- Lake Lake again, this time on earthIn my very first post on this blog, I wrote about Lake Jezioro on Mars. Its name means Lake Lake. Lake Lake on Mars – Language Miscellany I recently came across an example on Earth, and in fact went for a boat trip on that lake. Lake Rotomahana in New Zealand has a name meaning… Continue reading Lake Lake again, this time on earth
- A pause can change syntax and meaningTrying to write something concisely, I came across a quirk of English. I ran into an example where inserting a pause changes both the syntax of a sentence and its meaning. Here’s the context. Sarah Wells married Joseph Randall, but Joseph died within a few years. After that, Sarah remarried. Her second husband was Louis… Continue reading A pause can change syntax and meaning
- More on the language with ‘only 3 verbs’I’ve written before about press reports that the Australian language Jingulu has only 3 verbs. A language with only 3 verbs? – Language Miscellany I’ve now found some discussion of that idea in Mark C Baker’s book Lexical categories: verbs, nouns, and adjectives. In section 2.10 of his book, Baker discusses whether there exist any… Continue reading More on the language with ‘only 3 verbs’
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