Language Log: Listeners needed for TTS standards intelligibility test
Email from Ann Syrdal on behalf of the S3-WG91 Standards Working Group: The "Text-to-Speech Synthesis Technology" ASA Standards working group (S3-WG91) is conducting a web-based test that applies the...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Squeezed Middles
Like Geoff and Ben, I was puzzled by choice of "squeezed middle" as the OED's WOTY. But I agree with Ben that it's reasonable as well as traditional for dictionaries to include semi-compositional...
View ArticleLanguage Log: POTY
Why can't we all get along? Let's end the argument about whether the Word Of The Year should sometimes be a phrase by having a separate competition for Phrase Of The Year. And we can divide the POTY...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Kolaviral
"‘Kolaveri Di’ Goes Viral. But Why?", WSJ 11/22/2011; "Kolaveri di next big thing in popular culture", DNA 11/25/2011; "With millions of hits, 'Kolaveri Di' on song", The Times of India 11/25/2011;...
View ArticleLanguage Log: SUS as farewell formulas
Those who enjoyed the "semantically unpredictable sentences" in the S3-WG91 Standards Working Group's test of TTS intelligibility will appreciate the latest SMBC: There's some theoretical and...
View ArticleLanguage Log: An inventory of postings on peeving etc.
A partial inventory of postings on language rage, language peeving, word aversion, and word attraction on Language Log and AZBlog, here. I ran out of steam early this year, so the inventory is...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Potable and Non-Slip
A few weeks ago I stayed in the Xiányáng hángkōng dà jiǔdiàn / Xianyang Aviation Hotel (a more idiomatic English translation of that would be Xianyang Airport Hotel) 咸阳航空大酒店 near Xi'an, Shaanxi,...
View ArticleLanguage Log: i2speak
There's a free web-based tool for IPA entry at i2speak.com: Some people may prefer this to Weston Ruter's excellent IPA keyboard, which has been my IPA-entry method of choice for the past five years....
View ArticleLanguage Log: Flaming Napalmed Knickers
Or maybe it should be "Pantaloons in the Plasma State". Anyhow, we need a category of reckless mendacity beyond PolitiFact's "Pants on Fire" stage, to deal with Jim Meyers and Ashley Martella, "George...
View ArticleLanguage Log: Towel-snapping semiotics: How the frontal lobe comes out...
Yesterday's Tank McNamara: The previous day's strip: And today's: The lawyer's towel-snapping fixation is apparently a slightly obscure reference to a slightly obscure aspect of the Penn State sex...
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