles: Anglo-Saxon The Norman Conquest Shakespeare The King James Bible The English of Science English and…
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Word Grammar
Came across a new-ish theory today – Word Grammar. Its creator and champion is Richard (Dick) Hudson at UCL. Seems worth exploring as a theory. Considered a minor branch of cognitive linguistics.
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Words
This is an old podcast about words produced by Radiolab. It features intereviews with Charles Fernyhough who about the relationship of words and spatial relationships, Susan Schaller who studied a man who literally had no words until the age of 27, Ann Senghas and Elizabeth Spelke who watched a language generate among deaf children, James…
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Posters and Infobesity
Do you have an infobesity problem? Here at the Corpora Institute we have the solutions. For more information see this website or a paper app poster near you.
ghoti 