Tag Archives: language

Book Review: The Glamour Of Grammar

Posted on March 2, 2024 by nathanalbright

The Glamour Of Grammar: A Guide To The Magic And Mystery Of Practical English, by Roy Peter Clark It would have been so easy for this book to be a great one. The author considers himself to be America’s writing … Continue reading →

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Book Review: British Language And Culture

Posted on February 26, 2024 by nathanalbright

British Language And Culture, by the Lonely Planet This guide is an immensely humorous and often irreverent guide to British language and culture, and so it certainly lives up to its name. Perhaps the biggest issue with the book is … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Lingo

Posted on January 11, 2024 by nathanalbright

Lingo: Around Europe In Sixty Languages, by Gaston Dorren I probably would have enjoyed this book a lot more had it not been for the very beginning and very end of the book. In the first paragraph of the book proper, the … Continue reading →

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Book Review: That’s Not English

Posted on December 31, 2023 by nathanalbright

That’s Not English: Britishisms, Americanisms, And What Our English Says About Us, by Erin Moore This is not a book by a professional linguist, but rather a sort of a memoir of how it is that an American woman and a … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Speaking American

Posted on December 30, 2023 by nathanalbright

Speaking American: A History Of English In The United States, by Richard W. Bailey It has often been considered a disadvantage that the United States has had no unified language institute in the manner of many European languages to seek to … Continue reading →

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Book Review: The Power Of Babel

Posted on December 25, 2023 by nathanalbright

The Power Of Babel: A Natural History Of Languages, by John McWhorter The author of this book writes from the point of view of someone who has spent his career largely tracking a specific set of conditions involved in the development … Continue reading →

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Book Review: What Works

Posted on December 19, 2023 by nathanalbright

What Works: Helping Students Reach Native-Like Second-Language Competence, by Coalition Of Distinguished Language Centers While at times the hiding of one’s name behind an unusual nickname is a sign of a lack of confidence in one’s work, that is not the … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Thank You For Arguing

Posted on November 29, 2023 by nathanalbright

Thank You For Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, And Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About The Art of Persuasion, by Jay Heinrichs A book like this needs to come with a bit of a warning. I enjoyed this book as a … Continue reading →

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Googooli: A Case Study In The Untranslatable

Posted on November 7, 2023 by nathanalbright

While English has a great many words in it–by some counts a million or more–one of most notable aspects of English has been its willingness to adopt new words that describe something in a way that English does not already … Continue reading →

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Deletions And The Barbra Streisand Rule

Posted on October 19, 2023 by nathanalbright

Once upon a time, the famous singer Barbra Streisand wanted to hide her home from view. Like many celebrities, she had at best an ambivalent to hostile relationship to the sort of prying behavior of cameramen and wanted to keep … Continue reading →

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