We apologise for any inconvenience

It is a depressingly common experience. You are waiting for a train and an announcement tells you that your train is late. The announcement invariably ends ‘We apologise for any inconvenience.’ Why do announcers always include the minimising word ‘any’?   Including ‘any’ signals that the announcer (or rather the organisation they represent) doubts whether…… Continue reading We apologise for any inconvenience

Using translation to show how the perfect differs across languages

Many western European languages have a perfect tense, formed by combining an auxiliary verb (meaning ‘have’ or ‘be’) with a past participle. Different languages use this verb form in different ways. A recent paper used translations of a well-known French novel to explore those differences. The aim was to see which tense the translators used…… Continue reading Using translation to show how the perfect differs across languages

Yes-no questions in headlines

I recently came across a reference to Betteridge’s Law. Not having heard of this before, I looked it up on the web. As Wikipedia explains, Betteridge’s Law of Headlines says the following: ‘Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.’ Ian Betteridge, a technology journalist, explained that journalists…… Continue reading Yes-no questions in headlines