When proofreaders take out their red pens, their main purpose is to get rid of any errors that may hinder comprehension or sidetrack the reader. One aspect of this task is a certain economy of corrections: a proofreader should spend their time on warranted changes. These changes have to do with grammatical errors and with […]
In my last blog I spoke about Noah Webster and how he reformed parts of the English language in his Webster’s dictionary. Now, let’s take a look at what is considered today’s most comprehensive and accurate dictionary, which originated across the sea. It all began back in 1857 when members of the Philological Society […]
English is probably the most widely spoken language in the world. In most cases when someone visits a country where they do not speak the local language, English is often the go-to option for communication. English could be considered the new universal language, the new Latin. It is on television, in the movies, literature, and music, […]
I recently discovered the Oxford Dictionary blog which features interesting posts such as “London Underground: the origins of some unusual names”. It also features a Q&A section to some really interesting questions about the English language which I think are worth mentioning. Starting off with a surprisingly complex question: 1) Any idea on how many […]
In English, we use concision (many short words or phrases) as well as an economy of language (fewer words), the preference we demonstrate for the impersonal vision of reality (objectivity), our calls to evoke feelings (appeal to the senses, images), the abstract analysis and the lack of naming of the agent of an action (passive […]
In English, adjectives are always spelled the same and, syntactically, are almost always placed before the noun. In Spanish, there are a few that are generally unchangeable, but the majoirty aren’t, and nearly all of them denote the number of the subject (singular or plural). Its expressive value differs depending on if it is placed […]
Both English and Spanish follow the S-V-O (subject – verb – object) order, though each to a different degree. In contemporary English, this scheme is preferred by the majority of speakers and writers. In Spanish, it is a basic order that the language often moves away from as a result of style guidelines and individual […]
How I love the history and development of languages! It is a never-ending labyrinth of discovery and surprises, all reflecting the wonderful creative nature of human beings. Recently I found the BBC article on the oldest words in English, which used the study performed by researchers at Reading University as its basis. While I enjoyed […]
Paronymous calque or loan word: is the result of an incorrect correspondence between two words that have similar forms or etymologies but that have evolved differently in their respective languages to the point that they now have different meanings (semantic transfer). At times it happens because, between two words etymologically related in English, but with […]
It is a class of loan in which phrase is borrowed from another language, but each of the elements of the phrase are translated. This type of loan is known as a “calque”. It involves respecting the syntactical structures of the target language (week-end, “fin de semana”). There is also “structure calque” in which the […]