Author Archives: achouston

Seman-tech Changes?

Posted on March 14, 2013

 We know that languages change over time. Some of these changes are shifts in word usage and word senses. The world of technology changes rapidly, and it’s no surprise that word senses might reflect that. Three English nouns have caught … Continue reading →

Posted in Internet, language and social media, language change, Meaning Change, Word Usage | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Vamp 24: Tricky Conversations

Posted on February 7, 2013

Posted in fiction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Vamp 23: Rendezvous

Posted on January 31, 2013

Dean has the taxi drop him at the turnoff to the private road. It’s dark now and a lone man walking will be less noticeable than a lit cab pulling up to the house. Despite his fatigue from days of … Continue reading →

Posted in fiction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Word Jumbles #11

Posted on July 2, 2012

DIPARS ERUSIFS ETARING ONORISE REDSET Solutions can be found on the Answers page.

Posted in Word Usage | 2 Comments

The Hidden Past of Words: English final -y

Posted on June 27, 2012

Consider the following list of everyday English words:  memory, happy, baby, crazy, victory, city, silly, puppy, army For starters, they all end in -y and they can be grouped further as nouns (memory, baby, victory, city, puppy, army) or adjectives … Continue reading →

Posted in etymology, history of language, language change, Meaning Change, Word Usage | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Trailers for Blind Tasting (audiobook edition) now on YouTube

Posted on June 27, 2012

Check out trailers for the audiobook version of Blind Tasting: Trailer 1:  Immerse yourself in the tale of three geeks and a dog as they explore what is definitely not your ordinary wine trail. Set in Silicon Valley, Napa and … Continue reading →

Posted in audiobook trailer, audiobooks, fiction | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Glass, Bamboo, Curry

Posted on April 4, 2012

I was intrigued by a recent question posted at Quora about whether there is a bamboo ceiling in American corporate culture, parallel to the idea of a glass ceiling, but with reference to the experience of Asians’ efforts to become promoted to … Continue reading →

Posted in Meaning Change, metonymy, social context of language, Word Usage | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Vamp 22: The Neighbor’s House

Posted on January 17, 2012

Dean has the cab drop him several blocks from the bar in Georgetown. Instinctively he pulls his baseball cap lower over his forehead to shield his eyes which are no longer hidden behind dark glasses. He thinks consciously about how … Continue reading →

Posted in fiction | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Plural Logic

Posted on January 11, 2012

Forming the plural of a noun in English is pretty easy — mostly you add final -s to the singular form (with occasional spelling modifications:  story -> stories).  Linguists refer to nouns that form their plurals with final -s as … Continue reading →

Posted in etymology, language change, Word Usage | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

More Linguistic Asymmetries

Posted on October 21, 2011

The English prefix un- comes directly from Old English (and shares a common Indo-European root with Latin in- and Greek a-) Prefixed to an adjective A, the resulting new word means ‘not A’ and can convey either positive or negative … Continue reading →

Posted in Word Formation, word meaning, Word Usage | Tagged , | 1 Comment