ATAR Notes: Forum

VCE Stuff => VCE English Studies => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English Language => Topic started by: Joseph41 on February 06, 2017, 03:00:54 pm

Title: General language awesomeness
Post by: Joseph41 on February 06, 2017, 03:00:54 pm: A thread to share interesting facts about language in general and the English language more specifically.

I'll start us off: a pangram is a sentence containing each of the 26 letters of the alphabet. The best known pangram is probably "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"...

(http://www.gifbin.com/bin/062010/1275389891_the-quick-brown-fox-jumps-over-the-lazy-dog.gif)

but you can find a bunch of other nifty examples here.

Over to you! :D
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: Joseph41 on March 11, 2017, 11:44:22 am: "The only languages that don't evolve in this way are dead; we should be grateful for these changes."
- Kate Burridge
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: Joseph41 on March 18, 2017, 11:37:08 am: Oxford comma helps drivers win dispute about overtime pay
An overtime case that will delight language nerds everywhere hinges on the absence of an Oxford comma

One of my favourite stories ever.
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: Joseph41 on May 04, 2017, 07:42:02 am: English has 11 "base" colour terms: black, white, grey, brown, red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple and pink.

Some languages have many more than this; others many fewer. I find it absolutely fascinating that, ultimately, the ways in which we perceive the world are fundamentally constricted by our available language(s).

For example, Italian (please correct me if I'm wrong, here) has a clear distinction between blu and azzurro, both of which we'd consider "blue". Other languages have no distinction between what we'd consider blue and green at all.

Fascinating!

P.S. In general, languages also tend to acquire colours (or types of colours) in a consistent order. You can read more about it here. :)
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: Joseph41 on August 15, 2017, 06:43:18 pm: What is the strangest change in a word's meaning?

To summarise this article:
* A pedant used to be a schoolmaster
* Nervous used to mean strong and vigorous
* Promiscuous used to mean confused
* A punk used to be a prostitute

Nice
* Foolish > wanton > cowardly > shy > respectable > pleasant

Bully
* Good fellow > show off > tyrant of the weak
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: EulerFan102 on August 15, 2017, 07:00:14 pm: Stumbled upon this great pic during the week
Some quality linguistic work ;D ;D ;D

(https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*FDCoq9NfGXs0KXZdkH5XNw.png)

(source, including some other great charts: here)
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: Joseph41 on September 01, 2017, 10:52:10 pm: undoable

Such a weird word. Two very different meanings.
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: Sconey on September 01, 2017, 10:59:05 pm: What a wild thread, can barely keep up.
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: Joseph41 on September 04, 2017, 05:24:39 pm: Quote from: Sconey on September 01, 2017, 10:59:05 pm
What a wild thread, can barely keep up.

I'm choosing to not take this sarcastically, so, thank you very much! :D

Feel free to join in with your own language awesomeness. ;)
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: Sconey on September 04, 2017, 05:57:42 pm: Quote from: Joseph41 on September 04, 2017, 05:24:39 pm
I'm choosing to not take this sarcastically, so, thank you very much! :D

Feel free to join in with your own language awesomeness. ;)
Your positivity never fails to put a smile on my face :)
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: Joseph41 on March 08, 2018, 11:46:26 am: http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-david-astle-2017/8999134

This is a really interesting podcast with David Astle. I recommend listening to it.
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: EulerFan102 on April 16, 2018, 03:35:48 pm: I recently stumbled on fumblerules, language rules that break their own rule. Some favourites:
"Never use no double negatives."
"The passive voice should never be employed."
"Prepositions are not words to end a sentence with."
"Avoid clichés like the plague."

Also liked this language-slash-art pic circulating this morning:
(https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/gzajA9j5yvatvSgWamdNVy/0919a635-c877-48e8-9ea1-eb2c06f35ebc.jpg/r0_0_716_544_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: Joseph41 on April 20, 2018, 03:30:10 pm: https://twitter.com/NYT_first_said

This bot Twitter account automatically tweets (Tweets?) words when first used by The New York Times. I love it, and am finding it super interesting.
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: Joseph41 on May 27, 2019, 04:09:37 pm: (https://i.imgur.com/ApXhhCh.png)

#English
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: anna.comet on June 18, 2019, 05:25:00 pm: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jun/17/language-wars-18-greatest-linguistic-spats

A fun and interesting lil article posted in The Guardian just this morning! 'The 19 Greatest Linguistic Spats of all Time' ;D
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: homeworkisapotato on June 22, 2019, 04:37:03 pm: "Ough" in words is pronounced in NINE different ways, and this sentence contains them all:
"A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: caffinatedloz on June 22, 2019, 08:12:40 pm: Words have a "lifespan", so to speak, of anywhere between 1000 and 20,000 years.
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: Joseph41 on June 24, 2019, 04:55:21 pm: Quote from: homeworkisapotato on June 22, 2019, 04:37:03 pm
"Ough" in words is pronounced in NINE different ways, and this sentence contains them all:
"A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

This (amongst other things) is why learning English as an additional language must be so very difficult.
Title: Re: General language awesomeness
Post by: Remy33 on June 24, 2019, 05:37:09 pm: Quote from: Joseph41 on June 24, 2019, 04:55:21 pm
This (amongst other things) is why learning English as an additional language must be so very difficult.

I agree lmao. When I first started learning english my teacher told me this to fuck me up:
"laid rhymes with paid but not said, said rhymes with bread but not bead, bead rhymes with lead but not lead."