Category Archives: language

what’s it called again?

I’m watching Dexter. In a flashback, teen Dexter says, “Jesus, Dad, it’s called being on time, did you ever hear of it?” The actors playing Dexter in the present and in the past were born in 1971 and 1987, so … Continue reading

Posted in cinema, language | 1 Comment

links

Charity finds that U.S. food aid for Africa hurts instead of helps. Oh dear, CARE has been taken over by evil selfish libertarians. What else could explain such a conclusion? What American accent do you have? I got Philadelphia on … Continue reading

Posted in economics, language, security theater | Leave a comment

a higher grade of gibberish

Strange but true — People study for years to talk like this: Infant is status post initial ampicillin and gentamycin for rule out sepsis workup.

Posted in language, medicine | Leave a comment

twaddle generation

What, if anything, does this mean? The racial, ethnic, and gender diversity of the United States has increased exponentially over the past two decades . . . . Besides wondering whether the writer knows what exponential means, I’m curious about how much range … Continue reading

Posted in humanities, language | 1 Comment

Takana

I had the idea to design a fantasy script from combinations of a small repertoire of features: namely, subsets of this set of twelve segments. Using a fixed number of segments gives some built-in error-detection. There are 924 subsets of … Continue reading

Posted in language, mathematics | 8 Comments

as she is spoke

I hear some strange things in this medical transcription gig: Due to her birth weight less than 1500 grams, she will require a rule out retinopathy of prematurity eye exam . . . . Let’s take an against un-Englishly compound adjectives stand!

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hypercorrection implies correction

Most of us English-speakers were told as children that it’s wrong to say me and him went to the park, and we should instead say he and I. And many of us grow up extending the lesson to where it … Continue reading

Posted in language | 1 Comment