Category Archives: Language

Words of the World: A Global History of the Oxford English Dictionary

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Ed Battistella

Sarah Ogilvie’s Words of the World: A Global History of the Oxford English Dictionary begins by describing her entry into the quiet world of the OED. She had come from of Australian branch of Oxford dictionaries, was a rare linguist … Continue reading →

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The Story of Ain’t

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Ed Battistella

David Skinner’s The Story of Ain’t ain’t just about ain’t. It’s the tale of the making of Webster’s Third International Dictionary, the wonderfully controversial flashpoint in the cultural wars between realists and snoots. I wondered what Skinner would add to … Continue reading →

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Arithmetic Depends on Grammar

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Ed Battistella

If you get all of the presents in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” how many presents do you get? 364 (because of the AND) Here’s the formula: ((1 x 12)+ (2 x 11)+(3 x 10)+(4 x 9)+(5 x … Continue reading →

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Deep (structure) thoughts

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Ed Battistella

It’s Noam Chomsky’s birthday, and through a combination of serendipity and procrastination I’ve just finished a mini-review of Chomsky’s Linguistics (ed. by Peter Graff and Coppe van Urk and published by the MIT Working Papers in Linguistics. It’s a 700 … Continue reading →

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