By Allan Metcalf. What if everyone born within a particular generation shared the same view of the world, a view that was different from that of generations before and after. More...

By Anne Curzan. A friend of mine’s daughter spotted a (semi-) auto-antonym — a word that has two opposing meanings — that was not on my radar: downhill. More...

By Anne Curzan. There is a great new word that promises to get us out of a not so great metaphor. I’m going to plead its case and hope against hope that the word might get some traction. More...

By Geoffrey Pullum. Chapter 5 of Lindley Murray’s English Grammar (1795) begins thus:

A PRONOUN is a word used instead of a noun, to avoid the too frequent repetition of the same word.

The definition is useless: flagrantly inadequate. Yet after more than two centuries people still repeat it. Chapter 5 of Nevile M. Gwynne’s book Gwynne’s Grammar (2011), like almost all other grammar books addressed to the general public, simply paraphrases Murray. More...

By Geoffrey Pullum. As I have explained, I spent 18 months of my dissolute youth in Germany without learning German. I still feel a little ashamed every time I visit that fine country. More...