“Taller Than I” or “Taller Than Me”?

Sep 27, 2015 by

“Taller Than I” or “Taller Than Me”?

This post is inspired by a question from my Facebook friend Ellen Jovin. She writes: “Dear native English speakers, tell me truly: Could you say “He is taller than I” and feel totally comfortable and at peace deep in your...

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On “Passive Aggressive” and Other Wrong-Headed Advice of Strunk &...

Sep 9, 2015 by

On “Passive Aggressive” and Other Wrong-Headed Advice of Strunk & White’s Style Manual

This post is prompted by a recent Facebook discussion about the “50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice” article, published by Geoffrey K. Pullum in The Chronicle of Higher Education in April 2009. Although I typically comment on more...

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Are We “At the Origin of Language Structure”?—Another Blooper-Riddled ...

Aug 31, 2015 by

Are We “At the Origin of Language Structure”?—Another Blooper-Riddled Article from Science Daily

[Thanks to George Walkden for drawing my attention to the article discussed below and for a helpful discussion of some of its shortcomings.]   A recent article in Science Daily describes the research conducted by “a team from...

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Does Google Translate Output Accord with Reality?—And Remarks on the M...

Aug 17, 2015 by

Does Google Translate Output Accord with Reality?—And Remarks on the Morphosyntax of Russian Nominalizations

I have written extensively about problems with Google Translate and its many bloopers in both lexical choices and producing a grammatically cohesive output. It is thus ironic that Google Translate’s “translation” of the Russian...

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Are Languages of “Primitive Peoples” Primitive?

Jul 28, 2015 by

Are Languages of “Primitive Peoples” Primitive?

A recent discussion of Toki Pona, a conlang dubbed “the world’s smallest language” by Roc Morin on Business Insider Australia website, prompted me to write again on the issue of the so-called “primitive languages” (for my earlier...

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The Anatomy of “Touching”

Mar 20, 2015 by

The Anatomy of “Touching”

The verb ‘to touch’ in Russian—kasat’sja and its perfective counterpart kosnut’sja—is a very peculiar one, in several respects. To begin with, it is unusual in having the clitic –sja, without any of the meanings typically...

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