The American Heritage Dictionary supplies this usage note for those who wish to distinguish "sex" and "gender." Some people maintain that the word sex should be reserved for reference to the biological aspects of being male or female or to sexual activity, and that...
Linguistics
Usage Determines Meaning for the Middle-Aged
Usage Determines Meaning, and I'm going to illustrate it by putting myself down a little bit. A close friend of mine heard me refer to someone else as "middle-aged" in such a way as to distinguish myself from that age group. I, I implied, was "young," not...
Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation
Ammon Shea’s Bad English: A History of Linguistic Aggravation is a collection of tiny essays on dozens and dozens of supposed grammar and usage errors in English. In every case, Shea finds a writer who decries the usage (like "hopefully" to mean "I hope that") then...
Steven Pinker on Good Writing and “Bad”
I've quoted Steven Pinker numerous times on this blog, but I've never heard him talk. He's brilliant, and I found this to be a fascinating and clear-headed discussion on writing: A few things Pinker added to my understanding on an issue—English usage—I've already...
Bible Translation Tribalism
It’s been a while since I’ve been so excited about a post by Scot McKnight (um, I think this is actually a first), but he really nailed it in this post on Bible translations and tribalism. Here's an excerpt: The politics of Bible translation is a sad case of...
Slang
Good stuff on slang and etymology. I've enjoyed this woman's video posts at the Merriam Webster site. She gets it (as I certainly hope our lexicographers would).
The Meaning of Italics
All the marks on a printed page—and a lot of the spaces—carry meaning. Even variations in the shape of some of the marks carry meaning. And the meaning of those marks and those variations has evolved over time, just like spoken language. Just read this little history...
Sneak, Snank, Snuck
I was recently informed by a well-meaning copy editor that my use of snuck was "incorrect" despite "being increasingly common." Sneaked, she said, is the correct term. My usage-determines-meaning alert fired immediately, of course. If something is "increasingly...
Black English Vernacular, Linguistics, and Bible Interpretation
This is an advanced-level linguistics post for those who have actually been reading my others on the topic over the years. It may scare neophytes away, but I urge you to contact me before dismissing my argument. I apologize for the cusswords in this post, but I'll...
Teaching Japanese Christianly
A friend wrote me in my capacity as a member of the Bible Integration Team at BJU Press: Honestly, I struggle ... as I teach Japanese. I do talk about how learning languages and other cultures is important from Christian perspective etc. at the beginning of the school...
Hypocrisy: Word and Concept
These are helpful clarifications on the concept of hypocrisy. Here's the meat, from Peter Kreeft: The common, modern misunderstanding of hypocrisy [is] not practicing what you preach. . . . Actually, we have misdefined “hypocrisy.” Hypocrisy is not the failure to...
Fascinating Linguistic Tidbit for Francophiles and Anglophiles
According to Wikipedia (citing this book), J. R. R. Tolkien used the name "Bag End" as a calque of "cul-de-sac," to poke fun at the British use of French terms.