On the 11th, Mark Liberman returned to the expression could care less on Language Log, thanks to an xkcd cartoon that day, which I reproduce here:
He uses the expression as an implicitly negative idiom, conveying something like couldn’t care less, but a bit more compactly. She peeves at him, he analyzes what she might be doing with her peeve, and eventually he uses the idiom to her.
Posted in Idioms, Linguistics in the comics, Negation | Leave a Comment »
Two cartoons from yesterday — a Mother Goose and Grimm and a Scenes from a Multiverse — that turn on the senses of lexical items. The preposition on and the verb jam, respectively.
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Ambiguity in #1, an extended sense in #2.
Posted in Ambiguity, Lexical semantics, Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »
Posted in Languages, Linguistics in the comics, Music | Leave a Comment »
Today’s Zippy continues a soap-operatic alternative-world story line in which Zippy has abandoned Zerbina in favor of her friend Chlorine. Poindexter barbats are once again prominent, and not only is Latvian referred to, it’s actually quoted.
Stop talking! Just kiss me!!
Posted in Languages, Linguistics in the comics | Leave a Comment »
Two recent cartoons from xkcd: #1571 of 8/31, “Car Model Names”; and #1572 of 9/2, “xkcd Survey”, with one question about spelling (“What word can you never seem to spell on the first try?”) and one about words you know (“Which of these words do you know the meaning of?”):
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Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Names, Spelling | Leave a Comment »
In the local real estate news (from NBC Bay Area yesterday), “‘Flintstones’ House in Hillsborough Listed for $4.2M” by Tamara Palmer and Ian Cull:
Hillsborough’s most recognizable piece of real estate has hit the market.
The home at 45 Berryessa Way, though relatively small by the town’s standards at 2,730 square feet, is seeking a big price tag of $4.2 million
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A story that will take us through several twists and turns of pop culture.
Posted in Architecture, Books, Language and animals, Linguistics in the comics, Movies and tv, Pop culture | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday’s Zippy takes us through 15 television series, of an extraordinary variety:
The strip ends with a cute POP (phrasal overlap portmanteau), Playboy After Dark + Dark Shadows.
Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Movies and tv, Portmanteaus | Leave a Comment »
“Here I come to save the daaaaaaay!”, he sings (theme song by Mitch Miller).
The delightful animated cartoon that rocked the world in 1942 and went on for decades:
Posted in Linguistics in the comics | 1 Comment »
Yesterday’s Zippy:
Bill Griffith has done a number of strips on Schlitzie, the movie Freaks, and sideshow attractions. That was then. Now we have a freak show on tv, one that specializes in demeaning revelations and angry confrontations. A dismaying take on social life.
Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Social life | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday’s Dilbert, one in a series on robot technology in the workplace:
… up their asses (though the pointy-haired boss doesn’t get to finish the phrase because the C.E.O. understands where he’s going and continues his own thought).
In any case, the C.E.O.’s idea is to have robots up the wazoo, both literally (up the employees’ anuses) and figuratively (to have lots and lots of them).
Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Taboo language and slurs | 1 Comment »
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