Category Archives: language variation

Teenage, Middle-age, New Age

Posted on September 6, 2011 by achouston

English can form adjectives from the past participles of verbs. Consider: break:broken  the vase was broken -> the broken vase fall:fallen   his popularity has fallen recently -> his fallen popularity bake:baked  the bread was baked in a brick oven -> … Continue reading →

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Word Lust

Posted on December 17, 2010 by achouston

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports on a database of language usage that is now available to researchers. It is derived from the digital library of the world’s books that Google has been assembling in recent years. Thus far, two billion … Continue reading →

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S Spotting

Posted on October 21, 2010 by achouston

Somewhere you’ve probably read or heard the colloquial version of expect, as when cowpokes say ‘I ‘spect it’s goin’ to rain’.  I’ve been hearing and reading (tweets on Twitter) other examples of this phonological reduction: I ate so much chocolate … Continue reading →

Posted in language change, language variation, pronunciation | Tagged , , | 3 Comments