A Neat Summary of Linguistics

Useful summary, at undergraduate level, of issues and descriptions addressed in the study of language. Pretty good revision reading, perhaps especially for A2s…

https://www.uni-due.de/ELE/NeatSummaryOfLinguistics.pdf

Colour Words Research

Amazing visualisation of research comparing English and Chinese words for colour. Interesting for the way they break down and classify the words, and very beautifully presented. 

http://muyueh.com/greenhoney/?utm_content=buffer552f3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Wordflex Touch Dictionary

This is the semantic network dictionary I showed on screen when we were doing word networks. Download it - it's pretty cool!

Wordflex Touch Dictionary - English visual dictionary and thesaurus created exclusively for iPad in association with Oxford University Press

The pun conundrum

Go on, take a 'pun't! 

That doesn't even work. 

The pun conundrum
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21011778

Higgs boson metaphors

You've got to use language to explain science – and when science is all 'quantum' and weird at the fundamental level, you've got to use metaphors. 

Note: 'molasses' is American for 'treacle'.

Higgs boson metaphors as clear as molasses - The Boston Globe
http://bostonglobe.com/ideas/2012/07/14/metaphors-and-higgs-boson/UjdsEySmG63XIAcNN7LNSO/story.html

Slinging Slang from the Flappers to Rappers

A fun quiz that aims to predict your age based on the slang you use. Slang isn't solely for young people - it's changed over the years, some of it has stuck, and some of it has travelled from region to region. You might be surpried how British slang charts on this American-based test! For Language Change and Language Variation, as well as Presenting Self and the creation of voice in monologues.

Slinging Slang from the Flappers to Rappers - alphaDictionary * Slang Generation Test

Words in English :: History

A neat summary of key points in the history of the development of the English language.

Pretty good website too, centred around lexical aspects of English - including, but not limited to, word formation and semantic change issues.

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words04/history/

WordNet

This database collects words with their lexical relationships. There's a clickable dictionary with hyponyms, hypernyms, synonyms, and other lexical relationships. You can even get a hypernym tree which builds all the way up to 'existence' or 'entity'. Click the bottom link for info about the page, or try this link for a test example: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?o2=&o0=1&o8=1&o1=1&o7=&o5=&o9=&o6=&o3=&o4=&s=Test&i=7&h=1100000010000000000000000#c
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/

Lost Generation by Jonathan Reed

Clever poem that plays with sentence structures. In particular it uses nested sentences and conjunctions very carefully.
http://wp.me/p1deI-CN

Archie Out of Context

Archie is a classic, clean-cut, 50s American comic strip.  But with a bit of language change, and divorced from context, one's innuendo-fuelled imagination can run wild.

http://archieoutofcontext.tumblr.com/

Why Some Languages Sound Fast

Only partly about English, but a great little study which tries to figure out why we tend to perceive foreign languages as sounding 'fast'. (It's about syllable speed vs information density.)

Slow Down! Why Some Languages Sound So Fast
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2091477,00.html

Chris Herron Design: The Hell Brand Project

Lots of fun with graphology: Chris Herron imagines 'rebranding' Hell. There's some semantic fun with the tag lines he comes up with for the 'new hell' concept too.

http://www.chrisherrondesign.com/hell.html

"Scum"

A social worker comments on the use of this word to describe rioting youth. 

Scum
http://botherer.org/2011/08/11/scum/

NYTimes.com’s most looked-up words for 2011

Interesting to see what words most people don't know; but the thrust of the article is that the words tend to have such negative connotations. 

Is this because the world is a miserable place? Or the NY Times' outlook is sour? Or, more positively, that we know more difficult happy words than we do sad ones?

NYTimes.com's most looked-up words for 2011: Even more morose than last year's list
http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/07/nytimes-coms-most-looked-up-words-for-2011-even-more-morose-than-last-years-list/

The 'Grammar' of Comics

Actually, it's more the graphology and style guide of comics, but this is still a very well-observed description of comics' linguistic conventions.

Blambot Comic Fonts and Lettering
http://www.blambot.com/grammar.shtml

What’s the Most Beautiful Word in the English Language? - GalleyCat

I'm a fan of 'pillow'.
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/33908_b33908

Explore The Lexical Web

We demoed something like this in class way back when - but this is a nice slick version. Bung a word in the search box and watch as related words emerge and dance around it, organising themselves in a 2D diagram. You can even get a dictionary definition of each. 

An online thesaurus and dictionary of over 145,000 words that you explore using an interactive map.
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/?word=editorial

The Metaphorical Terrorist

Semantics isn't just for literature. 

Shakespeare: the metaphorical terrorist
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/30/metaphor-program-us-agents

Not Jest For Pun

Homonyms and polysemy for the humorous of heart. 

Not Jest For Pun: A Surprising History Of Wordplay
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/15/136253845/not-jest-for-pun-a-surprising-history-of-wordplay?sc=tw&ft=1&f=1032