Everyone Uses Singular 'They,' Whether They Realize It Or Not CSA Images/Vetta/Getty Images Talk about belated recognition. At its meeting in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 7, the American Dialect Society voted to make the 600-year-old pronoun "they" their word of the year for 2015. As ordinary as it is, that use of "they" has always been a bit disreputable — you might say it, but you wouldn't want to write it down. A few months ago, the Washington Post style guide accepted it. This use of "they" has been around for a long time. That rule wasn't really discredited until the 1970s, when the second-wave feminists made the generic masculine the paradigm of sexism in language. But once the generic masculine fell out of favor, what were we going to replace it with? But singular "they" still has its critics, and they can get pretty lofty about it. A lot of people tell you it sets their teeth on edge, but my guess is that they're not listening to themselves very attentively. The only problem with singular "they" is that some people still think there is one.
Research: We Drop People Who Give Us Critical Feedback Think about the people at work who are part of your network — the individuals who help you improve your performance or provide you with emotional support when you are going through a tough spell. If you’re like most people, the colleagues who come to mind are those you get along with and who have a good impression of you. But has anyone in your network actually given you tough feedback? Your likely answer is “not many.” In one of our studies, we used four years of archival data on over 300 full-time employees at a United States-based food manufacturing and agribusiness company. Employees also are responsible for providing feedback to coworkers. To examine how employees responded to feedback they received from others in their work networks, we looked at data from this peer-review process and from the organization’s annually collected data on each employee’s existing network. The result? As it turns out, these behaviors are detrimental to performance. This is not surprising.
The Linguistic Turf Wars Over the Singular 'They' The use of the word "they" has been debated by linguists and copy editors alike. (Photo: zebicho/shutterstock.com) A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail. Of all the turf wars that have complicated the landscape of grammar over the past few hundred years, the most complicated and frustrating may be that of the singular they. It may be the most controversial word use in the English language—because it highlights a hole where a better-fitting word should go. It creates a conflict between writers and editors who want things to follow the natural symmetry of Latin, and people who find they the only logical option for referring to a single person without a gender attached. And there has been a lot written about it—it's something of a hot topic this year, thanks to a vote by the American Dialect Society to name they its word of the year for 2015. Grammarians didn't give up on squashing the singular they easily.
How I got here: from Macau to Chinatown, undocumented | Ivy Teng Lei | Opinion I never got to say goodbye to my friends in Macau. I was seven years old when my mother told me we were “going to Disneyland”. She told me it was a secret, but I couldn’t hide it from some of my closest friends. I remember playing chess with one of them at night. “I’m not allowed to tell you, but I am going to Disneyland!” I said. When we landed in New York’s JFK airport, we went straight to Chinatown in Manhattan. My mother worked in a garment factory. It wasn’t long before my parents signed me up to a local elementary school. My parents didn’t speak a word of English. I remember being deathly afraid of speaking English because people would always make fun of my accent. But as I grew older, I realized that my accent wasn’t the real obstacle: my immigration status was. When it was time to apply for college, I sat through a meeting about my various options. I eventually tried my luck. I dropped the phone and slammed into my pillow. I remain undocumented to this day. Share your story
Elfdalian language, alphabet and pronunciation Elfdalian or Övdalian is a North Germanic language spoken by about 2,500 people in the Älvdalen Municipality (Övdaln) in Northern Dalarna in central Sweden. Elfdalian is considered to be a separate language by some linguists, but many others believe it to be a dialect of Swedish, and it is not recognised as a minority language in Sweden. Elfdalian has developed in relative isolation since the Middle Ages and maintains a number of features of Old Norse not found in other Northern Germanic languages, not even Icelandic. A runic alphabet known as Dalecarlian Runes was used to write Elfdalian until 1900. Dalecarlian Runes More information about Dalecarlian Runes Until the 1950s some people in the Elfdalian-speaking region spoke nothing but Elfdalian until they went to school. Since the 1980s efforts have made to preserve and promote the language, particularly by Ulum Dalska (The Organization for the Preservation of Elfdalian). Elfdalian alphabet (Övdalsk-abiseð) Elfdalian pronunciation Links
Future - The man who studies the spread of ignorance This story is featured in BBC Future’s “Best of 2016” collection. Discover more of our picks. In 1979, a secret memo from the tobacco industry was revealed to the public. Called the Smoking and Health Proposal, and written a decade earlier by the Brown & Williamson tobacco company, it revealed many of the tactics employed by big tobacco to counter “anti-cigarette forces”. In one of the paper’s most revealing sections, it looks at how to market cigarettes to the mass public: “Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the mind of the general public. This revelation piqued the interest of Robert Proctor, a science historian from Stanford University, who started delving into the practices of tobacco firms and how they had spread confusion about whether smoking caused cancer. Agnotology is the study of wilful acts to spread confusion and deceit, usually to sell a product or win favour Balancing act A new era of ignorance
Lost forest language to be taught in Swedish preschool Elfdalian is only spoken in Älvdalen in northern Sweden. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT Elfdalian, a rare Viking language, is getting a revival after local politicians agreed to build a new preschool in Älvdalen, the small forest community that still uses it. While its name might conjure up images from Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings, Elfdalian is a real language that is believed to date back to Viking times and is in danger of becoming extinct. Fewer than 60 children can currently speak Elfdalian, but politicians in the remote town of Älvdalen in central Sweden have this week voted to try to save it, by setting up a new preschool where it will be taught. "The decision was made yesterday that they will start to build the preschool," Lotte Andersson, a press spokesperson for the municipality, confirmed to The Local on Wednesday. The kindergarten is scheduled to open no later than September 1st. Älvdalen in northern Sweden. "We can go back 2000 years in time," he added.
Embrace the parsnip Last month I concluded that the ELT coursebook, despite its profitability, is a victim of its global success. Why? Because to be a bankable property in all imaginable earthly territories, it must be homogenised. Publishers may be making local variants of coursebooks more of a priority in a number of select (read: profitable) markets, but economies of scale mean that most coursebooks published in the UK are rolled out across the globe with all the grim determination and air-brushed anonymity of a new Mariah Carey album. If you've ever wondered why coursebooks can seem so anodyne, it's because they are designed to be. Sensitivities to potential offence in different territories rule out whole areas of human experience, including references too, which is why teachers and learners become so familiar with units on travel and the weather. The real issue is not the content, but the delivery mode. Modern coursebooks present the judicious pruner with more of a challenge.
Noam Chomsky on the Evolution of Language: A Biolinguistic Perspective (Image: Lauren Walker / Truthout) Human language is crucial to the scientific quest to understand what kind of creatures we are and, thus crucial to unlocking the mysteries of human nature. In the interview that follows, Noam Chomsky, the scholar who single-handedly revolutionized the modern field of linguistics, discusses the evolution of language and lays out the biolinguist perspective -- the idea that a human being's language represents a state of some component of the mind. Journalist and ''radical chic" reactionary writer Tom Wolfe was the latest to do so in his laughable new book, The Kingdom of Speech, which seeks to take down Charles Darwin and Noam Chomsky through sarcastic and ignorant remarks, making vitriolic attacks on their personalities and expressing a deep hatred for the Left. C. Noam Chomsky: This is quite true. The challenge had not been entirely ignored. Can you please expand on the notion of the internal language? However, a great deal has been learned since then.
What should Advanced materials involve? I was recently asked what features I thought good C2 materials should have. It’s quite a good question, especially because there aren’t any good GE materials at C2 level. There are a number of books aimed at preparing students for the Cambridge English: Proficiency exam and of those, there are two that I rate highly: Objective Proficiency and Proficiency Expert. However there is, as far as I know, nothing for the more generally focused student and so that is an obvious, if somewhat niche, area to move into. So what would my ideal book contain? (1) Cognitive challenge These are high level learners. (2) Authenticity and Analysis A shift in focus from input based language tuition to analysis and emergent language. A structure that might exemplify what I mean here is something like: Work in pairs. (3) Production and feedback (4) Proper topics (5) Taking learning outside the classroom and bringing the outside world in. Actually….. Shouldn’t ALL materials involve these criteria? Like this:
Free online Icelandic course for absolute beginners Culture By Staff |Sep 26 2016 Learning Icelandic One of the courses is for absolute beginners. The course includes a series of different types of interactive, visual and audio exercises that will help you learn Icelandic for everyday life in a fun and easy way. Learning Icelandic One of the courses is for absolute beginners. Icelandic has consistently been ranked as one of the hardest languages for English speakers to learn as a result of the archaic vocabulary and complex grammar, but don’t despair, now you can start learning Icelandic, wherever you are located on the globe. The University of Iceland offers six online Icelandic courses on Icelandic Online allowing anyone with Internet access the possibility of participating for free in a global community of learners of Icelandic. The program offers a course in survival Icelandic along with five courses for university students. Survival Course: For absolute beginners.
Has politically correct culture gone too far? | News Today, I woke up to the startling realization that I’m no longer a child. In the eyes of the law, I haven’t been a kid since I turned 18. In the eyes of the Lord, I grew up around the time I first saw the interrogation scene in Basic Instinct. I lost it over reports that students at Princeton are lobbying to have former US president Woodrow Wilson’s name removed from their university’s School of Public and International Affairs. When it comes to the generational divide in this country, I am officially part of the problem. In 2015, it has seemed like every day, some new Gen X celebrity from the 80s or 90s popped up to bemoan the sensitive, guileless, weak-willed Generation Y, while the Baby Boomers guzzle their food through a straw and masturbate all over their guns. All year, we’ve been subjected to the borderline hate and unfettered lunacy of Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and the rest of the Republican presidential field.