Language Log: Oscar crash blossom
Attachment ambiguity strikes again! Originally the headline was "Screenwriter Graham Moore reveals he tried to commit suicide during 2015 Oscars acceptance speech for 'The Imitation Game'". Now it's...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Awesome foods
Felix Sadeli sent in this list of colossal mistranslations of food names. We've already seen several of these and explained a number of them on Language Log: "Puke " (10/8/10) "Gourmet Chinese...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Query: Punctuation in personal digital media
From Jessica Bennett: Friends! I'm doing a piece for the NYT about the ways punctuation has changed — and taken new weight — in the texting era. For example: I've started putting a space before an...
View ArticleLanguage Log: SOCAL is getting fleeked out
[Guest post by Taylor Jones] For anyone who's been living under a rock for the past few months, there is a term, "on fleek," that has been around since at least 2003, but which caught like wildfire on...
View ArticleLanguage Log: "Imitation Game" codebreakers also played the palindrome game
Doc, note: I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod. Is this the best palindrome ever created in English? Many think so. (I agree.) But did you know that it was made by the British...
View ArticleLanguage Log: SCOTUS: A fish is not a "tangible object"
At least, a fish is not a "tangible object" in the context of 18 U. S. C. §1519: Whoever knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record,...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Jihadi Jim
There's been a certain amount of discussion in the media about the accent of the ISIS spokesman on the video showing the mass beheading of Egyptian christians on a beach in Libya, e.g. on ABC News...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Transplant semantics
Jessica Firger, "First human head transplant two years away, says one surgeon", CBS News 2/26/2015: Most people can't wrap their head around the concept. But one scientist believes head transplants in...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Reliability
On Thursday and Friday, I participated in a workshop on"Statistical Challenges in Assessing and Fostering the Reproducibility of Scientific Results" at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington...
View ArticleLanguage Log: We play Haydn until the sun comes up
Kevin Knight wrote that "our approach to syntax in machine translation is best described in D. Barthelme's short story 'They called for more structure'", and a few days ago, Jason Eisner described...
View Article
