#pragmatics — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #pragmatics, aggregated by home.social.
-
New article: Where is Meaning? (Part One)
A few years back, while waiting on the kettle to boil, I was staring at a can of Diet Coke. I was a bit zoned out and a question popped into my head. The Diet Coke logo clearly "meant" something to me, but where was that meaning? This moment started me down a multi-year rabbit hole into meaning that I'm writing up as a series of articles.
https://jameshorsley.me/articles/where-is-meaning-part-one
#meaning #semantics #pragmatics #ai #philosophy #linguistics #semiotics
-
New article: Where is Meaning? (Part One)
A few years back, while waiting on the kettle to boil, I was staring at a can of Diet Coke. I was a bit zoned out and a question popped into my head. The Diet Coke logo clearly "meant" something to me, but where was that meaning? This moment started me down a multi-year rabbit hole into meaning that I'm writing up as a series of articles.
https://jameshorsley.me/articles/where-is-meaning-part-one
#meaning #semantics #pragmatics #ai #philosophy #linguistics #semiotics
-
New article: Where is Meaning? (Part One)
A few years back, while waiting on the kettle to boil, I was staring at a can of Diet Coke. I was a bit zoned out and a question popped into my head. The Diet Coke logo clearly "meant" something to me, but where was that meaning? This moment started me down a multi-year rabbit hole into meaning that I'm writing up as a series of articles.
https://jameshorsley.me/articles/where-is-meaning-part-one
#meaning #semantics #pragmatics #ai #philosophy #linguistics #semiotics
-
New article: Where is Meaning? (Part One)
A few years back, while waiting on the kettle to boil, I was staring at a can of Diet Coke. I was a bit zoned out and a question popped into my head. The Diet Coke logo clearly "meant" something to me, but where was that meaning? This moment started me down a multi-year rabbit hole into meaning that I'm writing up as a series of articles.
https://jameshorsley.me/articles/where-is-meaning-part-one
#meaning #semantics #pragmatics #ai #philosophy #linguistics #semiotics
-
New article: Where is Meaning? (Part One)
A few years back, while waiting on the kettle to boil, I was staring at a can of Diet Coke. I was a bit zoned out and a question popped into my head. The Diet Coke logo clearly "meant" something to me, but where was that meaning? This moment started me down a multi-year rabbit hole into meaning that I'm writing up as a series of articles.
https://jameshorsley.me/articles/where-is-meaning-part-one
#meaning #semantics #pragmatics #ai #philosophy #linguistics #semiotics
-
📢 Call for Panel Contributions @ #IPrA2027 #IPC20
Positioning in Mediated Political Talk
ℹ️ 20th International Pragmatics Conference (IPC20) of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA)
📍 University of Helsinki
📆 27 June to 2 July 2027
📜 https://www.ids-mannheim.de/fileadmin/lexik/WMG/CfP_IPrA_2027_Positioning_in_mediated_talk_-1.pdf#DiscourseAnalysis #CA #pragmatics #linguistics #positioning #indexicality #mediality #IPrA #IPrA27
-
📢 Call for Panel Contributions @ #IPrA2027 #IPC20
Positioning in Mediated Political Talk
ℹ️ 20th International Pragmatics Conference (IPC20) of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA)
📍 University of Helsinki
📆 27 June to 2 July 2027
📜 https://www.ids-mannheim.de/fileadmin/lexik/WMG/CfP_IPrA_2027_Positioning_in_mediated_talk_-1.pdf#DiscourseAnalysis #CA #pragmatics #linguistics #positioning #indexicality #mediality #IPrA #IPrA27
-
📢 Call for Panel Contributions @ #IPrA2027 #IPC20
Positioning in Mediated Political Talk
ℹ️ 20th International Pragmatics Conference (IPC20) of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA)
📍 University of Helsinki
📆 27 June to 2 July 2027
📜 https://www.ids-mannheim.de/fileadmin/lexik/WMG/CfP_IPrA_2027_Positioning_in_mediated_talk_-1.pdf#DiscourseAnalysis #CA #pragmatics #linguistics #positioning #indexicality #mediality #IPrA #IPrA27
-
📢 Call for Panel Contributions @ #IPrA2027 #IPC20
Positioning in Mediated Political Talk
ℹ️ 20th International Pragmatics Conference (IPC20) of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA)
📍 University of Helsinki
📆 27 June to 2 July 2027
📜 https://www.ids-mannheim.de/fileadmin/lexik/WMG/CfP_IPrA_2027_Positioning_in_mediated_talk_-1.pdf#DiscourseAnalysis #CA #pragmatics #linguistics #positioning #indexicality #mediality #IPrA #IPrA27
-
New Instance #Introduction: I’m a #Linguistics professor in #Texas. Originally from #Chicago. Lived in Birmingham, UK & Hefei (Anhui province) #China. I do research in English lexical semantics, #pragmatics, health communication, and discourse markers, using corpus methods. Currently learning #Arabic on #DuoLingo. I edit #Wikipedia. I love contemporary fiction, science fiction, and #poetry. And #travel—as the budget allows. Welcoming any survivors from my academic Twitter network. Great meeting you all!
-
New Instance #Introduction: I’m a #Linguistics professor in #Texas. Originally from #Chicago. Lived in Birmingham, UK & Hefei (Anhui province) #China. I do research in English lexical semantics, #pragmatics, health communication, and discourse markers, using corpus methods. Currently learning #Arabic on #DuoLingo. I edit #Wikipedia. I love contemporary fiction, science fiction, and #poetry. And #travel—as the budget allows. Welcoming any survivors from my academic Twitter network. Great meeting you all!
-
New Instance #Introduction: I’m a #Linguistics professor in #Texas. Originally from #Chicago. Lived in Birmingham, UK & Hefei (Anhui province) #China. I do research in English lexical semantics, #pragmatics, health communication, and discourse markers, using corpus methods. Currently learning #Arabic on #DuoLingo. I edit #Wikipedia. I love contemporary fiction, science fiction, and #poetry. And #travel—as the budget allows. Welcoming any survivors from my academic Twitter network. Great meeting you all!
-
New Instance #Introduction: I’m a #Linguistics professor in #Texas. Originally from #Chicago. Lived in Birmingham, UK & Hefei (Anhui province) #China. I do research in English lexical semantics, #pragmatics, health communication, and discourse markers, using corpus methods. Currently learning #Arabic on #DuoLingo. I edit #Wikipedia. I love contemporary fiction, science fiction, and #poetry. And #travel—as the budget allows. Welcoming any survivors from my academic Twitter network. Great meeting you all!
-
New Instance #Introduction: I’m a #Linguistics professor in #Texas. Originally from #Chicago. Lived in Birmingham, UK & Hefei (Anhui province) #China. I do research in English lexical semantics, #pragmatics, health communication, and discourse markers, using corpus methods. Currently learning #Arabic on #DuoLingo. I edit #Wikipedia. I love contemporary fiction, science fiction, and #poetry. And #travel—as the budget allows. Welcoming any survivors from my academic Twitter network. Great meeting you all!
-
I've shared the opening chapters of A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis on PhilPapers.
📕👉 https://philpapers.org/rec/WILALI-3
I examine the structural limits of human language as a medium for conveying meaning. This counters the widespread assumption that clearer definitions.
#philosophy #books #reading #writing #author #nonfiction #academic #language #communication #efficiency #semantics #pragmatics #meaning #society #critique #complexity #power #blog #poscast
-
I've shared the opening chapters of A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis on PhilPapers.
📕👉 https://philpapers.org/rec/WILALI-3
I examine the structural limits of human language as a medium for conveying meaning. This counters the widespread assumption that clearer definitions.
#philosophy #books #reading #writing #author #nonfiction #academic #language #communication #efficiency #semantics #pragmatics #meaning #society #critique #complexity #power #blog #poscast
-
I've shared the opening chapters of A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis on PhilPapers.
📕👉 https://philpapers.org/rec/WILALI-3
I examine the structural limits of human language as a medium for conveying meaning. This counters the widespread assumption that clearer definitions.
#philosophy #books #reading #writing #author #nonfiction #academic #language #communication #efficiency #semantics #pragmatics #meaning #society #critique #complexity #power #blog #poscast
-
I've shared the opening chapters of A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis on PhilPapers.
📕👉 https://philpapers.org/rec/WILALI-3
I examine the structural limits of human language as a medium for conveying meaning. This counters the widespread assumption that clearer definitions.
#philosophy #books #reading #writing #author #nonfiction #academic #language #communication #efficiency #semantics #pragmatics #meaning #society #critique #complexity #power #blog #poscast
-
I've shared the opening chapters of A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis on PhilPapers.
📕👉 https://philpapers.org/rec/WILALI-3
I examine the structural limits of human language as a medium for conveying meaning. This counters the widespread assumption that clearer definitions.
#philosophy #books #reading #writing #author #nonfiction #academic #language #communication #efficiency #semantics #pragmatics #meaning #society #critique #complexity #power #blog #poscast
-
What kind of profanity is this?
Regular readers will be familiar with Strong Language, a group blog about swearing that I co-founded with James Harbeck in 2014. If you’re interested in swearing as a linguistic or cultural phenomenon, I recommend bookmarking or subscribing to it.
New posts by our excellent contributors are less frequent now, but that makes it easier to catch up if you haven’t visited before or feel like browsing the archives. The blog has over 400 posts: fascinating and colourful explorations of profanity for readers not averse to such material.
I also contribute to Strong Language now and then, and this post on Sentence first introduces the last few that I wrote. What follows below is not very sweary – there’s one reference to a strong swear – but if this type of language freaks you out like it does Ned Flanders, or just plain doesn’t interest you, you may prefer to bail out here.
From “Be-bop-a-Lisa” in Simpsons Comics no. 6 (1994). Script & pencils: Bill Morrison; Inks: Tim Bavington; Colours: Cindy Vance. Editor: Steve Vance
I’m interested in how people refer to swearing: as bad language, explicit language, dirty language, adult language, and so on. The adjectives form an intriguing set. ‘Strong bad mature filthy language’ examines the patterns that emerge and explains why I proposed Strong Language as the name for the blog.
The title of the present post, you may have twigged, alludes to Amy Winehouse and her song ‘Me & Mr Jones’, which contains a line I borrowed more directly for ‘What kind of “fuckery” is this?’. The post delves into that word’s meanings and use, originally literal but now usually (and variously) figurative.
Also in a pop-cultural vein, John Boorman’s 1987 drama film Hope and Glory has a scene that depicts swearing as a rite of passage for a group of boys in London during World War II. My short post puts the scene in context and discusses its effects.
Most recently, I wrote about a remarkably successful euphemism in ‘Another freaking f-word’. This use of freaking first appeared in 1928, as far as we know, so its centenary is just around the corner. In the post I look at why and where it has become so freaking popular.
#blogging #etymology #language #linguistics #popCulture #pragmatics #profanity #slang #strongLanguage #swearing #usage #words -
What kind of profanity is this?
Regular readers will be familiar with Strong Language, a group blog about swearing that I co-founded with James Harbeck in 2014. If you’re interested in swearing as a linguistic or cultural phenomenon, I recommend bookmarking or subscribing to it.
New posts by our excellent contributors are less frequent now, but that makes it easier to catch up if you haven’t visited before or feel like browsing the archives. The blog has over 400 posts: fascinating and colourful explorations of profanity for readers not averse to such material.
I also contribute to Strong Language now and then, and this post on Sentence first introduces the last few that I wrote. What follows below is not very sweary – there’s one reference to a strong swear – but if this type of language freaks you out like it does Ned Flanders, or just plain doesn’t interest you, you may prefer to bail out here.
From “Be-bop-a-Lisa” in Simpsons Comics no. 6 (1994). Script & pencils: Bill Morrison; Inks: Tim Bavington; Colours: Cindy Vance. Editor: Steve Vance
I’m interested in how people refer to swearing: as bad language, explicit language, dirty language, adult language, and so on. The adjectives form an intriguing set. ‘Strong bad mature filthy language’ examines the patterns that emerge and explains why I proposed Strong Language as the name for the blog.
The title of the present post, you may have twigged, alludes to Amy Winehouse and her song ‘Me & Mr Jones’, which contains a line I borrowed more directly for ‘What kind of “fuckery” is this?’. The post delves into that word’s meanings and use, originally literal but now usually (and variously) figurative.
Also in a pop-cultural vein, John Boorman’s 1987 drama film Hope and Glory has a scene that depicts swearing as a rite of passage for a group of boys in London during World War II. My short post puts the scene in context and discusses its effects.
Most recently, I wrote about a remarkably successful euphemism in ‘Another freaking f-word’. This use of freaking first appeared in 1928, as far as we know, so its centenary is just around the corner. In the post I look at why and where it has become so freaking popular.
#blogging #etymology #language #linguistics #popCulture #pragmatics #profanity #slang #strongLanguage #swearing #usage #words -
What kind of profanity is this?
Regular readers will be familiar with Strong Language, a group blog about swearing that I co-founded with James Harbeck in 2014. If you’re interested in swearing as a linguistic or cultural phenomenon, I recommend bookmarking or subscribing to it.
New posts by our excellent contributors are less frequent now, but that makes it easier to catch up if you haven’t visited before or feel like browsing the archives. The blog has over 400 posts: fascinating and colourful explorations of profanity for readers not averse to such material.
I also contribute to Strong Language now and then, and this post on Sentence first introduces the last few that I wrote. What follows below is not very sweary – there’s one reference to a strong swear – but if this type of language freaks you out like it does Ned Flanders, or just plain doesn’t interest you, you may prefer to bail out here.
From “Be-bop-a-Lisa” in Simpsons Comics no. 6 (1994). Script & pencils: Bill Morrison; Inks: Tim Bavington; Colours: Cindy Vance. Editor: Steve Vance
I’m interested in how people refer to swearing: as bad language, explicit language, dirty language, adult language, and so on. The adjectives form an intriguing set. ‘Strong bad mature filthy language’ examines the patterns that emerge and explains why I proposed Strong Language as the name for the blog.
The title of the present post, you may have twigged, alludes to Amy Winehouse and her song ‘Me & Mr Jones’, which contains a line I borrowed more directly for ‘What kind of “fuckery” is this?’. The post delves into that word’s meanings and use, originally literal but now usually (and variously) figurative.
Also in a pop-cultural vein, John Boorman’s 1987 drama film Hope and Glory has a scene that depicts swearing as a rite of passage for a group of boys in London during World War II. My short post puts the scene in context and discusses its effects.
Most recently, I wrote about a remarkably successful euphemism in ‘Another freaking f-word’. This use of freaking first appeared in 1928, as far as we know, so its centenary is just around the corner. In the post I look at why and where it has become so freaking popular.
#blogging #etymology #language #linguistics #popCulture #pragmatics #profanity #slang #strongLanguage #swearing #usage #words -
What kind of profanity is this?
Regular readers will be familiar with Strong Language, a group blog about swearing that I co-founded with James Harbeck in 2014. If you’re interested in swearing as a linguistic or cultural phenomenon, I recommend bookmarking or subscribing to it.
New posts by our excellent contributors are less frequent now, but that makes it easier to catch up if you haven’t visited before or feel like browsing the archives. The blog has over 400 posts: fascinating and colourful explorations of profanity for readers not averse to such material.
I also contribute to Strong Language now and then, and this post on Sentence first introduces the last few that I wrote. What follows below is not very sweary – there’s one reference to a strong swear – but if this type of language freaks you out like it does Ned Flanders, or just plain doesn’t interest you, you may prefer to bail out here.
From “Be-bop-a-Lisa” in Simpsons Comics no. 6 (1994). Script & pencils: Bill Morrison; Inks: Tim Bavington; Colours: Cindy Vance. Editor: Steve Vance
I’m interested in how people refer to swearing: as bad language, explicit language, dirty language, adult language, and so on. The adjectives form an intriguing set. ‘Strong bad mature filthy language’ examines the patterns that emerge and explains why I proposed Strong Language as the name for the blog.
The title of the present post, you may have twigged, alludes to Amy Winehouse and her song ‘Me & Mr Jones’, which contains a line I borrowed more directly for ‘What kind of “fuckery” is this?’. The post delves into that word’s meanings and use, originally literal but now usually (and variously) figurative.
Also in a pop-cultural vein, John Boorman’s 1987 drama film Hope and Glory has a scene that depicts swearing as a rite of passage for a group of boys in London during World War II. My short post puts the scene in context and discusses its effects.
Most recently, I wrote about a remarkably successful euphemism in ‘Another freaking f-word’. This use of freaking first appeared in 1928, as far as we know, so its centenary is just around the corner. In the post I look at why and where it has become so freaking popular.
#blogging #etymology #language #linguistics #popCulture #pragmatics #profanity #slang #strongLanguage #swearing #usage #words -
What kind of profanity is this?
Regular readers will be familiar with Strong Language, a group blog about swearing that I co-founded with James Harbeck in 2014. If you’re interested in swearing as a linguistic or cultural phenomenon, I recommend bookmarking or subscribing to it.
New posts by our excellent contributors are less frequent now, but that makes it easier to catch up if you haven’t visited before or feel like browsing the archives. The blog has over 400 posts: fascinating and colourful explorations of profanity for readers not averse to such material.
I also contribute to Strong Language now and then, and this post on Sentence first introduces the last few that I wrote. What follows below is not very sweary – there’s one reference to a strong swear – but if this type of language freaks you out like it does Ned Flanders, or just plain doesn’t interest you, you may prefer to bail out here.
From “Be-bop-a-Lisa” in Simpsons Comics no. 6 (1994). Script & pencils: Bill Morrison; Inks: Tim Bavington; Colours: Cindy Vance. Editor: Steve Vance
I’m interested in how people refer to swearing: as bad language, explicit language, dirty language, adult language, and so on. The adjectives form an intriguing set. ‘Strong bad mature filthy language’ examines the patterns that emerge and explains why I proposed Strong Language as the name for the blog.
The title of the present post, you may have twigged, alludes to Amy Winehouse and her song ‘Me & Mr Jones’, which contains a line I borrowed more directly for ‘What kind of “fuckery” is this?’. The post delves into that word’s meanings and use, originally literal but now usually (and variously) figurative.
Also in a pop-cultural vein, John Boorman’s 1987 drama film Hope and Glory has a scene that depicts swearing as a rite of passage for a group of boys in London during World War II. My short post puts the scene in context and discusses its effects.
Most recently, I wrote about a remarkably successful euphemism in ‘Another freaking f-word’. This use of freaking first appeared in 1928, as far as we know, so its centenary is just around the corner. In the post I look at why and where it has become so freaking popular.
#blogging #etymology #language #linguistics #popCulture #pragmatics #profanity #slang #strongLanguage #swearing #usage #words -
I discuss A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis, Chapter 1: A Genealogy of Insufficiency – From Ancient Greece through the 20th Century.
👉 https://youtu.be/A-yoDtJ_ICE
#philosophy #language #video #youtube #genealogy #hypothesis #foucault #semantics #pragmatics #communication #power #ideology #structure #plato #aristotle #Wittgenstein #shadows #augustine #Locke #Liebnitz #Nietzsche #Gödel #Saussure #barthes #shannon #cognition #cognitivescience #rationality
-
I discuss A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis, Chapter 1: A Genealogy of Insufficiency – From Ancient Greece through the 20th Century.
👉 https://youtu.be/A-yoDtJ_ICE
#philosophy #language #video #youtube #genealogy #hypothesis #foucault #semantics #pragmatics #communication #power #ideology #structure #plato #aristotle #Wittgenstein #shadows #augustine #Locke #Liebnitz #Nietzsche #Gödel #Saussure #barthes #shannon #cognition #cognitivescience #rationality
-
I discuss A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis, Chapter 1: A Genealogy of Insufficiency – From Ancient Greece through the 20th Century.
👉 https://youtu.be/A-yoDtJ_ICE
#philosophy #language #video #youtube #genealogy #hypothesis #foucault #semantics #pragmatics #communication #power #ideology #structure #plato #aristotle #Wittgenstein #shadows #augustine #Locke #Liebnitz #Nietzsche #Gödel #Saussure #barthes #shannon #cognition #cognitivescience #rationality
-
I discuss A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis, Chapter 1: A Genealogy of Insufficiency – From Ancient Greece through the 20th Century.
👉 https://youtu.be/A-yoDtJ_ICE
#philosophy #language #video #youtube #genealogy #hypothesis #foucault #semantics #pragmatics #communication #power #ideology #structure #plato #aristotle #Wittgenstein #shadows #augustine #Locke #Liebnitz #Nietzsche #Gödel #Saussure #barthes #shannon #cognition #cognitivescience #rationality
-
I discuss A Language Insufficiency Hypothesis, Chapter 1: A Genealogy of Insufficiency – From Ancient Greece through the 20th Century.
👉 https://youtu.be/A-yoDtJ_ICE
#philosophy #language #video #youtube #genealogy #hypothesis #foucault #semantics #pragmatics #communication #power #ideology #structure #plato #aristotle #Wittgenstein #shadows #augustine #Locke #Liebnitz #Nietzsche #Gödel #Saussure #barthes #shannon #cognition #cognitivescience #rationality
-
Book recommendation! 📖
Earlier this year, Vassiliki Geka published an excellent book on Imperative-Based Dialogic Constructions and Discourse Units: https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027244918
Later this year, Journal of Pragmatics published my review of the book, which you can access freely for 50 days (now 49 days!) via this link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1mDE41L-nhbDYW
I'm very passionate about #ConstructionGrammar taking #dialogicity seriously and this book does exactly that! 👍
-
Book recommendation! 📖
Earlier this year, Vassiliki Geka published an excellent book on Imperative-Based Dialogic Constructions and Discourse Units: https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027244918
Later this year, Journal of Pragmatics published my review of the book, which you can access freely for 50 days (now 49 days!) via this link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1mDE41L-nhbDYW
I'm very passionate about #ConstructionGrammar taking #dialogicity seriously and this book does exactly that! 👍
-
Book recommendation! 📖
Earlier this year, Vassiliki Geka published an excellent book on Imperative-Based Dialogic Constructions and Discourse Units: https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027244918
Later this year, Journal of Pragmatics published my review of the book, which you can access freely for 50 days (now 49 days!) via this link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1mDE41L-nhbDYW
I'm very passionate about #ConstructionGrammar taking #dialogicity seriously and this book does exactly that! 👍
-
Book recommendation! 📖
Earlier this year, Vassiliki Geka published an excellent book on Imperative-Based Dialogic Constructions and Discourse Units: https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027244918
Later this year, Journal of Pragmatics published my review of the book, which you can access freely for 50 days (now 49 days!) via this link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1mDE41L-nhbDYW
I'm very passionate about #ConstructionGrammar taking #dialogicity seriously and this book does exactly that! 👍
-
Book recommendation! 📖
Earlier this year, Vassiliki Geka published an excellent book on Imperative-Based Dialogic Constructions and Discourse Units: https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027244918
Later this year, Journal of Pragmatics published my review of the book, which you can access freely for 50 days (now 49 days!) via this link: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1mDE41L-nhbDYW
I'm very passionate about #ConstructionGrammar taking #dialogicity seriously and this book does exactly that! 👍
-
#toReadList ; Just finished reading this beautiful interdisciplinary paper about relevance in #pragmatics and #affectivescience: "Relevance and emotion" by Wharton et al., 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.06.001 -
#toReadList ; Just finished reading this beautiful interdisciplinary paper about relevance in #pragmatics and #affectivescience: "Relevance and emotion" by Wharton et al., 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.06.001 -
#toReadList ; Just finished reading this beautiful interdisciplinary paper about relevance in #pragmatics and #affectivescience: "Relevance and emotion" by Wharton et al., 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.06.001 -
#toReadList ; Just finished reading this beautiful interdisciplinary paper about relevance in #pragmatics and #affectivescience: "Relevance and emotion" by Wharton et al., 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.06.001 -
I am delighted that our edited volume "Second Language #Pragmatics and Young Language Learners - #EFL #Primary #School Contexts in #Europe" is now available https://www.multilingual-matters.com/page/detail/second-language-pragmatics-and-young-language-learners/?SF1=work_id&ST1=CVIEW-67d2c2f691716. We are very gratetful to our contributors who accompanied us on this journey!
-
I am delighted that our edited volume "Second Language #Pragmatics and Young Language Learners - #EFL #Primary #School Contexts in #Europe" is now available https://www.multilingual-matters.com/page/detail/second-language-pragmatics-and-young-language-learners/?SF1=work_id&ST1=CVIEW-67d2c2f691716. We are very gratetful to our contributors who accompanied us on this journey!
-
I am delighted that our edited volume "Second Language #Pragmatics and Young Language Learners - #EFL #Primary #School Contexts in #Europe" is now available https://www.multilingual-matters.com/page/detail/second-language-pragmatics-and-young-language-learners/?SF1=work_id&ST1=CVIEW-67d2c2f691716. We are very gratetful to our contributors who accompanied us on this journey!
-
I am delighted that our edited volume "Second Language #Pragmatics and Young Language Learners - #EFL #Primary #School Contexts in #Europe" is now available https://www.multilingual-matters.com/page/detail/second-language-pragmatics-and-young-language-learners/?SF1=work_id&ST1=CVIEW-67d2c2f691716. We are very gratetful to our contributors who accompanied us on this journey!
-
I am delighted that our edited volume "Second Language #Pragmatics and Young Language Learners - #EFL #Primary #School Contexts in #Europe" is now available https://www.multilingual-matters.com/page/detail/second-language-pragmatics-and-young-language-learners/?SF1=work_id&ST1=CVIEW-67d2c2f691716. We are very gratetful to our contributors who accompanied us on this journey!
-
I wrote a little about Agatha Christie – as a verb
https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2025/10/11/to-agatha-christie-v-tr/#language #AlienEarth #AgathaChristie #slang #writing #blog #verbs #verbing #LanguageChange #pragmatics
-
I wrote a little about Agatha Christie – as a verb
https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2025/10/11/to-agatha-christie-v-tr/#language #AlienEarth #AgathaChristie #slang #writing #blog #verbs #verbing #LanguageChange #pragmatics
-
I wrote a little about Agatha Christie – as a verb
https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2025/10/11/to-agatha-christie-v-tr/#language #AlienEarth #AgathaChristie #slang #writing #blog #verbs #verbing #LanguageChange #pragmatics
-
I wrote a little about Agatha Christie – as a verb
https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2025/10/11/to-agatha-christie-v-tr/#language #AlienEarth #AgathaChristie #slang #writing #blog #verbs #verbing #LanguageChange #pragmatics
-
I wrote a little about Agatha Christie – as a verb
https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2025/10/11/to-agatha-christie-v-tr/#language #AlienEarth #AgathaChristie #slang #writing #blog #verbs #verbing #LanguageChange #pragmatics
-
to Agatha Christie (v.tr.)
The conversion of nouns to verbs (to impact, to medal, to leverage, to architect) is a continual object of criticism and word rage. But language has been verbing for as long as it has languaged. In fact, there’s nothing that can’t be verbed if you put your mind to it.
‘What about someone’s name?’ you might ask. ‘What about Agatha Christie?’
I’m glad you picked that example. Because the new FX series Alien: Earth offers this great line in its second episode, ‘Mr. October’ (a mild swear word follows):
Context, with a tiny spoiler in the first line:
In the year 2120, a military search-and-rescue team are investigating a spaceship that has crashed to Earth. When a grisly but intriguing discovery threatens to detain them unduly, Siberian (played by Diêm Camille) makes the call to keep moving:
Okay, come on. We’re search and rescue. Let forensics Agatha Christie this shit.
To Agatha Christie something, then, is to figure it out; to investigate and solve a puzzling problem in the manner of Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot, Christie’s fictional detectives.
I like this verbing because it reads like improvised slang. There’s no suggestion that the phrase has currency as a verbal eponym, whether broadly in-world or more specifically in Siberian’s own usage or that of one of her speech communities. Rather, it’s an impromptu linguistic innovation that’s both playful and bookish.
It also celebrates Christie’s enduring popularity as a mystery author. What other name could fit in this semantic slot? Only a fictional one, I think: Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe, or Sam Spade – but not Arthur Conan Doyle, Raymond Chandler, or Dashiell Hammett.
Other contenders include Jessica Fletcher, Perry Mason, Columbo, Jules Maigret, Nancy Drew, Inspector Morse, and Special Agent Dale Cooper. But it’s more of a stretch to imagine them being so culturally salient in a century’s time.
Alien: Earth was created by Noah Hawley, who also has the writing credit on the episode. He’s probably not even the first person to verb Agatha Christie, but for once I didn’t bother trying to Agatha Christie it.
*
Further reading:
In my A–Z of English usage myths, I wrote that peevers hate verbing, but only when they think it’s new – they constantly use verbings that were established earlier. Who remembers all the yelling and wailing over contact (v.)? Who would believe there even was such a controversy?
See also: ‘Verb all the things’; ‘Verbing weirds language – but in a good way’; and ‘Verbing and nouning are fine and here’s a quiz‘. And a few other posts about detective fiction.
#AgathaChristie #AlienEarth #conversion #detective #detectiveFiction #eponyms #humour #language #languageChange #NoahHawley #pragmatics #screenwriting #semantics #slang #TV #verbing #verbs #writing
-
to Agatha Christie (v.tr.)
The conversion of nouns to verbs (to impact, to medal, to leverage, to architect) is a continual object of criticism and word rage. But language has been verbing for as long as it has languaged. In fact, there’s nothing that can’t be verbed if you put your mind to it.
‘What about someone’s name?’ you might ask. ‘What about Agatha Christie?’
I’m glad you picked that example. Because the new FX series Alien: Earth offers this great line in its second episode, ‘Mr. October’ (a mild swear word follows):
Context, with a tiny spoiler in the first line:
In the year 2120, a military search-and-rescue team are investigating a spaceship that has crashed to Earth. When a grisly but intriguing discovery threatens to detain them unduly, Siberian (played by Diêm Camille) makes the call to keep moving:
Okay, come on. We’re search and rescue. Let forensics Agatha Christie this shit.
To Agatha Christie something, then, is to figure it out; to investigate and solve a puzzling problem in the manner of Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot, Christie’s fictional detectives.
I like this verbing because it reads like improvised slang. There’s no suggestion that the phrase has currency as a verbal eponym, whether broadly in-world or more specifically in Siberian’s own usage or that of one of her speech communities. Rather, it’s an impromptu linguistic innovation that’s both playful and bookish.
It also celebrates Christie’s enduring popularity as a mystery author. What other name could fit in this semantic slot? Only a fictional one, I think: Sherlock Holmes, Philip Marlowe, or Sam Spade – but not Arthur Conan Doyle, Raymond Chandler, or Dashiell Hammett.
Other contenders include Jessica Fletcher, Perry Mason, Columbo, Jules Maigret, Nancy Drew, Inspector Morse, and Special Agent Dale Cooper. But it’s more of a stretch to imagine them being so culturally salient in a century’s time.
Alien: Earth was created by Noah Hawley, who also has the writing credit on the episode. He’s probably not even the first person to verb Agatha Christie, but for once I didn’t bother trying to Agatha Christie it.
*
Further reading:
In my A–Z of English usage myths, I wrote that peevers hate verbing, but only when they think it’s new – they constantly use verbings that were established earlier. Who remembers all the yelling and wailing over contact (v.)? Who would believe there even was such a controversy?
See also: ‘Verb all the things’; ‘Verbing weirds language – but in a good way’; and ‘Verbing and nouning are fine and here’s a quiz‘. And a few other posts about detective fiction.
#AgathaChristie #AlienEarth #conversion #detective #detectiveFiction #eponyms #humour #language #languageChange #NoahHawley #pragmatics #screenwriting #semantics #slang #TV #verbing #verbs #writing