Language Log: Ruminations on scientific expertise and the ethics of persuasion
We've had a bumper crop of recent electoral events where I live, and given that I write a good deal about language and persuasion, at regular intervals I get asked to advise on political campaigns. I...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Strunk and Ptah
Today's Non Sequitur: Of course, "Never end a sentence with a __" suggests that most thoroughly decomposed of Zombie Rules, the tangled web of confusion about phrase-final prepositions. This began...
View ArticleLanguage Log: S&W in cultural context
Yesterday in the New York Times, Dwight Garner took on two revisions of classic books of advice (by Dale Carnegie and Emily Post) — updated for the digital age. "Classic Advice: Please, Leave Well...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Around the world of words, without a linguist
Non-linguists frequently ask me whether I am avidly watching "Fry's Planet Word", the new five-part BBC television series on language written and presented by Stephen Fry. (A bit of googling will...
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