WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
Watch Your Language: Language rules can be perplexing
It turns out that this semester I have had to teach past participles to students in two different classes. The first class is an advanced ...
Julia Palmer, Author at Farmville
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
Watch Your Language: Is this correct or is it a blooper?
It’s June, the regular school year is finished, and it’s time to relax with a new set of examples of uses that could be bloopers ...
by Julia Palmer, Friday, June 9, 2023 10:43 am
Columns
Watch your Language — Correct or incorrect use?
Today’s language column is devoted to a look at the many ways in which everyday language use can be both curious (in the sense of ...
by Julia Palmer, Saturday, January 28, 2023 7:47 am
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
Watch your language — Learning a lesson in language
was in the south of England a few weeks ago (part of a research trip to learn more about the evacuation of Basque children to ...
by Julia Palmer, Saturday, October 29, 2022 4:58 pm
Columns
Watch your language — The wrong word often slips in to a sentence
It’s July and while tomatoes are just starting to turn red and we’re waiting for a tasty harvest, we’ve got a bumper crop of bloopers ...
by Julia Palmer, Friday, July 22, 2022 6:01 pm
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
Typos and Errors
Today’s column presents the latest batch of typos and errors. Typos are often due to our typing quickly or to technology’s interference with our word ...
by Julia Palmer, Friday, June 3, 2022 4:30 pm
Columns
Watch your language — ‘There are leeks in the bottle’
This column is dedicated to another set of examples of those pesky little misspellings and grammatical infelicities that continue to annoy those of us who ...
by Julia Palmer, Thursday, February 10, 2022 5:55 pm
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
An autumnal harvest of bloopers
Language and the multiple ways we use and misuse it continue to fascinate many of us. In these days of advanced technologies, digital communications, spell-checkers ...
by Julia Palmer, Friday, November 12, 2021 6:00 am
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
Insights from a forgotten food writer
If you’ve never heard the name Clementine Paddleford and you enjoy reading good writing, then you are in for a treat. Paddleford was a popular ...
by Julia Palmer, Friday, July 16, 2021 6:00 am
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
COLUMN — Board game explores sayings from around the world
If you are looking for a new game to play during the holidays, you may be interested in a board game called “Wise and Otherwise.” ...
by Julia Palmer, Friday, December 11, 2020 6:00 am
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
Some thoughtful sayings to ponder
This column is dedicated to interesting, inspirational and/or original sayings from mainly U.S. English. A future column will take on proverbs or sayings from other ...
by Julia Palmer, Friday, September 25, 2020 6:00 am
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
‘Class’ical spelling issues abound
This past academic year was one of the most challenging and unforgettable years many of us have ever had to negotiate. And it was not ...
by Julia Palmer, Wednesday, August 5, 2020 6:00 am
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
Out of the mouths of children
As we continue to confront the consequences of the coronavirus and deal with the effects, humor is more important than ever. The following collection is ...
by Julia Palmer, Friday, May 29, 2020 6:00 am
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
Fun with puns and signs
In the spirit of keeping things light and cheery, while keeping a keen eye on our language, today’s column is a hybrid of sorts. The ...
by Julia Palmer, Friday, April 24, 2020 6:00 am
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
Some levity from church bulletin faux pas
Because we are living in strange and uncertain times, I thought I’d dedicate this column to bringing a smile to your face. The topic for ...
by Julia Palmer, Saturday, April 11, 2020 6:00 am
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
More bloopers
‘Tis the season not only for more bloopers but for unpleasant illnesses for students. I received an email from a student who needed something and ...
by Julia Palmer, Friday, December 13, 2019 10:05 am
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
What’s in a word
A few weeks ago, a colleague in math, who is keenly aware of language patterns and inconsistencies, asked me “If fellow means man, is fellowship ...
by Julia Palmer, Thursday, October 17, 2019 10:43 am
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE
Books about language
With all the back-to-school preparations and focus, this is a good time for a column dedicated to books about language and linguistics. One of the ...
by Julia Palmer, Monday, August 26, 2019 1:50 am
Columns
Duel enrollment, large rolls and participation grapes
If you caught the last episode of “Call the Midwife” you might recall that Fred, the Nonnatus House gardener and handyman was worried he might ...
by Julia Palmer, Thursday, June 6, 2019 8:14 am
Columns
The formation of words
The study of the formation of words is morpohology. Morph is from the Greek meaning form or shape and in linguistics a morpheme is the ...
by Julia Palmer, Thursday, May 9, 2019 7:46 am
Columns
More from the Great British Baking Show
With the enormous popularity of the Great British Baking Show, the U.S. audience enjoys seeing the competition in preparation of challenging dishes and also hearing ...
by Julia Palmer, Thursday, February 14, 2019 9:28 am
Columns
Language bloopers
It’s time for another column on language bloopers, those unexpected and humorous misuses of words and phrases that leave us all chuckling. So, a few ...
by Julia Palmer, Thursday, November 1, 2018 7:44 am
Columns
Translation humor
This semester I’m teaching a class in translation from Spanish to English. One of the texts I enjoy consulting is Jack Child’s Introduction to Spanish ...
by Julia Palmer, Thursday, September 20, 2018 8:06 am
Columns
Toponymy, study of place names
Toponymy is the study of place names and this column explores some of the many interesting and unusual place names in the Commonwealth of Virginia. ...
by Julia Palmer, Wednesday, July 25, 2018 6:37 pm
Columns
Is everything tickety-boo?
It wasn’t too long ago that PBS broadcast a wonderful show from the BBC called “My Mother and other strangers.” The main character, a strongwilled ...
by Julia Palmer, Thursday, July 19, 2018 7:36 am
Columns
De Guatemala a Guatepeor – he and she used as object pronouns
Most of us are familiar with the unfortunate but now common error evident in phrases such as “between you and I” and “with her and ...
by Julia Palmer, Thursday, June 7, 2018 8:40 am
Columns
Excuse my Finnish!
When Clark Gable’s character delivered the line “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” to Scarlett O’Hara in the movie version of Gone with ...