Little by little, English has accumulated some odd phrases. This group consists of a noun followed by a […]
Category Archive: Language
If you want a breathless scramble through some speculative etymology of hundreds of English words, best dipped into in small doses, then this book might appeal to you.
This little book puts the case against prescriptivist ‘grammars’, then offers some useful tips about a range of issues in ‘Standard English’.
Why have languages not (yet) evolved to be more robust? The effects of small errors with large consequences […]
An illustration of how we sometimes need more than just syntax and semantics to parse a simple sentence.
Here is a quick summary of the more commonly-encountered cases of nouns and pronouns, for readers of Gaston […]
An insightful and entertaining account of the many languages of Europe. Strongly recommended.
Enough is a common enough word in the English language that we never stop to think how strange it is.
Is modernism different with respect to its use of visual tropes such as metonymy? The answer leads us to conclusions about the reliance of language and painting on metaphor and metonymy.
Examines the use of metonymy, synecdoche, and symbols in representative painting prior to ‘Modern Art’ in the twentieth century.
