There’s no getting (a)round it… August 15, 2010

I have received a question in the form of a comment on my article British English v American English (which is by the far most popular post on this blog, as it turns out). Here it is: I am confused about the word “round” and “around” When do you Brits use them and how are [...]

OBCT (Fat chance) March 19, 2010

Obesity

Don’t breathe a word to anyone… March 19, 2010

‘Literally to conspire is to murmur together (Latin, “conspirare” – to breathe together) and a criminal conspiracy is essentially an agreement to do something unlawful entered into by two or more people who intend to carry out the agreed purpose. ‘ Introduction to English law, PS James, (Butterworths)

One word novel (or screenplay) December 6, 2009

A pair of shoes with steel toecaps (punta accaio) in the window of a shop at the Central Station in Milan (only €29!) are labelled: antiinfortunistiche A quick Google translation returns the phrase ‘accident prevention’. However, I feel that the word antiinfortunistiche rates as a finished work of prose, replete with its own critique of capitalist mores, conjuring up scenes [...]

Ikea, You-kea, Wikipedia December 6, 2009

Baudrillard’s The System of Objects  ‘attempts to discern the abstract language that underlies our relationship with ordinary, domestic objects, arguing that we interact with them not so much in terms of their ostensible use value or function but as a way of communicating with others.’ [My emphasis] Rex Butler, “Jean Baudrillard, The Defence of the [...]

Up close and impersonal December 6, 2009

‘One can then maintain that it is not true that a code organizes signs; it is more correct to say that codes provide the rules which generate signs as concrete occurences in communicative intercourse. Therefore the classical notion of ‘sign’ dissolves itself into a highly complex network of changing relationships. Semiotics suggests a sort of [...]

How to use the semi-colon (1) December 6, 2009

‘There is no general agreement on the best way to fight a recession; there never has been.’ William Rees-Mogg, The Times 12 January 2009, ‘We may want to borrow but will anyone lend?’ This is a great example of how to deploy the semi-colon in action. Note that the clause up to the semi-colon could [...]

Nudnik December 5, 2009

‘When we say “Cherie gave Jim a headache”, we mean that she caused Jim to have it, presumably because she’s a nudnik whose antics made his head hurt, not because a headache walked over on little legs from Cherie’s head into Jim’s.’ Stephen Pinker, The Stuff of Thought, p59, (Chap 2, Down the Rabbit Hole) [...]

Rip, mix and burn December 5, 2009

Mixed metaphor ‘Mr [Tobias] Ellwood [Tory MP for Bournemouth East] said: ‘For Des Browne [the then Defence Secretary] to hide behind the smokescreen of red tape is totally unacceptable’. London Metro, 14 September 2007,  ”Cover-up’ row over wounded’ Mr Ellwood gloriously mixing his metaphors here.

False friends November 27, 2009

Pierre ponce in French means pumice stone. (Pocket Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary) Is the opposite of a false friend (faux-ami) a true friend?