Category Archives: Language

An Interview with Ellen Jovin, author of Rebel with a Clause

Posted on July 5, 2022 by Ed Battistella

Ellen Jovin has a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.A. from UCLA and has studied twenty-five languages for fun. Jovin is a cofounder of Syntaxis, a communication consultancy, and the author of four books on English and writing, She … Continue reading →

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An Interview with Diana Coogle

Posted on March 22, 2022 by Ed Battistella

Diana Coogle grew up in Georgia and attended Vanderbilt University (graduating Phi Beta Kappa and fifth in her class) later earning an MA in English at Cambridge University and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Oregon. A former … Continue reading →

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An Interview with Arika Okrent, author of Highly Irregular

Posted on October 4, 2021 by Ed Battistella

Arika Okrent has an undergraduate degree from Carleton College, an M.A. in Linguistics from Gallaudet University, and a Ph.D. in Psycholinguistics from University of Chicago. A winner of the Linguistic Society of America’s Linguistic Journalism Award in 2016 and a … Continue reading →

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An Interview with Margaret Perrow, author of A Hidden History of Youth Development in South Africa

Posted on August 2, 2021 by Ed Battistella

Dr. Margaret Perrow is Professor of English and English Education at Southern Oregon University, where she has taught since 2006. She has a BA from Yale University and an MA and PhD in Language, Literacy, and Culture in Education from … Continue reading →

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Pacific Voices, 2014 -2019

Posted on January 1, 2021 by Ed Battistella

Pacific Voices, 2014 -2019 Edwin Battistella, Kristin Denham, Anne Lobeck Progress report [12/2020] Contents 1. Introduction 2 1.1 Challenges 2 1.2. Goals 3 1.3. Oregon and Washington 3 2. Pronunciation 5 2.1 The cot-caught Merger 5 2.2 Front vowels 7 2.3 Aaron … Continue reading →

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A Linguist’s Guide to Internet Fluency–A guest post by Levi Coren

Posted on March 20, 2020 by Ed Battistella

I don’t enjoy most social media, but I will admit to spending time on Tumblr, a social media platform with a penchant for encouraging tight-knit communities based around books, television shows, hobbies, and other special interests. My time on Tumblr … Continue reading →

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Sentence Diagramming, a guest post by Maggie Alvarez

Posted on August 7, 2019 by Ed Battistella

Maggie Alvarez recently completed her second-year studying English and Spanish at Southern Oregon University. Originally from Sacramento, California, she found a love for writing through a series of creative writing and stage performance classes at her high school. Those classes … Continue reading →

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A Historical and Cultural Examination of Central Yup’ik, a guest post by Gwendolyn Bogard

Posted on July 30, 2019 by Ed Battistella

Gwendolyn Bogard is member of the Honors College at SOU, where she studies Chemistry in preparation for a career in science communication. The village of Atmautluak sits in the middle of the Alaskan tundra about four hundred miles West of … Continue reading →

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The Syntax and History of the Appalachian English Dialect, a guest post by Cole Barnes

Posted on June 22, 2019 by Ed Battistella

Cole Barnes is 2019 graduate of Southern Oregon University, with an English major, as well as minors in Psychology and Rhetoric and Reason. He has been fortunate to call many places throughout Oregon home, including Ashland for at least a … Continue reading →

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An Interview with Abbigail N. Rosewood, author of If I Had Two Lives

Posted on May 6, 2019 by Ed Battistella

Abbigail N. Rosewood was born in Vietnam, where she lived until the age of twelve. In 2012, she was the recipient of the Michael Baughman Fiction Award and the Outstanding Graduating Student in Creative Writing Award from Southern Oregon University. … Continue reading →

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