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The impossibility of being literal
It is literally impossible to be literal. I know what you’re thinking. Literal is the word we use when we mean exactly what we say, and metaphorical or figurative is what we say when we’re playing around. When we’re being figurative, we say “it was a million miles away”, meaning “I walked for hours.” When […]
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George Orwell betrayed: Islamist Tariq Ramadan gives a lecture in his name
The present political chaos is connected with the decay of language. (George Orwell, Politics and the English language, 1946.) This week in London, the annual George Orwell Lecture was given by the Islamist writer Tariq Ramadan. Where is one to start? George Orwell was against religious censorship. Tariq Ramadan campaigned successfully to cancel a production […]
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Beyond the shtetl
THE author of a new biography discusses the universal appeal of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ and the impact Shalom Aleichem had on Jewish comedians in the 20th century from Prospero http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2013/11/life-and-legacy-sholem-aleichem?fsrc=rss via IFTTT
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More Style Choices
In our recent stylebook revisions, we have accepted as standard a few forms that until now were still treated as colloquial or informal. In some cases, these changes just formalize what we had already been doing in practice. After Deadline http://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/more-style-choices/
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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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Research funding emphasis on ‘impact’ spawns a new industry
In their bid to secure funding under the terms of the Research Excellence Framework, academics are drafting in writers and consultants to make them and their work more accessible Mrs Peabody was never expected to play such a key role in Swansea University’s languages department, especially as she is imaginary. Invented by Katharina Hall, associate […]