Questions relating to the scientific study of language.
4
votes
2answers
493 views
Syntax for marking incorrect examples of language
I have noticed various marks in example sentences to denote incorrect examples of English:
This is correct.
*This incorrectly.
The former is left alone; the latter has an asterisk marking ...
7
votes
3answers
401 views
Why do we say 'commentator' instead of 'commenter'?
Another thread addresses the Englishness of the words. My question is different and a lot more convoluted: I hope I can make it plain and simple.
I. There are straightforward nouns of action and ...
17
votes
5answers
1k views
Is it true that iambic pentameter is “natural” to English? If so, why?
When I first read Dante's Divine Comedy in high school, I remember once being puzzled at what I thought were strained rhymes in the translation, and mentioned it to my English teacher. In reply, she ...
3
votes
3answers
316 views
Is there a name for the kind of sounds commonly found in profanities?
Fuck. Shit. Bitch. Cunt. I remember reading somewhere -- a very long time ago -- that these "hard" sounds are virtually necessary in profanities. The explanation I roughly remember is that because ...
25
votes
3answers
11k views
Meaning of “native speaker of English”
Who is considered a native speaker of English? I am a little confused by the various answers found online.
8
votes
3answers
204 views
Verbs of inaction
It seems to me that most English verbs always convey some action. That is, no words (to my knowledge) convey that absence of an action. Let me explain. Let's assume that I wanted to say that a certain ...
8
votes
4answers
2k views
Is there a term for “*cough*<something>*cough*”?
What I mean is the act of "coughing" something that you don't actually want to (or rather dare) say outright. So instead of writing, say, "Miss Parker", you'd write "*cough*Ms Parker*cough*" or fake ...
13
votes
4answers
1k views
English questions and negation with *do* in syntax
A former lecturer of mine once explained why, from a syntactic point of view, the English rule that negation and questions are formed with the auxiliary do follows from other syntactic facts about ...
13
votes
3answers
789 views
When and why did the letter “u” begin being called [ju]?
We pronounce the name of the twenty-first letter of the alphabet homophonically with the word you.
Was this what the letter was always called (ever since the analogous letter in Latin), or did it at ...
98
votes
9answers
8k views
Is there a word or phrase for the feeling you get after looking at a word for too long?
(Perhaps this only happens to me, but I doubt it.)
Sometimes after looking at a word for a while, I become convinced that it can't possibly be spelled correctly. Even after looking it up, sounding ...
10
votes
3answers
191 views
What is the standard of proof in etymology?
In this question the idea I put forward as a possible etymology for "ta" garnered the response that it is a well known false etymology for the word. That got me to wondering - being strictly a dabbler ...
5
votes
2answers
157 views
Modern replacement for checking frequency tables?
What is the most up-to-date, robust, and reliable way to check verb (or other POS) frequencies in current usage?
Is there any hope of an algorithm involving counting Google hits and dividing by some ...
10
votes
5answers
4k views
Where does “ta!” come from?
Where does the expression "ta" come from?
Wikipedia has only this to say:
"ta!", slang, Exclam. Thank you! {Informal}, an expression of gratitude
but no additional information or links about ...
