By Geoffrey Pullum. Vienna, Austria—I don’t think any lecturing visit has left me quite as awestruck as my visit this week to the University of Vienna. The mind boggles both at the roster of former faculty (Adorno, Boltzmann, Brentano, Freud, Hayek, Kaposi, Lorenz, Luick, von Mises, Schleicher, Schrödinger, Schumpeter…) and at the list of notable alumni (Bettelheim, Doppler, Feyerabend, Gödel, Husserl, Koestler, Mahler, Mendel, Popper, Preminger…). More...
By Lucy Ferriss. One of the many casualties of spell checkers is students’ ability to describe their family rituals. Too frequently, recently, they seem to be having super in the dinning room. And from their emails, I infer that the typographical slip comes from the superfluity of the word super, which pops up everywhere, mostly as an adverb: super happy, super hungry, super fantastic. I noticed it particularly when I learned of the passing of a friend’s mother from a mutual friend who wrote to say that he was super sad about it. I do not doubt for an instant the sincerity of my friend’s sympathy. But the oddity of the word choice, to my ears, may stem from an amalgam of at least three influences on our current super craze. More...
By William Germano. Nobody can explain the turkey. The expression to talk turkey has been with us for a long time. We’re still not sure where it comes from, though, much less how turkeys got involved. You’d think turkeys had enough to worry about besides English usage. Especially this time of year. More...
By Ben Yagoda. I told you about vocal fry. And you know all about uptalk? The inflection that was first discussed by Robin Lakoff in 1976, that was given its name by James Gorman in a 1993 New York Times article, and that continues to rouse the ire of right-thinking people everywhere. More...
Screening of the three films shortlisted for this year's LUX Prize is now taking place around Europe. This year's finalists are: "Bande de filles" (Girlhood), "Razredni Souvražnik" (Class Enemy) and "Ida" - which additionally is the top nominee for the European Film Awards.
The LUX Prize 
was initiated by the European Parliament in 2007 to illuminate public debate on European integration and to facilitate the diffusion of European films. Awarded annually, the LUX Prize is voted for by Members of the European Parliament. More...
The project "Friendly Resources for playful speech therapy" (FREPY) implemented by the Vytautas Magnus University helps children with language difficulties improve their communication and linguistic skills. FREPY is this year's winner of the European Language Label in Lithuania 
.
FREPY develops interactive and multi-functional intervention resources (both online resources and printed materials) for language support in four European languages: German, Lithuanian, Estonian and Slovenian. More...
Comment mettre en valeur les identités culturelles locales à l'aune de la décentralisation ? C'est à cette question que les délégations de plusieurs Régions françaises vont tenter de répondre lors des 24e rencontres des langues et cultures régionales, du 26 au 28 novembre à Rennes et Saint-Malo.
Des délégations venant Nouvelle-Calédonie, du Pays Basque, d'Alsace, de Catalogne, d'Occitanie … Et de Bretagne. Toutes ces Régions ont un rapport privilégié avec leur identité culturelle locale. Tous les ans, les rencontres interrégionales leur permettent d'échanger sur les politiques en faveur de leurs langues et cultures régionales, voire de conduire des actions communes. Cette année, actualité oblige, les représentants des collectivités publiques et des fédérations associatives réfléchiront autour du thème : « Réforme territoriale, identités culturelles et linguistiques et développement des territoires ». Voir l'article...
Le projet Langues et Employabilité porté par le CIEP se déroule sur une année. Financé par la 
Commission européenne, il est construit en partenariat avec la Direction générale de l'enseignement scolaire (DGESCO), le Centre d'études et de recherche sur les qualifications (CEREQ), le réseau des Chambres de commerce et d'industrie de France, l'Office national d'information sur les enseignements et les professions (ONISEP), et l'Agence Erasmus+ Education&Formation.
A partir de l'analyse des besoins du marché du travail, ce projet a pour objectif de sensibiliser les jeunes et la communauté éducative sur l'importance du choix d'une deuxième langue vivante.
By Allan Metcalf. It’s time to take a breather from rescuing the humanities. So in this week of Thanksgiving, let’s pause a moment to acknowledge the corn. More...
By Ben Yagoda. Back in September, Barrett Township, in Pennsylvania, was the center of a manhunt for an armed fugitive and adopted the motto “Barrett Proud.” When the suspect was caught, in October, the entire region appropriated it and dubbed itself “Pocono Proud.” More...
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