How close would we come to the apocalypse without grammar snobs’ friendly reminders that we don’t use language “properly”? My never-ending fascination with the minds of grammar snobs has led me to an interesting finding. At least in the minds…
In a couple of previous posts, I talked about how powerful people’s pet peeves about others’ language were being used to justify prejudices. As I pointed out, some educators and some business leaders are utilizing arbitrary ideas about language to draw unwarranted…
Recently, I’ve been engaged with a research project looking at the discourse of RateMyProfessors.com, a website where students rate and comment on their university or college instructors. I’ve been paying special attention to how students talk about instructors who are…
Lingua Franca is a blog at the Chronicle of Higher Education that I enjoy reading especially for Anne Curzan‘s and Geoffrey Pullum‘s excellent posts, but all of the contributors write about language, and so I’m a regular reader. Today, there was…
Recently, I’ve come across a number of articles by self-proclaimed language experts trying to sell business leaders on the idea that being aware of their current and potential employees’ grammar and spelling is important. This article calls written language problems…
linguistic pulse 