Tag Archives: english

Linguistic Gymnastics

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God forbid they call this “fetus” what it really is – a child. If an 8-month fetus survives a C-section, it’s called a baby. If it survives being removed by psychos, it’s still a fetus. If a child dies after birth, it’s called a dead baby. If it dies after a murder and amateur surgery, would it be called a dead fetus? How can Conner Peterson be called a murdered unborn child, but Jane Doe Stinnett was a fetus until found alive? Either it’s a baby or it isn’t. Make up your freakin’ minds!

Dude, Check Out This Research!

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Since this research was performed in Pittsburgh and I frequently use the word “dude”
myself, I couldn’t resist posting this.

Linguist Deciphers Uses of Word ‘Dude’

PITTSBURGH – Dude, you’ve got to read this. A linguist from the University of Pittsburgh has published a scholarly paper deconstructing and deciphering the word “dude,” contending it is much more than a catchall for lazy, inarticulate surfers, skaters, slackers and teenagers.

The Sin of Nice

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Recently, the proprietor of this blogspace, Mr. Funky Dung, commented
about the "nice things" I say here from time to time. Though I am reasonably
certain that Mr. Dung intended it as a compliment, perhaps in the vein of "nice
arse kicking" or "nice proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem," part
of me was quite taken aback [I meant it in the sense of "nice reasoning"
or "well thought out response" or "good points". – Funky]
You see, "nice" has been registered as a complaint leveled against
Evangelicaldom in recent years. And as one of the token Evangelicals in these blogparts,
I must confess that I take the criticism to be all too often valid. I am therefore
probably more sensitive to occurrences of this word that most folks, not having
been accused of the sin of nice, use in a completely innocent, even complimentary,
way. Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up…

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Tongue Tied

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William Oddie, in a Spectator
article, tells the English-speaking world a little about the new mass translation
in the works.

“The effect of hundreds of such changes
– impossible to convey without more space – has had a massive cumulative effect
not merely on the accuracy of the translations, but on their beauty. They now have
a meditative quality that had been all but destroyed by the fanatical economy of
language – often leading to a sense of indecent haste – of the Seventies paraphrase.
The Latin text is allowed to breathe its full meaning into the new English version.
Ideological interferences have been dealt with: the Creed now begins ‘I believe’.”