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Learn English Through Football Podcast: Piano Carrier
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Football Language Expression: Wipe the floor
In this football language post we explain the expression 'to wipe the floor with' which is used to describe when one team thrashes another...
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Learn English Through Football Podcast: Premier League Opening Weekend and 2023 Women’s World Cup
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Learn English Through Football Language Podcast: 2023 Women’s World Cup Preview
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Learn English Through Football Language Podcast: Nosebleed
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Football Language Expression: Victory Parade
In this football language post we explain the expression 'victory parade' which is used to describe how a team celebrates after winning a trophy.
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Learning English Through Football Language Podcast: (Listening) Being a Fan – Manchester City [ARCHIVE]
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Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
shot
an attempt, a try, a turn
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Idiom of the Day
laugh in (one's) sleeve
To rejoice or be amused secretly and/or contemptuously, as at another's mistakes or misfortunes. Watch the video
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Language Log
The past, present, and future of Sinography
Sino-Platonic Papers is pleased to announce the publication of its three-hundred-and-fifty-second issue: "Dramatic Transformations of Sinography in East Asia and the World" (pdf) (August, 2024).
Foreword
The three papers in this collection were written for my “Language, Script, and Society in China” course during the fall semester of 2023. All three of them are concerned with radical changes made to Sinographic script during its adjustment to modernity.
Aleena Parenti shows how, during medieval times, Vietnamese acquired a written form known as chữ Nôm (lit., “writing of the south”) under the impact of the Chinese script, which in turn yielded to romanization brought by the French colonialists during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. That resulted in the current Vietnamese alphabet known as chữ Quốc ngữ (“writing of the National Language”).
Zhaofei Chen’s paper reveals the tremendous impact of the vernacularizing influence of Western missionaries during the late imperial period of Chinese history (from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries). Through translation, romanization, and their own writings, the missionaries contributed massively to the eventual demise of Literary Sinitic / Classical Chinese as the official written language, at the hands of Modern Standard Mandarin.
Yifei Yang explores how the Japanese development of emoji 絵文字 (lit., “picture writing”) has escaped the confines of any particular language and, as pictograms, logograms, ideograms, and smileys, can be adopted into the writing of any language. Emojis are widespread on social media, are especially favored by young people, and are by no means limited to East Asia. !
Taken all together, these three papers presage tumultuous developments in the further evolution of Sinography during the rest of this century and beyond.
—–
All issues of Sino-Platonic Papers are available in full for no charge.
To view our catalog, visit http://www.sino-platonic.org/
Selected readings
* "Parenthetical, alphabetical, ironical commentary in Sinographic texts" (12/29/21) — with a long bibliography (digraphia, romanization…)
* "Sinographic inputting: 'it's nothing' — not" (2/22/21)
* "Words in Vietnamese" (10/2/18)
* "Vietnamese in Chinese and Nom characters" (5/28/13)
* "Update on Nom" (7/16/13)
* "The Miracle of Western Writing" (12/31/23)
* "The invention of an alphabet for the transcription of Chinese characters half a millennium ago" (11/21/22) — based on Takata Tokio's detailed codicological study of Matteo Ricci's Jesuit colleague, Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628), whose Xīrú ěrmù zī 西儒耳目資 (An Aid to the Eyes and Ears of Western Literati)
* "Candida Xu: a highly literate Chinese woman of the 17th century" (7/7/20)
* Victor H. Mair, "Sound and Meaning in the History of Characters: Views of China's Earliest Script Reformers", pinyin.info. From Difficult Characters: Interdisciplinary Studies of Chinese and Japanese Writing, edited by Mary S. Erbaugh, copyright © 2002 by the National East Asian Languages Resource Center of the Ohio State University. Used by permission of the National East Asian Languages Resource Center.
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reyer, Woloshun, and Pulju. But English orthography is irrational in so many ways that one more divergence between pronunciation and spelling is not worth fussing about.
For another interesting linguistic aspect of English possessives, see
"A correlate of animacy", 9/27/2008
"The genitive of lifeless things", 10/11/2009
"Mechanisms for gradual language change", 2/9/2014
Update — Bob Moore laid out a somewhat different take on Facebook:
For English grammar nerds only: What is the possessive of Harris, Harris's or Harris'? I am shocked to learn that the AP style guide says that if a singular noun ends in s, the possessive is always formed simply by adding ' (apostrophe). In the dark ages, when I was taught "proper" grammar, the rule I learned was the possessive of any singular noun is formed by adding 's, however the noun ends. In recent years, however, I have noticed that in informal language, the possessive of some singular nouns ending in s can be pronounced just like the base noun, which would be written by just adding '.
But I don't think this works for all nouns ending in s, as the AP would have it. To get super nerdy, I believe that the possessive of a singular noun ending in s can only be pronounced the same as the base noun if removing the final s leaves a phonologically possible word. It may come as a surprise to some, but not all sound sequences possible in a language can be single words in the language. To take a simple example, batman is a word in English, but tman not only isn't a word, it couldn't be an English word, because it's impossible for native English speakers to pronounce. English has other sorts of restrictions on possible words that are not exactly impossible to pronounce, but just don't seem natural. As far as I can tell one of these restrictions is that an English word can't end in a short i. So if you try to take the s off the end of Harris, you are left with Harri ending in a short i, which is not a phonologically possible word in English.
So how does this affect how the possessives of singular nouns can be formed? Consider the name of a guy I used to work with, Dave Wilkins. If I wanted to say I was going to his house, I could say either, I'm going to Dave Wilkins's house, or, I am going to Dave Wilkins' house. Either one sounds fine to me. But this works because Wilkin would be a phonologically possible word of English. I never heard of anyone with that name, but if I did, it would sound perfectly natural. So it's almost like I am pretending my former colleague's name is Wilkin, and forming the possessive like most singular nouns do, by adding 's to get Wilkin's, which would be pronounced exactly like Wilkins'.
This doesn't work in the case of Harris, because Harri ending in short i is not a possible name in English, so Harris' with a short i is not a possible possessive in English.
I agree with Bob that both pronunciations are possible with a name like "Wilkins" — though this doesn't generalize for me to all other proper names ending in /s, z, ʃ, z, tʃ, dʒ/ after something that could stand alone as a possible word, like "Case" or "Texas", and even those whose pronunciation could be analyzed to have an /s/ affix, like "Wicks" or "Schwartz".
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Word of the Day
Word of the Day: boycott
This word has appeared in 308 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
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Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
come back
to return to a place
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Language Log
It's Japanese soup
A Facebook post sent to me by shaing tai:
shì rì lì tāng
是日例汤
"soup of the day"
The mistake here derives from the fact that, in Classical Chinese, "shì rì 是日" means "this day", whereas in vernacular it means "is Ja[pan]".
All of the other entries have some weird or exotic aspects. I will not give complete LL style treatment for the other entries, but only point out a few particularly interesting features.
In the first entry, while jīgǔcǎo 鸡骨草 literally (character by character) means "chicken bone grass", a more idiomatic rendering would be "Canton love-pee vine", "prayer-beads", etc. a medicinal plant with the scientific name Abrus pulchellus subsp. cantoniensis.
Zhū hénglì 猪横脷 does mean "pig's tongue".
The last two characters of the second entry signify "house soup".
Lou5 fo2 tong1 老火湯 is slow boiled / simmered soup (lit., "old fire soup")
Lou fo tong (Chinese: 老火湯) is a distinctive variety of soup in Cantonese cuisine popular among Chinese people in Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macau, and overseas. These soups are usually made by simmering various vegetables, fruits, meat or Chinese herbs in a pressure cooker, vacuum cooker, claypot, wok or clay jar for a few hours, and are believed to have skincare, heart-protective, vision-enhancing, bile-reducing, and bone-strengthening benefits. Owing to the hot and humid climate in the Lingnan region, the locals have developed a penchant for drinking lou fo tong for its nourishing and health-boosting effects.
(Wiktionary)
Then comes "It's Japanese soup".
The last item is correctly translated, though Cordyceps militaris would be more easily understood by its common name, caterpillar fungus.
Selected readings
* "Too hard to translate soup" (9/2/18) — pimple soup
* "Braised enterovirus, anyone?" (7/16/08)
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Learn English Through Football Podcast: 2023 September International Break
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Newspaper Headline: Heartbreak
In this football language post we look at the newspaper headline, 'Heartbreak' from the Guardian newspaper which is all about the 2023 Women's
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Learn English Through Football
Newspaper Headline: The New Number Nein
In this football language post we look at a newspaper headline, 'The New Number Nein' from the Star on Sunday newspaper about Harry Kane's transfer from Tottenham to Bayern Munich.
The post Newspaper Headline: The New Number Nein appeared first on Learn English Through Football.
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Learn English Through Football Language Podcast: 2023 Women’s World Cup In Numbers
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Learn English Through Football Language Podcast: (to) Pen In
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Learn English Through Football Language Podcast: The Treble – A Fan’s View
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Learn English Through Football Language Podcast: 2023 Winners
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Learn English Through Football Podcast: 2024-25 Premier League Season Preview
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Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
come up (3)
to appear, occur, or become available
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Word of the Day
repose
Definition: (noun) The act of resting or the state of being at rest.
Synonyms: ease, relaxation, rest.
Usage: The vacationer took his repose beside the swimming pool.
Discuss
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Language Log
The simian technology of voice impersonation
Many Language Log readers are probably aware of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, who is one of the leading characters in the famous Ming Dynasty novel, Journey to the West. I wrote about him in "'Baton' and 'needle' in space" (6/17/21):
In the 16th-century novel, Journey to the West, the simian hero, Sun Wukong ("Monkey Enlightened to Emptiness") possesses a magical staff, the jīngū bàng 金箍棒 ("golden cudgel / rod / baton") that has transformational properties. One of its forms is that of the dìnghǎi shénzhēn 定海神针 ("numinous needle that stabilizes the sea"), which was actually the original source of the jīngū bàng 金箍棒 ("golden cudgel / rod / baton"). Thus we can see that both of the objects that Martin asked about are attributes of the supernatural simian, Sun Wukong, of Journey to the West. (Of course, the meaning of "baton" for relay racing is also operative.)
In the context of this post, It is pertinent to note that Sun Wukong is capable of flying 108,000 li / tricents (54,000 km, 34,000 mi) in one somersault. For this and all manner of esoteric lore about the magical monkey and the novel in which he appears, see the remarkable website of Jim McClanahan, Journey to the West Research.
This continues the tradition of using terms from Chinese legend and myth for names of objects, equipment, places, etc. in space related research and technology.
Jim McClanahan has issued another installment in his unending stream of deep researches on Sun Wukong (aka "Monkey") and the novel in which he is featured, Journey to the West (Xīyóu jì 西遊記). This one is titled "Archive #46 – A Catalog of the Monkey King’s Magic Powers and Skills" (8/11/24)
Number 22 of Monkey's "Definite powers" is that of Voice impersonation
This power allows him to exactly copy the voice of any figure that he transforms into. He displays this throughout the novel.
Note that Monkey possesses "72 transformations" (qīshíèr biànhuà 七十二變化), so this multiplies his abilities greatly, one could say almost infinitely.
I was prompted to write this post because I thought it was nothing short of amazing that a 16th-century novelist would include voice impersonation among the countless extraordinary skills and powers of the magical monkey Sun Wukong. In light of the growing powers of AI in today's world, I was also prompted to ponder how Sun Wukong's 16th c. voice impersonation powers would stack up against those of contemporary LLMs. Selected readings
* "Persian peaches of immortality" (1/22/21)
* Diana Shuheng Zhang, "The Reins of Language: The Mantra of the Heart Sutra in The Journey to the West," Sino-Platonic Papers, 286 (June, 2019), 1-61 (free pdf)
* Jan Nattier, "The Heart Sūtra: a Chinese apocryphal text?" Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 15.2 (1992), 153-223. (online)
* Victor H. Mair, "The Heart Sūtra and The Journey to the West", in Wang Gungwu, Rafe de Crespigny, and Igor de Rachewiltz, eds., Sino-Asiatica: Papers dedicated to Professor Liu Ts’un-yan on the occasion of his Eighty-fifth Birthday. Canberra: Faculty of Asian Studies, The Australian National University, 2002), pp. 120-149. Detailed study and complete translation of the preface to the Heart Sūtra on Dunhuang manuscript S2464 which shows, inter alia, that it constituted a prototype for Journey to the West, the earliest kernel of the great Ming Dynasty novel. Also featured in this paper are Liang Wudi, Xuanzang, Avalokiteśvara, and Amoghavajra. In addition, the paper accounts for the narrative elaboration and fictionalization of Xuanzang's pilgrimage to India and demonstrates clearly how the Heart Sūtra ultimately lies at the core of the novel.
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Language Log
Harris'(s)
Holly Ramer, "There’s an apostrophe battle brewing among grammar nerds. Is it Harris’ or Harris’s?", AP News 8/13/2024:
Whatever possessed Vice President Kamala Harris to pick Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, it probably wasn’t a desire to inflame arguments about apostrophes. But it doesn’t take much to get grammar nerds fired up.
“The lower the stakes, the bigger the fight,” said Ron Woloshun, a creative director and digital marketer in California who jumped into the fray on social media less than an hour after Harris selected Walz last week to offer his take on possessive proper nouns.
The Associated Press Stylebook says “use only an apostrophe” for singular proper names ending in S: Dickens’ novels, Hercules’ labors, Jesus’ life. But not everyone agrees.
Debate about possessive proper names ending in S started soon after President Joe Biden cleared the way for Harris to run last month. Is it Harris’ or Harris’s? But the selection of Walz with his sounds-like-an-s surname really ramped it up, said Benjamin Dreyer, the retired copy chief at Random House and author of “Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style”.
My initial reaction is the traditional linguists' complaint — this is just a fuss about spelling conventions, and has nothing to do with "grammar". But there's at least an overlap with morphophonology, which emerges as the AP article proceeds:
Dreyer was inundated with questions within minutes of the announcement, which came while he was at the dentist.
“I was like, ‘All right, everybody just has to chill. I’ll be home in a little while and I can get to my desk,’” he said.
While there is widespread agreement that Walz’s is correct, confusion persists about Harris’ vs. Harris’s. Dreyer’s verdict? Add the ’s.
“To set the ’s is just simpler, and then you can take your valuable brain cells and apply them to more important things,” he said.
Woloshun chimed in with a similar opinion on the social platform X, where apostrophes are being thrown around like hand grenades. “The rule is simple: If you say the S, spell the S,” he argued.
That puts them on the same side as The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal — and at odds with AP.
What does Woloshun mean by "say the S"?
If you're talking (not writing) about "Harris'(s) first name", you'd pronounce it with three syllables, not two, no matter how you spell it: /ˈheɹəsɪz/ in IPAish. At least I would.
This is a general fact about English morphophonology — both plural /s/ and possessive /s/ are (generally) pronounced as /ɪz/ after words ending in /s, z, ʃ, z, tʃ, dʒ/.
Except not always. The possessive of a (regular) plural is pronounced the same as the plural — if we're talking about a nest belonging to some ants, it's the /ˈænts/ nest, not the /ˈæntsɪz/ nest. That's an interesting fact worth exploring, but it's not relevant to the possessive form of names ending in /s, z, ʃ, z, tʃ, dʒ/.
However, there's an additional historical complication, which again emerges later in the AP article:
Timothy Pulju, a senior lecturer in linguistics at Dartmouth College, said that until the 17th or 18th century, the possessive of proper names ending in S — such as Jesus or Moses — often was simply the name itself with no apostrophe or additional S. Eventually, the apostrophe was added (Jesus’ or Moses’) to denote possession, though the pronunciation remained the same.
“That became kind of the standard that I was taught and adhere to, even though in retrospect, I don’t think it’s a great standard,” he said.
That’s because linguists view writing as a representation of speech, and speech has changed since then. Pulju said he expects the ’s form to become dominant eventually. But for now, he — along with the Merriam-Webster dictionary — says either way is acceptable.
FWIW, I agree with D[...]
Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
XYZ
"code" said to alert someone that their zipper, or fly, is open
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Idiom of the Day
late model
Especially regarding an automobile, of a relatively recent design or model. Watch the video
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Word of the Day
fervent
Definition: (adjective) Having or showing great emotion or zeal.
Synonyms: ardent, fervid, fiery, impassioned, perfervid, torrid.
Usage: She was a fervent opponent of the death penalty and organized a monthlong hunger strike to protest the practice.
Discuss
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