February 2010

  • Chatspeak

    By jemanji on 2/19/10 7:05am
    39 Comments

    PLEASE use that emoticon ONE more timePLEASE use that emoticon ONE more timeNow, here's a late-at-night-out-of-my-mind-bleary post for yer :- )

    ............

    Does anybody care to explain why some communities find minimal chatspeak, and emoticons, as annoying as they do.  This isn't a challenge.  It's a request for information.

    We were skimming a comments thread at a big M's blog and somebody threw "LOL" into a comment.

    Immediately, in Terrence Stamp fashion, another poster icily intoned "please do not use chatspeak here."  (Of course, wtf is acceptable and encouraged.)

    ............

    Read more >

  • The Language of Love

    By msarko on 2/19/10 2:46am
    Add Comment

    It's funny and occasionally unsettling just how dependent perception is on language comprehension. When it comes to describing complex emotional experiences, words are often both insufficient and our only means of communication. As with everything in spoken language, emotional expression is a struggle between exactness and parsimony. Perhaps no concept is as difficult to convey as love. Maybe it's not so much because the emotion is too complex, but because the word itself isn't fit to do the job.



    Read more >

  • Gender

    By lisala on 2/7/10 6:59pm
    Add Comment

    Gender, according to the American Heritage Dictionary refers to:

    Read more >

    1. Grammar
      1. A grammatical category used in the classification of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and, in some languages, verbs that may be arbitrary or based on characteristics such as sex or animacy and that determines agreement with or selection of modifiers, referents, or grammatical forms.
      2. One category of such