Category Archives: language

the former future prime minister

Posted on Tuesday, 2004 May 18 by Anton

I’ve often mocked The Media for saying “former Italian prime minister” (what kind of prime minister is he now?) and so it is mildly disappointing that I won’t get to apply the phrase to Mrs Gandhi. The Agonist (cited by … Continue reading →

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in the Hellenistic age, savage warfare— no, that’s not it

Posted on Sunday, 2004 May 09 by Anton

Bill Poser at Language Log agrees with me: Greek, not Latin, ought to have been spoken in The Passion. (Cited by Prentiss Riddle in a comment at languagehat.)

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serial or parallel?

Posted on Friday, 2004 May 07 by Anton

Shiny! (before Firefly)

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words

Posted on Wednesday, 2004 April 28 by Anton

One often hears mention of “the greater Boston area”. So how come you never hear of “the lesser Boston area”? In unrelated news, I misread the headline “Satire is dead” as “[William] Safire is dead” and wondered why Charlie would … Continue reading →

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practicum

Posted on Saturday, 2004 April 10 by Anton

At a Thai restaurant just now, the staff were playing Scrabble. That’s one way to practice a language!

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To Live

Posted on Friday, 2004 April 09 by Anton

I bought a DVD of Kurosawa’s 生きる Ikiru, inferring from the presence of English text on the package that the show would be subtitled. Oops!

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i hate when that happens

Posted on Tuesday, 2004 March 30 by Anton

Larry Trask, a well of linguistic erudition and good humor, has died.

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