From Kyle Wohlmut, a pointer to the 7/28/15 piece “Mapping the United Swears of America” on Stan Carey’s Strong Language blog. I missed it the first time around, but now to give some credit to Stan and the research he reported on.
From this research, this map on usage of the vulgar slur faggot (explanation to follow):
(#1)
Posted in Gender and sexuality, Taboo language and slurs | 2 Comments »
The Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal from the 24th:
A potentially useful aid to writing, turned into a rigid framework, and so pretty much guaranteed to turn students against the task (not to mention the craft) of writing.
As for the strip, it’s bitterly pessimistic. About schooling, about learning, and about the state of writing in everyday life.
Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Writing | 1 Comment »
Because mammoths, today’s Rhymes With Orange:
(#1) Advances in Mammoth Science: early scientists encountering Mammuthus primigenius var. nudus
Posted in Books, Clothing, Gender and sexuality, Linguistics in the comics, Mammoths, Names, Play | 1 Comment »
A recent One Big Happy:
There are retainers and then there are retainers, and the kids have good reason to know about one kind of them — the dental appliance — but probably aren’t familiar with the others.
Posted in Ambiguity, Linguistics in the comics | 1 Comment »
Scott Hilburn’s Argyle Sweater cartoon from the 20th:
A parody set off by a pun.
Posted in Linguistics in the comics, Music, Parody, Puns | Leave a Comment »
… and more; eventually there will be draft horses, covered bridges, and distelfinks. But first, a bulletin from my cousin Eleanor Severin Houck about the advance of the spotted lanternfly in southeastern Pennsylvania (Eleanor is in Berks County, county seat Reading, in the Pa. Dutch country, where we both grew up).
From the annals of noxious pests, double-team division, a pairing of the disgusting and destructive insect pest Lycorma deliculata with the rampant invasive plant pest Ailanthus altissima.
Posted in Language and animals, Language and plants, My life, Signs and symbols | Leave a Comment »
The name of an Instagram site, which I learned about from Laura Staum Casasanto today. Stunning plants (heavy on houseplants, but by no means confined to them) accompanied by good-looking men, handsomely photographed. Laura supposed, correctly, that the combination would work well for me, and she was right.
Posted in Gender and sexuality, Language and plants, Names, Photography | 1 Comment »
… in the September 8th issue of the New Yorker. Both presenting the usual challenges to understanding — there’s a lot you have to know to make sense of them — and both playing on language.
(#1) by Jeremy Nguyen
(#2) by John McNamee
Posted in Ambiguity, Clothing, Figurative language, Language play, Linguistics in the comics, Metonymy, Quotations, Understanding comics | Leave a Comment »
Today’s Zippy lumbers through some plays on bear, in a bear chair:
(#1) The bear figure as both comforting and threatening
Bear chairs, gay bears, flags, and more.
Posted in Catchphrases, Flags, Gender and sexuality, Homosexuality, Language play, Linguistics in the comics, Names, Signs and symbols | Leave a Comment »
Three veins of spousal humor, starting in the early 19th century and ending in an edgily close-to-life comic stereotype realized in cartoons, tv shows, and movies.
Posted in Formulaic language, Gender and sexuality, Jokes, Language and the sexes, Masculinity, Quotations | 1 Comment »