… the cartoonist, with this cartoon in the July 27th New Yorker:
(#1)
The P is silent.
I’m charmed by the idea of pterodactyl commuters on the Hudson
Archive for the ‘Linguistics in the comics’ Category
Ken Krimstein
July 25, 2015allayed
July 24, 2015In today’s One Big Happy, Ruthie again copes with vocabulary she’s unfamiliar with but nevertheless struggles to accommodate — in this case, allayed ‘diminished or put to rest’ (said of fear, suspicion, or worry):
Well, it sounds like it had laid in it.
The offensive t-shirt
July 24, 2015A recent Cyanide & Happiness:
The fuck is offensive, but then they get down to the white supremacist tats and it’s all cool, bro.
The unflappable waitress
July 23, 2015Today’s Bizarro:
Hun / hon.
The informal clipped form hon (for honey) as a term of address is stereotypically used, along with other pet names like the full honey, sweetie, dear(ie), and doll, by waitresses to their customers, in addition to the use of these as terms of endearment to genuine intimates. Many customers find the usage disrespectful and insulting, expressing intimacy in a situation where they see that deference to authority is called for.
(If you’re puzzled by the odd symbols in the cartoon — Don Piraro says there are 4 in this strip — see this Page.)
Disentangling names
July 22, 2015In today’s Zits, Sara and Jeremy undo what they had done before:
(On their couple word, see this posting.)
Disentanglement!
complimentary
July 21, 2015Today’s Bizarro, with a play on two senses of complimentary:
The short version of the story, on the adjective complimentary in NOAD2:
1 expressing a compliment; praising or approving: Jennie was very complimentary about Kathy’s riding | complimentary remarks.
2 given or supplied free of charge: a complimentary bottle of wine.
But there’s a considerably longer story, starting with the question of how these two senses are related.
Couple words
July 20, 2015Today’s Zits:
All summer, Jeremy and Sara have been glued to one another (a situation that has alarmed Jeremy’s parents). Now, it seems, they have become a single entitly, referred to by a one-word name — a name that historically originated in a coordination of names, but is now (like JeremyandSara) indivisible.
Setting up a pun
July 20, 2015Today’s One Big Happy, with a setup for a pun on the idiom level playing field:
Hard to believe that Ruthie would have come to this on her own; she’s just serving as a channel for the cartoonist’s language play.
Protecting fictional brand names
July 19, 2015
The Importance of Being Incomprehensible
July 19, 2015Yesterday’s Calvin and Hobbes:
Calvin continues his art criticism, now providing an artist’s statement in defense of his sidewalk art. (I have an aversion to artist’s statements, especially if they use the word Weltanschauung.)