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#ielts #toefl #gre #english_vocabulary #english
Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
write down
to write something on a piece of paper
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Language Log
Mathematical synchronicity in the comics
(…with a bit of philosophy and psychiatry in the mix…)
Dinosaur Comics for 6/17/2024:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/DinosaurNinePointCircle.png
The same day's xkcd — "Pascal's Wager Triangle":
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/pascals_wager_triangle_2x.png
The Dinosaur Comics mouseover title: "triangles can be several KINDS of circles; for the sake of the public peace i daren't say more".
Wikipedia on the nine-point circle:
The nine-point circle is also known as Feuerbach's circle (after Karl Wilhelm Feuerbach), Euler's circle (after Leonhard Euler), Terquem's circle (after Olry Terquem), the six-points circle, the twelve-points circle, the n-point circle, the medioscribed circle, the mid circle or the circum-midcircle. Its center is the nine-point center of the triangle.
The xkcd mouseover title: "In contrast to Pascal's Wager Triangle, Pascal's Triangle Wager argues that maybe God wants you to draw a triangle of numbers where each one is the sum of the two numbers above it, so you probably should, just in case."
Wikipedia on Pascal's Triangle:
In mathematics, Pascal's triangle is an infinite triangular array of the binomial coefficients which play a crucial role in probability theory, combinatorics, and algebra. In much of the Western world, it is named after the French mathematician Blaise Pascal, although other mathematicians studied it centuries before him in Persia, India, China, Germany, and Italy.
Wikipedia on Pascal's Wager:
Pascal's wager is a philosophical argument advanced by Blaise Pascal (1623–1662), seventeenth-century French mathematician, philosopher, physicist, and theologian.This argument posits that individuals essentially engage in a life-defining gamble regarding the belief in the existence of God.
Wikipedia on Synchronicity:
Synchronicity (German: Synchronizität) is a concept introduced by analytical psychologist Carl Jung "to describe circumstances that appear meaningfully related yet lack a causal connection". Synchronicity experiences refer to one's subjective experience whereby coincidences between events in one's mind and the outside world may be causally unrelated, yet have another unknown connection. Jung held this was a healthy function of the mind, that can become harmful within psychosis.
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Learn English Through Football
Euro 2024 Football Phrase Day 6: Sweep Home
Day six's Euro 2024 phrase is 'sweep home' which was used to describe a last gasp goal scored in the Croatia v Albania match.
The post Euro 2024 Football Phrase Day 6: Sweep Home appeared first on Learn English Through Football.
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Language Log
Mandarin translation issues impeding the courts in New York
"Mandarin Leaves a Manhattan Courtroom Lost in Translation: Trial of Guo Wengui shows how linguistic issues can trip up China-related cases", by James T. Areddy, WSJ (6/18/24)
———
The New York trial of a Chinese businessman is Exhibit A for how language issues are gumming up federal prosecutions of Mandarin-speaking defendants.
Nearly everyone in the lower Manhattan courtroom appears frustrated by a halting process that requires translation of Chinese-language videos, documents and witness testimony.
It is one in a series of high-profile China-linked cases that are similarly getting lost in translation. Chinese-language evidence is piling up, unintelligible to attorneys. Translations are slow, and sometimes wrong. There is a limited pool of top-tier Mandarin court interpreters, and they can disagree on English translations. And for both sides in a trial, the work of interpreters provides ammunition for legal wrangling, from gamesmanship to courtroom objections and possible appeals.
It's hard enough to bring clarity to legal issues in monolingual cases. But things get really tough when there are controversies over the meaning of testimony in a foreign language that is being adduced as evidence in the legal process.
Introducing any foreign language to a legal case can add confusion to an already complex process. The challenges mount when it is a language like Mandarin that is unintelligible to 99% of people in the U.S.
A study in translation stress is playing out in the Manhattan federal trial of the Chinese businessman, Guo Wengui, whom the government accuses of perpetrating a $1 billion fraud tied to fundraising for his anti-Beijing political activities.
I wonder whether innately there is any greater difficulty in dealing with Mandarin language issues in American courtrooms than, say, for Hindi or German. It seems to me that a lot of the problems pertaining to Mandarin language proceedings in American courtrooms have to do with cultural and procedural matters as much as with linguistic aspects.
June Teufel Dreyer comments:
Judging from the expert witness work I did for immigration cases here in Miami, it’s not just the spoken language that’ll be a problem. Would-be immigrants had officially chopped documents that were pretty clearly bought and paid for, possibly some were forged as well. And Guo is both wily enough and rich enough to hire the best
Another colleague who has served as an expert witness and reviewed Chinese documents commented that, while ‘official’ translations of documents were typically literally (i.e., Chinese 101) correct, they were frequently devoid of nuance (e.g., how things were said, why specific words were used, etc.). Accordingly, if available, the colleague always asked for the source Chinese documents.
Turning to specific linguistic questions regarding colloquial Mandarin, the WSJ article continues:
Chinese can be highly nuanced and the same word can have different meanings depending on the context.
Such a challenge helped torpedo a sensational Justice Department case against an ethnic Tibetan New York policeman charged with spying on behalf of Beijing in 2020. The allegation was built on dozens of intercepted phone calls between the officer and a Chinese consular official—and apparently misconstrued Mandarin colloquialisms.
For instance, prosecutors considered the officer’s use of a Mandarin word for “boss” as evidence he was signaling subservience to the Chinese official, while the officer’s defense attorney said the term was the defendant’s way of texpressing gratitude for help on a complex travel visa application. “The fact that it was in a foreign language created an opportunity to use inaccurate translation to fit their story,” said the defens[...]
Word of the Day
cathexis
Definition: (noun) Concentration of emotional energy on an object or idea.
Synonyms: charge.
Usage: Freud thought of cathexis as a psychic analog of an electrical charge.
Discuss
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Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
talk down to
If you talk down to someone, you speak to them as if they are inferior to you or less important than you.
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Language Log
Menu worms
Frazz for 6/17/2024:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/FrazzSummerReading.png
Philosophers and linguists have explored the implications (or presuppositions, or implicatures) of "everything" in such sentences — I'll leave it to commenters to fill out an annotated bibliography…
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Funny Or Die (Youtube)
and also cats. I love cats. I love cats #shorts #cats #catlover
Dylan Adler loves cats.
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Word of the Day
degage
Definition: (adjective) Showing lack of emotional involvement.
Synonyms: detached, uninvolved.
Usage: Mrs. Smith was not easily impressed by excuses, and she adopted a degage pose on the arm of the easy chair as her son tried to explain why he missed dinner.
Discuss
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Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
bend down
to move the upper part of your body forwards and downwards
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Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
help out
If you help someone out, you do something to help them.
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Language Log
mg.
imgur, "On forms of address for non-binaries", by apolloendymion:
since mrs, ms, and mr are all descended from the latin word magister, i propose the gender neutral version should be mg, short for "mage"
some people think this is a shitpost so i want to clarify that i am dead fucking serious. make mage the official gender neutral honorific NOW. i want it on my passport. i want it on my bank account. i want doctors and judges to use it for me. i don't care if it sounds a little silly. people thought "missus" sounded crass at first. call me mg.
benefits of mg:
• easy to pronounce, even for children (though kids 4 & younger may pronounce it more like "mayd" or "maygh")
• ONE SYLLABLE!!! ("individual" is too goddamn LONG.) you have to be able to say it quickly and casually
• ends in a soft consonant sound, so it'll flow right into the next word ("ind" halts the whole sentence)
• fits neatly into the existing structure as a relative of master/mistress that can be abbreviated down to an m and one other letter
• distinct enough that it can't be mistaken for either gendered term (if you call me mix I'll kill you. it sounds like miss with extra steps)
• wizard.
drawbacks:
• there aren't any
• yes, i know about milligrams and magnesium. i don't give a shit. ms can also mean microsoft. who cares.
The thing I (and many others) detested most about ms. when it first came out was that nobody was sure how to pronounce it — or even what it meant. I feel the same problems may plague "mg.", though I kinda like it, and I'm not even a nonbinary.
Selected reading
* "The first proposal for 'Ms.' (1901)" (6/23/09)
* "Miss" (7/3/18)
* "Impolite politeness?" (5/16/10)
* "How to address your professor" (1/6/19)
* "Mr. and Ms. in Chinese" (8/25/13)
* "Horses, soma, riddles, magi, and animal style art in southern China" (11/11/19)
* Victor H. Mair, “Old Sinitic *Myag, Old Persian Maguš, and English Magician,” Early China, 15 (1990), 27–47.
[Thanks to Tim Leonard and Ben Zimmer]
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Word of the Day
Word of the Day: gregarious
This word has appeared in 66 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
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Idiom of the Day
be (someone's) call
To be ultimately left up to someone to decide. Watch the video
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Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
ute
a pickup truck
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Funny Or Die (Youtube)
Remembering Seventh Grade with Megan Gailey (Bless These Braces)
"I just bled constantly, I always needed a jacket to tie around my waist." Megan Gailey remembers the difficulties of 7th grade.
Get all 10 episodes of season 1 now, and stay in touch for new episodes, news, and show extras: https://norby.link/ceiRm2
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Word of the Day
Word of the Day: proximity
This word has appeared in 468 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
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e attorney, John F. Carman. The case was eventually dropped.
In my estimation, court proceedings that involve extensive submission of documents in foreign languages could be greatly facilitated by AI translations, but always vetted by certifiably competent bilingual translators. Selected readings
* "Law as applied linguistics" (7/25/09)
* "Legal uses of and/or…or something" (4/17/08)
* "The dangers of translation" (2/15/09)
* "Dare to be bilingual" (7/14/08)
* "Rule of / by law" (7/20/14) — something as simple as that can have enormous implications
* "Language skills and the law" (1/12/11)
* "The ideology of legal corpus linguistics" (6/4/24) — with an extensive bibliography of pertinent LLOG posts
[Thanks to Mark Metcalf]
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Idiom of the Day
(it's/there's) no use crying over spilt milk
It does no good to get upset over a bad decision or unfortunate event that has already come to pass and cannot be changed. Watch the video
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Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
uptight
tense, anxious
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Funny Or Die (Youtube)
Whatever it takes for a big speech. @deadeyebrakeman. #shorts #podcast #interview #comedy
"I wish I were Jewish so I could do a big speech in front of everybody" - middle school @deadeyebrakeman.
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Learn English Through Football
Euro 24 Football Language Phrase (Day 5): Snatch a last-gasp win
In this football language post we look at the phrase, 'Snatch a last-gasp win' from the Portugal v Czech Republic game on day 5 of the Euros
The post Euro 24 Football Language Phrase (Day 5): Snatch a last-gasp win appeared first on Learn English Through Football.
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Idiom of the Day
it's all good
A phrase used to express general approval, unconcern, or disinterest. Watch the video
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Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
yakuza
a Japanese criminal organisation, or a member of such an organisation
➖ Sent by @TheFeedReaderBot ➖
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Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
deadbeat dad
a father who doesn't pay child support regularly
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Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
old bat
an unpleasant old woman
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Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
run on (2)
to continue for longer than expected
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Learn English Through Football
Euro 2024 FootballLanguage Phrase Day 4: Screamer
Day four's Euro 2024 phrase is 'screamer' which was used to describe a special type of goal scored in the Yugoslavia v Ukraine match.
The post Euro 2024 FootballLanguage Phrase Day 4: Screamer appeared first on Learn English Through Football.
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Word of the Day
craven
Definition: (adjective) Characterized by abject fear; cowardly.
Synonyms: recreant.
Usage: The cowardly shopkeeper angered the revolutionaries with his craven proposal to raise the white flag and surrender.
Discuss
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Learn English Through Football
Euro 24 Football Language Phrase (Day 3): Power Home a Header
In this football language post we look at the phrase, 'Power home a header' from the England versus Serbia match at the 2024 Euros.
The post Euro 24 Football Language Phrase (Day 3): Power Home a Header appeared first on Learn English Through Football.
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