National Public Radio recently spoke with Dr. James Pennebaker, who does research in the way “function” words work in our language . . . and our love life! Specifically, what Pennebaker found was that when the language style of two…
Tag: culture
A Proposal for a New Punctuation Mark
For several years now, scholars have argued about the role of email, texting, etc. have played on our literacy and written communication. This si the first time I have seen someone propose that our digital communication has prompted the need…
The Secret Life of Pronouns–Blog Prompt #7
At some point over the weekend, I stumbled across a discussion of James W. Pennebacker, the author of The Secret Life of Pronouns. I didn’t get the whole interview, but Pennebaker’s theory seems to be that how we use language…
This might could be a nice database.
Some folks over at that short-named campus in Columbia—the University of South Carolina, or something like that—have compiled what is probably the definitive online database of research and study on the multiple modal. I suspect that some of you native…
The Grammar Police on ‘You Are What You Speak’
Listening to NPR on my way to campus this morning, I stumbled across a discussion between a self-proclaimed “Grammar Cop” and the author of a book asserting that “errors” in usage are often culturally-bound and/or indicate the evolution of the…