Author Archive

Thursday, September 1st, 2016 @ 4:38AM

Linguistics and Literature: Symmetry or Fiction?

by Tyler McPeek, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Nagoya University of Commerce and Business *Note: this paper is part of the FLA Proceedings and has been accepted in revised and expanded form for inclusion in the 2017 FLA Journal of Language. Paper was presented: March 13, 2016. Gainesville, Florida, USA I’ve been…

Tuesday, January 1st, 2013 @ 8:35AM

The High Price for Linguistic Ignorance, and the False Danger of Dropping Gs

–Article by Lee Ballard In a video that has since gone viral, a recent contestant on Wheel of Fortune was penalized for the G-dropping in her pronunciation of the correct answer “Seven Swans A-Swimming.” This should trouble linguists for 3 reasons. First, the incident reveals the stigma against users of…

Posted by
Posted under: Lee Ballard
View
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012 @ 9:41PM

The Russian Morphology Dilemma of the FLA

[F[LA]]? [FL[A]]? Ugh.. from Russia with Love and Frustration  –Article by Lee Ballard One of the things I love about linguistics is the fact that languages are different. Sometimes these differences can seem small and trivial, other times maddeningly frustrating, but most of the time, sort of just “there.” Since I’m living…

Posted by
Posted under: Lee Ballard
View
Monday, February 20th, 2012 @ 9:10PM

The Future of the English Language as a Global Lingua Franca

–Article by Tyler McPeek In some of my classes, students tell me that their professors in non-linguistics classes often wax-philosophical about the inevitability of Chinese as the next global lingua franca.  Sometimes they even present it as an imminent development that has already started to take a foothold, due to…

Posted by
Posted under: Featured, Tyler McPeek
View
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 @ 9:18PM

Phonology and I: El amor en los tiempos de consonantes

–Article by William Sheard I can still remember the first time we stayed up all night together. Clothed in a shimmering, formal dress, she sat looking at me with a mocking grin. There were two ways to go about this, she said, clearly enjoying the spectacle of my jejune inhibitions….

Posted by
Posted under: William Sheard
View
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 @ 2:56AM

The peculiarities of prescriptive versus descriptive grammar

–Article by Joel Deacon To get the basics of what grammar is and the distinction between prescriptive and descriptive grammar, please read Lee Ballard’s blog post  “What is Grammar?” Prescriptive and Descriptive Grammar in the Classroom: Perhaps the term prescriptive grammar is more relevant when one is teaching a language…

Posted by
Posted under: Featured, Joel Deacon
View

Past, Present, and Future

Find out where the FLA is heading!