S#*@ scientists say (boingboing.net)

Scientific language is full of technical terms that sound like everyday terms - and so can be seriously misunderstood when scientists speak in public. (Compare 'subject' or 'particle' in linguistics.)

S#*@ scientists say
http://boingboing.net/2011/10/18/s-scientists-say.html?dlvrit=36761

From Riddle to Twittersphere

The prolific David Crystal has another book out - looks like a readable approach to the history of English. Details in the article, including the full list of words he picks out.

From Riddle to Twittersphere: David Crystal tells the story of English in 100 words
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8824676/From-Riddle-to-Twittersphere-David-Crystal-tells-the-story-of-English-in-100-words.html

How not to represent accents...

The Australian had to apologise rapidly for this basically racist representation of the speech of an Irish airline boss. The respelling is pretty broad even at the start - and when you come across the 'dialect' idioms later on, you realise this isn't your normal (or acceptable) reporting...

http://www.irishecho.com.au/2010/12/01/full-transcript-of-the-insulting-article/5822#.TpcbXjPoqGU.mailto

Why Concrete Language Communicates Truth

The article stretches the concept of 'concrete' a little with verbs, to favour active over passive form for example, but this is still convincing stuff. 

Why Concrete Language Communicates Truth — PsyBlog
http://www.spring.org.uk/2011/06/why-concrete-language-communicates-truth.php

TAPoR text analysis tool

For A2s to consider: got loads of text you'd like to analyse?

The awesome TAPoR website has tools that will give you word counts, frequencies, charts and more to enable you to manage very large amounts of data, like many magazine articles or speeches, or entire movie scripts.

It doesn't do the thinking for you, but it helps expose interesting patterns by showing you them in a pretty way.  More on this to come in class, but have a play - try putting the PLB address into the Your Web Page text box and choose Explore with Voyeur.

Poster Presentation from Sussex Uni

Found this in the UofS library: the focus is to find whether rhyming in children's books helps children to learn new words, or to follow the plot. The results are perhaps surprising.

Apologies for the poor quality of the photos - low light and a mini camera. Let me know if you're interested and I'll aim to return with a better one. Or go and visit the library yourself - it is awesome.

Giving an academic conference paper

From the doctoral blog at University of Sussex - some advice on presentations. For A2s.

http://wp.me/pNwt4-9g