Kryptonese Often Makes Me Peeved
As a science fiction writer, one of the most difficult tasks I have is world building. In order for it to make …
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Honorific Evolution
Over on hellogiggles.com, Kit Steinkellner asks, Is It Time We Stopped Using The Word “Miss?” The use of honorifics is something that has long been …
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Modern Emoticons in Legacy Punctuation
I like emoticons. That’s no secret. I think at least the basic ones add useful clarity to communication as well as a …
Read more...What Science Fiction Can Teach Us About Communicating With Other Cultures
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my book, Que Será Serees, in this discussion (and I didn’t want to do a self-promotion …
Read more...Rules? What Rules? (Patricia C. Wrede)
If somebody’s writing “rule” has the word “never” in it, or can be easily rephrased so as to have the word “never” …
Read more...Robots Successfully Invent Their Own Language (ExtremeTech)
Once they start talking, will we ever get them to shut up? I mean, people have tried altering my programming to stop …
Read more...Logical punctuation: Should we start placing commas outside quotation marks? (Slate)
Finally, people are starting to agree with me that the American convention doesn’t make sense. With the rise of self-publishing, maybe we …
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My Vulgarity Conundrum
I love words. I love all words. They tie us to a common anchor of communication. And yet, some words are despised. Not because of anything intrinsic–they are just sequences of letters/sounds, after all–but because of societal taboos. It’s been an interesting personal adventure.
Read more...Are We Losing Fewer?
I’m seeing it more and more: “less” being used in places where “fewer” should be. I can understand the occasional misuse, but I’m seeing it throughout the Internet and in some magazines and newspaper articles as well as advertisements. We may have transitioned from misuse of “less” being bad grammar into the realm of it being a change of word use.
Read more...Grammar Myths – Let Bygone Rules Be Gone
Is it no wonder that I love playing in the fields of the English language? Grammar Myths.
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Genderless Pronouns – Ey, Em, and Eir
English changes all the time. Our standard pronoun structure has served us well, but it does have weaknesses. It’s time that we fill the gap of not having a non-gendered pronoun. Whether in academic writing, or just because we want to be inclusively generic, ey/em/eir fit the bill easily.
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Things That Have Made Me Happy
Once you’ve lived long enough, and have a lot of memories in the ol’ grouch bag, it’s hard not to pause every now and then to consider that unique collection that adds up to your life. Like you, I have a variety of event-mementos good, bad, and hard to define. Mostly, though, I prefer to pull out those things that still make me smile.
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Fixing the Education System
As with the weather, many people complain about the state of education but don’t really offer up suggestions for changing it. Here’s one proposal to overhaul the current system.
Read more...Is Being Bilingual a Must in Today’s America?
Should Americans-specifically American children-become bilingual, and if so, then what language(s) additional to English should they learn? Does it add value to their lives in any practical way?
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Trying To Make English Easier
Every generation finds English being tested by the young (and smart-asses, let’s be fair). It keeps the language vibrant. Plus, English does have bits that could deal with some tweaking. Though I’m no longer young (but I am the other thing), I’d be remiss in not mentioning some tweaks of my own.
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Smilin’ and Grinnin’
I find one of the most confounding things in language right now is how people use the words “smile” and “grin”. It doesn’t happen often, but we seem to be at a stage where how people use words in practice is at odds with how they are defined.
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A Pox on Collective Nouns
I have a major peeve with soccer announcers…not football/fútbol announcers, but soccer announcers (you know, the American kind). Almost every soccer match I watch is infected with a grammatical irritant that I’ve tried to scratch, but the itch persists. What bug is annoying me this time? The inappropriate application of verb agreement with collective nouns.
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