As a Linguist…

Interesting running commentary from a linguistic researcher, with all sortsof puzzles and corners of language under discussion. Nice style model for blog posts too.

As a Linguist… | Observations on language, literature, and other interesting phenomena

The virtual linguist

The virtual linguist has bitesize commentaries on language items in the news and elsewhere.  Worth a browse.

Sound Comparisons

Oh my goodness. More accent material than you can shake a schwa at. This site collects pronunciations and full phonetic transcriptions of a range of words from accents around the UK and the world, in hyperlinekd and clickable charts. /ɔ:səm/.

http://www.soundcomparisons.com/

Visualizing English Word Origins

Colour-coding texts to show their etymology. Love this. 

Ideas Illustrated » Blog Archive » Visualizing English Word Origins
http://ideasillustrated.com/blog/2012/04/01/visualizing-english-word-origins/

"Humor" for Writers

Many of these are simply gormless. Some are ripped off from stand-up routines. Some are genuinely interesting questions. Some have genuinely enlightening answers. The problem is, which is which?

Humor for Writers – English Language Quirks
http://www.epublishabook.com/2012/06/10/humor-for-writers-english-language-quirks/

Park Language Twitter feed

You can now follow a Twitter feed for Park Language at @parklanguage: https://twitter.com/#!/parklanguage

As with the Facebook page and the blog, some things will turn up everywhere, some things will be just on one channel. I’ll figure out a working practice as we go. Comments, retweets, @mentions of stuff you find are all welcome.

Language Wars (newyorker.com)

A contemporary argument for prescriptivism.

Language Wars
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/05/language-wars-descriptivists.html

The myth of English as a global language

A while since updating. Here's a good read for A2 Language Development...

The myth of English as a global language
http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1044656.ece

Sarcasm

Students often want to write about sarcasm in exams. But it's hard to put your finger on what makes something sarcastic, linguistically speaking. Here's an attempt.

Note: suprasegmental features refer to intonation, which we've breezed over since it's hard to show in an examination.

http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/cumming/ling50/sarcasm.htm

Language and Facebook

After the world's most unsurprising headline, there's some interesting research about language trends in Facebook correlated to social identity.

http://mashable.com/2012/01/06/facebook-emotions//

Jean Berko's Wug Test and more

This page from the CHILDES database has a section with the wug test paper and the set of pics, which we used in class. Also here are the audio samples of language development we listened to, and some other interesting resources for studying langauge development.

http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/topics/

Publication of Dr Johnson's Dictionary today

15th April 1755, folks.

Publication of Dr Johnson's Dictionary
http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/publication-dr-johnsons-dictionary