Polyglossia Blog
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…
The Mainstreaming of the Linguistic Sciences
–Article by Tyler McPeek For awhile now, I’ve been working on a site that deals with issues related to Japan, Japanology, and the Japanese language. What originally started as a kind of “Japan Fan” site, assisting and entertaining people who study Japanese, enjoy “things Japanese,” have lived in Japan, or…
What is Grammar?
–Article by Lee Ballard If we asked people to brainstorm on what they think about when they hear the word “grammar,” I think we would get some interesting results. When the word “grammar” comes up in conversation, I’ve noticed that people I meet regularly confuse it with a few things,…
The Role of Theoretical Core, Advanced, and Issues Courses in Linguistics
UF should offer graduate-level Phonology II and Syntax II –Article by Zoe Ziliak Two years ago, I served as the UF Linguistics Society president. One of the president’s responsibilities, I think, is to keep an ear to the ground regarding grad students’ opinions about the program and pass important items…
“The Cosmopolitan Tongue: The Universality of English”
Response to what people are saying about the John McWhorter article. –Article by Joel Deacon Perhaps I just feel like being a devils advocate, but I would guess McWhorter’s opinion is not completely wrong. Moreover, in any argument one must acknowledge their biases, and the biases of a linguist might…
How many languages should a linguist speak?
“Oh, you’re a linguist! How many languages do you speak?” –Article by Dong-yi Lin “What’s your major?” “Linguistics.” “So how many languages do you speak?” “Well, ah, mmm, you know, ……” This constructed dialogue depicts a scenario that many linguistics students have encountered or will eventually encounter in life. As…