tag:www.michaelerard.com,2008:/current//1 2008-04-25T18:30:56Z michael erard - current Movable Type 3.31 tag:www.michaelerard.com,2008:/current//1.415 2008-04-25T14:31:32Z 2008-04-25T18:30:56Z

It's the nouns and verbs that catch our ears first. The complex words, the sediments of Greek and Latin affixes, the long noun phrases, the passive verbs. The surnames of researchers rising and fallen. The journal titles, the acronyms. You...

Michael Erard http://michaelerard.com It's the nouns and verbs that catch our ears first. The complex words, the sediments of Greek and Latin affixes, the long noun phrases, the passive verbs. The surnames of researchers rising and fallen. The journal titles, the acronyms. You can also hear, in that perpetual dance with certainty, the hedges that soften claims ("it was reported that") or strengthen them ("though inconclusive, the data suggests..."). The language of science, with its specialized vocabulary and clipped rhythm, has a distinctive architecture. The functional elegance of this rarefied speak is uniquely captured in one of its most inconspicuous words: "so." Read the rest here. The orginal is here. ]]> tag:www.michaelerard.com,2008:/current//1.406 2008-04-14T15:16:00Z 2008-04-14T15:16:47Z

This is the fourth piece I've published since 1996 about Joe, a friend I made during the summer I lived in Alpine, Texas. It begins like this: Remember Joe, my old friend from Alpine? He would be 80 years old...

Michael Erard http://michaelerard.com This is the fourth piece I've published since 1996 about Joe, a friend I made during the summer I lived in Alpine, Texas. It begins like this: Remember Joe, my old friend from Alpine? He would be 80 years old this year, but he’s long gone. Survived cancer long enough to see the truth of God—he’d finally asked to see a priest after a lifetime of avowed atheism—and watch the twin towers fall. A month later I was driving to Midland for a burial in a place he never wanted. But Joe haunts me still. Especially when the economic news gets bad. I can hear his voice: Do you know what a derivative is, Michael? A liquidity put? Phantom envelopes mailed from Alpine arrived filled with clipped newspaper articles and forecasts of human greed highlighted with yellow marker. The words in my ears: Michael, you need a gun, and cash, small bills.]]> tag:www.michaelerard.com,2008:/current//1.405 2008-04-14T15:13:59Z 2008-04-14T15:15:34Z

'The verb," says Edward Vajda, linguistic adventurer. "The key to all this is the verbs." "All this" is Mr. Vajda's announcement of a linguistic link between Asia and the Americas, a discovery that has sent a wave of celebration -...

Michael Erard http://michaelerard.com here. ]]> tag:www.michaelerard.com,2008:/current//1.395 2008-04-01T17:05:00Z 2008-04-25T18:52:13Z

My review of William Safire's Safire's Political Dictionary starts like this: Words are the most familiar part of language, because it's words we're most conscious of learning and forgetting. Only certain words, though. Your word-of-the-day calendar will never list "the"...

Michael Erard http://michaelerard.com Safire's Political Dictionary starts like this: Words are the most familiar part of language, because it's words we're most conscious of learning and forgetting. Only certain words, though. Your word-of-the-day calendar will never list "the" or "but." You boast about knowing French numbers, not the pronouns. What draws our fascination is the words for things, actions, properties and the other stuff of the world, not archaic prepositions. Read the rest here. The original is here. ]]> tag:www.michaelerard.com,2008:/current//1.392 2008-03-29T20:06:28Z 2008-04-25T18:53:22Z

Most linguists approach language as just another kind of natural fact, like cells or rocks. Most of the intellectual action takes place in chairs, and it ends less often in triumphant discovery than in quiet revelation. Then there’s Derek Bickerton....

Michael Erard http://michaelerard.com here. Original is here. ]]> tag:www.michaelerard.com,2008:/current//1.391 2008-03-28T18:48:30Z 2008-03-28T18:49:19Z

Michael Erard http://michaelerard.com ]]>