By Lucy Ferriss. A commenter on a newspaper article about Prince Charles (the opinionated royal destined to inherit the throne under Britain’s hereditary monarchical and theocratic system of government) said this:
The moment the Monarchy, with he at its head, begins a campaign of public influence is the moment the Monarchy should be disbanded.
“With he at its head?” Not “with him at its head”? Let’s face it: The traditionally accepted rules for case-marking pronouns in Standard English are simply a mystery to many people who in general are counted as literate as well as conversationally competent. More...

By Lucy Ferriss. “Is your novel fiction, or did any of it really happen?” I’ve started doing readings of my new novel, A Sister to Honor, and sure enough, the question came from one of the attentive listeners waiting in line to buy a signed copy. More...

By Ben Yagoda. The email came in with the heading “Ben! How could you!?” The message read, in its entirety:
“How Not to Write Bad,” page 26: “As for state names, never abbreviate when they’re four letters or less, or when they’re standing alone.” More...

By Allan Metcalf. Early in January every year, nearly a thousand people who study how language works flock together for the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America together with six smaller groups under its wings, including the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, the Association for Linguistic Evidence, and of course the American Dialect Society. More...

By Anne Curzan. This past Friday night was the 25^th time that the American Dialect Society (ADS) has voted for the Word of the Year. We were reminded at the beginning of the meeting that this makes it only the 24^th anniversary, so no champagne yet. … It was, as usual, a lively gathering, with standing room only in the back and even, at one point, chanting in support of one word on the ballot. More...