The other day I was on a conference call and we were discussing which tags and keywords should be included in a collaborative online database. The terms “substance use” and “harm reduction” were both on the list. I suggested we add “addiction.” Some other people on the call said that
Continue readingTag: language
The Canadian Progressive | News & Analysis: New York Times reconsidering the term ‘illegal immigrant’
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Last week, the Associated Press ditched the demeaning and exclusionary term “illegal immigrant”. Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who outed himself as an undocumented immigrant in 2011, responded with: “It was inevitable. It was just a matter of time.” The New York Times called the
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: Enter Christopher Marlowe – Again
Back in the late 1990s, I wrote an essay about the “controversy” over who actually wrote the works of Shakespeare. I wrote, then, Not everyone agrees that Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. The challenge to his authorship isn’t new: for the last … Continue reading →
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive | News & Analysis: Journey of Nishiyuu: A quest to solidify bonds between First Nations
A quest undertaken by the youth of Great Whale to solidify the traditional bonds between First Nations By: Chief Stan George Accompanied by one experienced guide, 6 youths from the community of Great Whale, located in Northern Quebec on the shores of Hudson’s Bay, have commenced a sacred quest that is
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: The Consolation of Literature
For Boethius, it was the Consolation of Philosophy*. For me, it’s literature. Not to write about it so much as to read it. Consolation from the act of reading. And read about literature. Sometimes literature is made more meaningful, brought … Continue reading →
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: 10,000 words too many
Been working the last two-and-a-half months on my latest book for Municipal World. A bit of a challenge, actually – trying to combine marketing, branding, advertising, public relations and communications topics into one coherent yet succinct package has been difficult. … Continue reading →
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: Propaganda, PR and Spin
What is propaganda? The word gets thrown around easily by people who obviously mean “anything we dislike or don’t agree with.” It’s a pejorative often used by a small group to describe anything official that any level of government puts … Continue reading →
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: Foolish words that still resonate
Foolosopher. What a wonderful word. Not much in use these days, but it ought to be. It is a portmanteau word, first used in English way back in 1549*, according to my copy of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. It … Continue reading →
Continue readingA Novelist's Mind: Lilian Nattel Online: Handy Words That Don’t Exist In English
Arigata-meiwaku (Japanese): An act someone does for you that you didn’t want to have them do and tried to avoid having them do, but they went ahead anyway, determined to do you a favor, and then things went wrong and caused you a lot of trouble, yet in the end
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: Is Tar Baby the new N-Word?
As far back as I can recall, the term “tar baby” was a metaphor in common political parlance for a “sticky situation.” It has no racial meaning in that context, any more than saying “honey trap” or “sticky wicket.” Both … Continue reading →
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: Lost Worlds, Lost Words
Moidered. It sounds like something from the Three Stooges. Or maybe something Tony Soprano would say.”I moidered him.” But it actually means “crazed,” according to Samuel Johnson in his famous dictionary of 1755. It’s long since left the stage of English usage. … Continue reading →
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: How did English evolve?
Here’s a fun little video from TED about the evolution of English. This video describes the early days of English’s changes. Some of the more recent alterations are not included, such as the extensive use of pirate terms, robot machine R…
Continue readingPop The Stack: The Long Form Census Debacle Starts to Show Its Impact
As predicted the dropping of the mandatory long form census last year is starting to be felt in the statistical results being collected. First problem: Language Data. New language data may be skewed as a result of shift to voluntary census survey – The Globe and Mail. Filed under: Politics
Continue readingPop The Stack: The Long Form Census Debacle Starts to Show Its Impact
As predicted the dropping of the mandatory long form census last year is starting to be felt in the statistical results being collected. First problem: Language Data. New language data may be skewed as a result of shift to voluntary census survey – The Globe and Mail. Filed under: Politics
Continue readingTrashy's World: As a resident of the NCR…
… these data seem reasonable. There is most def a gap between the attitudes of anglos and francos on both sides of the river re: language and support for Canada. I’m not a big fan of these types of surveys, but these results intuitively seem about right. (5) Trashy, Ottawa,
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Religion and Language: Quasi-Religious Terminology
There are a host of commonly used words in the English language which I like to call quasi-religious. Words like soul, spiritual, fate, mother nature, energy, and the like. These are words which have two sets of connotations, one which is spiritual and one which is largely secular, whose different
Continue readingThings Are Good: Google to Catalog Languages
The Endangered Languages Project is a new initiative run by Google to catalog languages that are threatened because of globalization. As nice as it is that the people on the planet are finding more languages in common, we still need to encourage people to embrace languages that aren’t as popular.
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: CBC: Should we use gender-neutral pronouns instead of ‘he’ and ‘she’?
CBC is asking the question, “Should we use gender-neutral pronouns instead of ‘he’ and ‘she’?“ Citing Sweden’s addition of a gender-neutral pronoun to the National Encyclopedia and a news story last year about a Toronto couple who wished to raise their child genderless until the child decides, and asks: Do
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: A Rant on Words Part II
I no sooner published my first word rant and immediately more common travesties of language sprang to mind. Part two will be more of a rapid fire format, as there is a lot of ground to cover. ..And Get One Free! As alluded to in Part 1′s final paragraph, ‘…and
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