-
“Through my most grievious fault”
Since the most recent changes to the Roman Missal almost every Sunday we’ve been saying: through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; … I’ve noticed that in our congregation almost everyone says “grievious” as opposed to “grievous.” I knew that sometimes speakers insert an “-i-” into words like “grievous” and “mischievous.”…
-
Learn a foreign language, you sinners (Bonus: dissertation topic for somebody)
I’m kidding about the title of this post. Mostly. This month’s Scientific American: Mind* has a fascinating article by Catherine Caldwell-Harris about moral reasoning in a native language versus a second or foreign language. You need a subscription to read the whole thing, but fortunately for those without a subscription this article seems like a…
-
Epstein reviews Turner’s The Origin of Ideas
I recently came across Robert Epstein’s scathing review of Mark Turner’s new book The Origin of Ideas in the March/April edition of Scientific American: Mind. I thought some followers of this blog might interested in reading it as well if not for Epstein’s sheer capacity to turn a phrase. Epstein was a student of Skinner…
-
The Neurobiology of Learning: Perspectives from Second Language Acquisition (Book Recommendation)
Since I’ve transitioned in my work to being more interested in lexicography, I haven’t had time to do a significant amount of reading in Second Language Acquisition. But, I recently picked up The Neurobiology of Learning: Perspectives from Second Language Acquisition. I would highly recommend it to anyone with the responsibility of teaching languages, whether…
-
Center for Advanced Study of Language Report on Rosetta Stone
Every now and again because I did my PhD research on second language teaching/learning I get asked what I think about Rosetta Stone. So, I thought I’d post a link to the University of Maryland’s Center for Advanced Study of Language report on Rosetta Stone entitled: “Rosetta Stone V3 Falls Short of Manufacturer’s Claims.” As…
-
The 10 book meme – my version
This is my version of the meme going around on Facebook (not that anyone asked) to name 10 books that have stuck with you without thinking too much about it: Ecclesiastes – unknown Night – Elie Wiesel The Hound of the Baskervilles – Arthur Conan Doyle Introduction to Christianity – Joseph Ratzinger (or Truth Tolerance…
-
Why do we call people redheads instead of orangeheads?
-
Making assumptions to make progress
I’ve recently been reading Anna Basso’s Aphasia and Its Therapy. I found this passage interesting where she states that it is sometimes necessary to make assumptions, whether or not one believes them to be true or can prove them to be true, in order to progress: The use of pathological data for the study of…
-
Language review 2013 – bitcoin, sharknado, selfie
The virtual linguist has posted a link to the 2013 language review on the Oxford Dictionaries website. To everyone who made fun of me at SBL for not knowing what a “bitcoin” was, cut me some slack. It seems relatively new since it just made it in to this year’s language review. Also, making an…
-
When the experts disagree – Information structure edition
I’m catching up with my blog reading from last week. Kris Lyle brings up an interesting case in which two experts on New Testament discourse disagree with one another from John 15.7. I have no particular interest here in whether Levisohn or Runge is correct about the information structure of the verse, but what I…