Language Log
Encyclopedia
Language Log is a collaborative language blog
maintained by University of Pennsylvania
phonetician
Mark Liberman
.
The site is updated daily at the whims of the contributors, and most of the posts are on language
use in the media and popular culture. Google search results are frequently used as a corpus
to test hypotheses about language. Other popular topics are the descriptivism/prescriptivism debate and linguistics-related news items. The site has also occasionally held contests in which visitors attempt to identify an obscure language.
Language Log is now one of the most popular linguistics blogs. , it receives an average of almost 21,000 visits per day. In May 2006, a compilation of posts by Liberman and Geoffrey Pullum
was published in book form under the title Far from the Madding Gerund and Other Dispatches from Language Log.
(Pullum has since moved to the University of Edinburgh
). One early post about a woman who wrote egg corns instead of acorn
s led to the coinage of the word eggcorn
to refer to a type of sporadic or idiosyncratic re-analysis. Another post about commonly recycled phrases in newspaper articles, e.g. "If Eskimo
s have N words for snow, X surely have Y words for Z", resulted in the coinage of the word snowclone
. Both phenomena are common topics at the blog, as is linguification, or the use of metaphors that turn factual observations into claims about language (many of which are blatantly false).
The blog has a number of recurring themes, including the difficulty of transcribing spoken utterances accurately, misuse or misunderstanding of linguistic science in the media, criticism of the popular style guide The Elements of Style
by E. B. White
and William Strunk Jr.
, and complaints about what the contributors see as the pedantry of ill-informed prescriptivists, including that of some copyeditors
(one of the blog's tags is "prescriptivist poppycock"). In addition, the site has critically addressed opinions and theories related to the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
concerning the relationship between culture, thought and language. Another common topic on the blog is the handling of taboo
language in the media. Regular contributor Arnold Zwicky
wrote a series of posts describing which words are considered obscene
in various publications, paying particularly close attention to the way these words are "asterisked" in the different media forms.
, who claimed to have proved that the language of Eden
was Dutch
(incidentally, his mother tongue).
The award for 2006 went to Louann Brizendine for her bestselling book, The Female Brain, which makes two principal claims: that women use language very differently from men, and that the causes of these differences are hormonal. Language Log's contributors quoted Nature
("riddled with scientific errors"), tracked down references in little-known journals, and marshaled an impressive array of counterarguments in an elaborate attempt to demonstrate that Brizendine's claims are scientifically dubious.
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
maintained by University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
phonetician
Phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that comprises the study of the sounds of human speech, or—in the case of sign languages—the equivalent aspects of sign. It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs : their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory...
Mark Liberman
Mark Liberman
Mark Liberman is an American linguist. He has a dual appointment at the University of Pennsylvania, as Trustee Professor of Phonetics in the Department of Linguistics, and as a professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences. He is the founder and director of the Linguistic Data...
.
The site is updated daily at the whims of the contributors, and most of the posts are on language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
use in the media and popular culture. Google search results are frequently used as a corpus
Text corpus
In linguistics, a corpus or text corpus is a large and structured set of texts...
to test hypotheses about language. Other popular topics are the descriptivism/prescriptivism debate and linguistics-related news items. The site has also occasionally held contests in which visitors attempt to identify an obscure language.
Language Log is now one of the most popular linguistics blogs. , it receives an average of almost 21,000 visits per day. In May 2006, a compilation of posts by Liberman and Geoffrey Pullum
Geoffrey Pullum
Geoffrey Keith "Geoff" Pullum is a British-American linguist specialising in the study of English. , he is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh....
was published in book form under the title Far from the Madding Gerund and Other Dispatches from Language Log.
Specialties
Language Log was started on July 28, 2003 by Liberman and Pullum, a linguist then at the University of California, Santa CruzUniversity of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...
(Pullum has since moved to the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
). One early post about a woman who wrote egg corns instead of acorn
Acorn
The acorn, or oak nut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives . It usually contains a single seed , enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne in a cup-shaped cupule. Acorns vary from 1–6 cm long and 0.8–4 cm broad...
s led to the coinage of the word eggcorn
Eggcorn
In linguistics, an eggcorn is an idiosyncratic substitution of a word or phrase for a word or words that sound similar or identical in the speaker's dialect. The new phrase introduces a meaning that is different from the original, but plausible in the same context, such as "old-timers' disease" for...
to refer to a type of sporadic or idiosyncratic re-analysis. Another post about commonly recycled phrases in newspaper articles, e.g. "If Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
s have N words for snow, X surely have Y words for Z", resulted in the coinage of the word snowclone
Snowclone
A snowclone is a type of cliché and phrasal template originally defined as "a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different variants"....
. Both phenomena are common topics at the blog, as is linguification, or the use of metaphors that turn factual observations into claims about language (many of which are blatantly false).
The blog has a number of recurring themes, including the difficulty of transcribing spoken utterances accurately, misuse or misunderstanding of linguistic science in the media, criticism of the popular style guide The Elements of Style
The Elements of Style
The Elements of Style , also known as Strunk & White, by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, is a prescriptive American English writing style guide comprising eight "elementary rules of usage", ten "elementary principles of composition", "a few matters of form", a list of forty-nine "words and...
by E. B. White
E. B. White
Elwyn Brooks White , usually known as E. B. White, was an American writer. A long-time contributor to The New Yorker magazine, he also wrote many famous books for both adults and children, such as the popular Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, and co-authored a widely used writing guide, The...
and William Strunk Jr.
William Strunk Jr.
William Strunk Jr. was a professor of English at Cornell University and author of the The Elements of Style , which, after being revised and enlarged by his former student E. B...
, and complaints about what the contributors see as the pedantry of ill-informed prescriptivists, including that of some copyeditors
Copy editing
Copy editing is the work that an editor does to improve the formatting, style, and accuracy of text. Unlike general editing, copy editing might not involve changing the substance of the text. Copy refers to written or typewritten text for typesetting, printing, or publication...
(one of the blog's tags is "prescriptivist poppycock"). In addition, the site has critically addressed opinions and theories related to the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
Linguistic relativity
The principle of linguistic relativity holds that the structure of a language affects the ways in which its speakers are able to conceptualize their world, i.e. their world view...
concerning the relationship between culture, thought and language. Another common topic on the blog is the handling of taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
language in the media. Regular contributor Arnold Zwicky
Arnold Zwicky
Arnold M. Zwicky is a perennial Visiting Professor of linguistics at Stanford University, and Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Ohio State University....
wrote a series of posts describing which words are considered obscene
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
in various publications, paying particularly close attention to the way these words are "asterisked" in the different media forms.
Becky Award
The Becky Award is a tongue-in-cheek award given out by the site. It is named after the sixteenth-century humanist Johannes Goropius BecanusJohannes Goropius Becanus
Johannes Goropius Becanus was a Dutch physician, linguist, and humanist.-Life:He was born Jan Gerartsen van Gorp in the town of Gorp, situated in the municipality of Hilvarenbeek...
, who claimed to have proved that the language of Eden
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
was Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
(incidentally, his mother tongue).
The award for 2006 went to Louann Brizendine for her bestselling book, The Female Brain, which makes two principal claims: that women use language very differently from men, and that the causes of these differences are hormonal. Language Log's contributors quoted Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
("riddled with scientific errors"), tracked down references in little-known journals, and marshaled an impressive array of counterarguments in an elaborate attempt to demonstrate that Brizendine's claims are scientifically dubious.
Contributors
In addition to Liberman and Pullum, a number of other linguists contribute to Language Log:- Adam Albright, a morphologistMorphology (linguistics)In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
, phonologist, and assistant professor of linguistics at MITMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. - Eric BakovicEric BakovicEric Bakovic is a linguist and associate professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, San Diego with a specialization in phonology; he is also affiliated with the Center for Research on Language , the Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science, and the Center for...
, a phonologist and associate professor of linguistics at the University of California, San DiegoUniversity of California, San DiegoThe University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
. - David Beaver, a semanticist and professor of linguistics at University of Texas at AustinUniversity of Texas at AustinThe University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
. - Steven Bird, a computational linguist and associate professor of computer scienceComputer scienceComputer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
at the University of MelbourneUniversity of MelbourneThe University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
. - Lila Gleitman, a professor of linguistics at the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
who specializes in psycholinguisticsPsycholinguisticsPsycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on how the...
. - Daniel JurafskyDaniel JurafskyDaniel Jurafsky is a Professor of Linguistics and Computer Science at Stanford University.With James Martin, he wrote the textbook .He was given a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002....
, an associate professor of linguistics at Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
who specializes in statistical models of human and machine language processing. - Victor H. MairVictor H. MairVictor Henry Mair is a Philologist specializing in Sinitic and Indo-European languages, and holds the position of Professor of Chinese Language and Literature in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States...
, an Indo-Europeanist, Sinologist and professor of Chinese languageChinese languageThe Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
and Chinese literatureChinese literatureChinese literature extends thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novels that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese...
at the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. - Norma Mendoza-Denton, a sociolinguist and assistant professor of anthropology at the University of ArizonaUniversity of ArizonaThe University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
. - John McWhorterJohn McWhorterJohn Hamilton McWhorter V is an American linguist and political commentator. He is the author of a number of books on language and on race relations. His linguistic specialty is creole and the process through which it forms.-Early life:...
, a fellow at the Manhattan InstituteManhattan InstituteThe Manhattan Institute for Policy Research is a conservative, market-oriented think tank established in New York City in 1978 by Antony Fisher and William J...
and former associate professor of linguistics at the University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
specializing in creole languages. - Geoffrey NunbergGeoffrey NunbergGeoffrey Nunberg is an American linguist and a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information. Nunberg has taught at Stanford University and served as a principal scientist at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center from the mid-1980's to 2000...
, chair of the American Heritage Dictionary usage panel and a professor at the UC Berkeley School of InformationUC Berkeley School of InformationThe UC Berkeley School of Information or the iSchool is a graduate school offering both a professional master's degree and a research-oriented Ph.D. degree at the University of California, Berkeley. The school was created in 1994 and was known as the School of Information Management and Systems ...
. - Barbara ParteeBarbara ParteeBarbara Hall Partee is a Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Linguistics and Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is one of the founders of contemporary formal semantics. She retired from UMass in September 2004.She grew up in the Baltimore area...
, a semanticist and Professor Emerita at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. - Bill PoserWilliam PoserWilliam Poser is a Canadian-American linguist who is known for his extensive work with the historical linguistics of Native American languages, especially those of the Athabascan family....
, a phonologist and adjunct professor of linguistics at the University of British ColumbiaUniversity of British ColumbiaThe University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
. - Chris Potts, an associate professor of linguistics at Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
who specializes in semanticsSemanticsSemantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
, pragmaticsPragmaticsPragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which studies the ways in which context contributes to meaning. Pragmatics encompasses speech act theory, conversational implicature, talk in interaction and other approaches to language behavior in philosophy, sociology, and linguistics. It studies how the...
, and syntaxSyntaxIn linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
. - Philip Resnik, a computational linguist and professor of linguistics at the University of Maryland, College ParkUniversity of Maryland, College ParkThe University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
. - Roger Shuy, Distinguished Research Professor of Linguistics, Emeritus of Georgetown UniversityGeorgetown UniversityGeorgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
and a specialist in language and law. - Sally ThomasonSarah ThomasonSarah Grey Thomason is a linguist known particularly for her work on language contact, historical linguistics, pidgins and creoles, Slavic Linguistics, typological universals, and xenoglossy. She has also worked since 1981 documenting Montana Salish. She is one of the Language Log...
, a professor of linguistics at the University of MichiganUniversity of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
who specializes in contact-induced language change and Salishan linguistics. - Benjamin ZimmerBenjamin ZimmerBenjamin Zimmer is an American linguist and lexicographer. He is the executive producer of the Visual Thesaurus and Vocabulary.com. He was the "On Language" columnist for The New York Times Magazine from March 2010 to February 2011 and formerly a research associate at the University of...
, research associate at the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science at the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
and consultant to The Oxford English Dictionary. - Arnold ZwickyArnold ZwickyArnold M. Zwicky is a perennial Visiting Professor of linguistics at Stanford University, and Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Ohio State University....
, visiting professor of linguistics at Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and emeritusEmeritusEmeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
professor of linguistics at Ohio State UniversityOhio State UniversityThe Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
.
Coinages
- eggcornEggcornIn linguistics, an eggcorn is an idiosyncratic substitution of a word or phrase for a word or words that sound similar or identical in the speaker's dialect. The new phrase introduces a meaning that is different from the original, but plausible in the same context, such as "old-timers' disease" for...
- linguification
- recency illusionRecency illusionThe Recency illusion is the belief or impression that something is of recent origin when it is in fact long-established.The term was invented by Arnold Zwicky, a linguist at Stanford University who was primarily interested in examples involving words, meanings, phrases, and grammatical constructions...
- snowcloneSnowcloneA snowclone is a type of cliché and phrasal template originally defined as "a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different variants"....