A Dilbert from a while back (9/23) with co-workers Alice and Ted at cross-purposes:
People are inclined to sexualize social relations between the sexes, to the point where some people are dubious that men and women can have non-sexually tinged friendships, and this inclination seems to be particularly strong among men. The rather dim-witted Ted is a pretty extreme case.
Posted in Language and the sexes, Linguistics in the comics, Pragmatics | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday’s Bizarro:
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(If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Don Piraro says there are 2 in this strip — see this Page.)
But all bits of language have to be understood in context — the immediate physical context, the immediate social context (who’s speaking, to whom, for what purposes), the larger socioicultural context, and the context of background knowledge about the world. The task of taking all this stuff into account is substantial, but we manage the task pretty well (though by no means flawlessly) all the time. Still, the task is especially complex for highly compressed material, as on signs.
Posted in Context, Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »
Posted on Google+ by Tim Evanson yesterday, this image of a half-naked male superhero, Captain Marvel, that is simultaneously sexy and funny — celebrating the beauty of this broad-shouldered model’s body as he assumes a Captain Marvel persona in a gently mocking way.
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From the Flickr account of photographer Philip Bonneau, who’s an ornament of the Atlanta gay community and the creator of a Heroes + Villains series of male photography.
Posted in Gender and sexuality, Humor, Linguistics in the comics, Photography | Leave a Comment »
In the October Funny Times, a cartoon by Cara and Andy Singer, parodying the Beach Boys song “California Girls”. I haven’t been able to find an image anywhere, so I’ll talk you through the thing.
Posted in Language play, Linguistics in the comics, Music, Parodies | Leave a Comment »
A recent Bloom County 2015, featuring, from left to right: Milo (a 10-year-old reporter, the politically engaged Milo Bloom), Opus the penguin, and Binkley (Michael Binkley, Milo’s best friend, also 10):
One space or two (after a sentence-final period), a perenially contentious issue.
Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Punctuation | 5 Comments »
Caught in the Funny Times for October, the Tom the Dancing Bug from 7/5/15:
Cute names save lives!
Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Names | Leave a Comment »
The Wondermark of the 24th (Permalink here), with David Malki providing more sharp social / political commentary on attitudes about poverty, gender, and race:
Two linguistic points: the portmanteau fauxtopia, the plural poors.
Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Morphology, Portmanteaus | 2 Comments »
A recent One Big Happy, with Ruthie and monkey bread:
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At issue is the N + N compound monkey bread.
Posted in Compounds, Language and food, Lexical semantics, Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »
Passed on by John McIntyre, a Bloom County from some time ago about little kids and what they have to learn. And their mother and how she copes with their persistent inquiries:
Posted in Language acquisition, Linguistics in the comics | 2 Comments »
Yesterday’s Doonesbury:
Not necessarily participles (PSP, PRP) of urgency, really, but something more like immediacy, conveying a sense of reporting on ongoing events, events that are happening right now. Hot news, on the scene.
Posted in Discourse, Linguistics in the comics, Pragmatics | Leave a Comment »
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