Category Archives: language

like illiteracy is a kind of literacy

Posted on Wednesday, 2005 November 30 by Anton

Another thing I wouldn’t mind hearing less of: the word infamous used as an emphatic synonym for famous.

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ITAWT; ITAWA; PUDYE; TTATT; IDEED

Posted on Monday, 2005 November 21 by Anton

When symbol-space is arbitrary, whimsy sometimes happens.

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layers of language

Posted on Tuesday, 2005 October 18 by Anton

In the chaos that is my mind at this hour — Brain damage such as stroke can take away the symbolic processing ability known as language. I wonder: does the most obvious kind of sign-language, pointing and miming, go with … Continue reading →

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partial translation

Posted on Saturday, 2005 October 08 by Anton

I see that in Yahoo’s Chinese translation my name is “安東 Sherwood”, i.e. Anton becomes ‘peace+east’ (which in Japanese is pronounced antō, unfortunately).

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the purloined telegram

Posted on Thursday, 2005 September 22 by Anton

Thirty-odd years ago I read Alvin’s Secret Code by Clifford B. Hicks (1963), which begins when a puzzling telegram falls into the hands of two boys. The only sentence in it that makes any kind of sense to them is … Continue reading →

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the definite article

Posted on Wednesday, 2005 September 07 by Anton

You don’t need me to tell you that the case of Maher Arar (cited by Charlie Stross) has gloomy implications. So instead I’ll remark that I’m pleased to see in the article the phrase “a Qaeda member.” If any American … Continue reading →

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language peeve of the day

Posted on Thursday, 2005 July 07 by Anton

A set comprises its members; a set consists of its members; a set is composed of its members — but a set is not comprised of anything. “Thank you for observing all safety precautions.”

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