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Using ‘literally’ metaphorically is literally spreading like wildfire (The Guardian 24-10-2014)
Mark Twain, F Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce all did it. (HW Fowler disapproved.) Should ‘literally’ be used to mean its opposite?
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Not enough time for counting (The Economist 23-10-2014)
Oct 23rd 2014, 16:51 BY R.L.G. | BERLIN IS BARACK Obama a narcissist? Charles Krauthammer thinks so, and he should know.
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The Slang Patrol (NYT 14-10-2014)
Lively, vivid language is always welcome, in features or news stories. But slang, colloquialisms and insider jargon are often jarring and inappropriate in straight-news contexts.
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Scots English: do you know your teuchters from your sassenachs?
Mind your Language (The Guardian), 3-10-2014 Irrespective of the political fallout from the independence referendum, the UK’s language patchwork is stronger having retained the rich tradition of Scots English An illustration from The Poetical Works of Robert Burns (1888), showing Tam o’ Shanter with his ‘drouthy neibors’ – thirsty fellows in the pub. Photograph: /flickr There […]
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War of the words: the global conflict that helped shape our language
(The Guardian 26/9/2014) From genocide and kamikaze to radar and spam, the second world war had a dramatic effect on English