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Language quiz: the answers | Mind your language
The winner of £100 worth of books from the Guardian Bookshop and a signed copy of For Who the Bell Tolls: One Man’s Quest for Grammatical Perfection will be announced soon, along with five runners-up who also win signed copies. Thanks to everyone who took part 1. Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the committee chair, said “an […]
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Tradition versus progress
IN “Village at the End of the World” the stark and dramatic scenery of Niaqornat, a remote community in north-west Greenland, is so mesmerising it is easy to forget that the Inuit village may be doomed. Among the village’s foes are climate change, a dwindling local economy and the allure of the digital world. When Sarah […]
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How a lexicon for cheese gave researchers a headache
Is your cheese cowy, catty or brothy? Researchers devote their efforts to finding the right words of description The 21st century, at its birth, saw cheese researchers in something of a frenzy trying to solve the industry’s great language problem. The problem is this: say what you will, the taste of a cheese is hard […]
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Do different languages confer different personalities? (The Economist 8-11-2013)
Nov 5th 2013, 12:06 by R.L.G. | BERLIN LAST week, Johnson took a look at some of the advantages of bilingualism. These include better performance at tasks involving “executive function” (which involve the brain’s ability to plan and prioritise), better defence against dementia in old age and—the obvious—the ability to speak a second language. One purported […]
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New Warnings for Old Problems
The stylebook revision gave us an opportunity to take aim at some perennial usage problems, nagging missteps that are staples of After Deadline. We’ve added a handful of new warnings in hopes of cutting down on these repeat offenses. After Deadline http://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/new-warnings-for-old-problems-2/
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How do we talk about dying?
Study examines how we talk about dying 30 September 2013 15:20 A journey or a battle? A crossroads or a fight? A stolen life or a gift?