Watch your Language
Latest 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 ... Read more
4 months ago by Julia Palmer.
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 ... Read more
5 months ago by Julia Palmer.
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 ... Read more
7 months ago by Julia Palmer.
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 ... Read more
10 months ago by Julia Palmer.
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 ... Read more
11 months ago by Julia Palmer.
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 ... Read more
1 year ago by Julia Palmer.
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 ... Read more
1 year ago by Julia Palmer.
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 ... Read more
2 years ago by Julia Palmer.
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. ... Read more
2 years ago by Julia Palmer.
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 ... Read more
2 years ago by Julia Palmer.
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 ... Read more
2 years ago by Julia Palmer.
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 ... Read more
2 years ago by Julia Palmer.
Words with multiple meanings
We are normally comfortable with the fact that a word, at any given time, may have multiple meanings. For example, club can mean “a heavy ... Read more
2 years ago by Julia Palmer.
That which troubles us…
From time to time readers contact me with grammar questions. Today’s column is dedicated to answering some of those letters. Dear Dr. Palmer, I don’t ... Read more
2 years ago by Julia Palmer.
Me, myself and I, oh my
Several of us refer to it as “administrator speech” and it is, unfortunately, becoming a little too common. I think that our rhetoric and composition ... Read more
3 years ago by Julia Palmer.
Needless repetition or necessary distinction?
I was having dinner with colleagues from my department recently when the topic of redundancy in language came up. One of my friends pointed out that ... Read more
3 years ago by Julia Palmer.
Vegetable word histories
Several vegetables common to our gardens come from the Latin word for cabbage “caulis.” Through a series of phonetic changes this Latin word came into ... Read more
3 years ago by Julia Palmer.
Myths that make monsters — Part IV
This is the fourth part in a series that challenges four fallacies or myths in our culture’s general perception of language and how it works ... Read more
3 years ago by Julia Palmer.
Myths that make monsters — Part III
This column is the third part in a series that challenges four fallacies or myths in our culture’s general perception of language and how it ... Read more
3 years ago by Julia Palmer.
Myths that make monsters — Part II
In a previous column, I started a discussion of myths that students often have about how language really works. These myths that students (and society ... Read more
3 years ago by Julia Palmer.
Myths that make monsters — Part I
A few years ago, I experienced something completely unexpected in a college classroom that continues to trouble me. I had been asked by a colleague to ... Read more
3 years ago by Julia Palmer.
A bouquet of flower and plant word histories
Many of the flowers commonly found in our gardens have word histories worthy of note. For example, the word daisy is from Old English doegeseage ... Read more
3 years ago by Julia Palmer.
I hate it when you say that!
Recently, my friend Linda and I were talking about language, specifically about language that gets on our nerves. Now I realize that variation or multiple ... Read more
3 years ago by Julia Palmer.
Is language change decay?
In order to be accurate, any description of language must always acknowledge two fundamental principles that are always operating in a language, and these are ... Read more
3 years ago by Julia Palmer.
Where words come from
One of the most fascinating aspects of language and something that interests almost everybody is how new words come into our language. Because language is ... Read more
3 years ago by Julia Palmer.
The aks vs. ask controversy
As I explained in an earlier column, there are two principles that are always at work in language. The first is that language is always ... Read more
3 years ago by Julia Palmer.
Between you and me: A grammatical misfortune in the making
These days, it is not uncommon for someone to be corrected for saying “That’s between you and me” or “Send that to him and me.” ... Read more