irodori no sanka

So, I figured I’d celebrate an approaching follower milestone with a giveaway! I’ve four linguistics/language-related books that I’m ready to part with, and they are (with their Goodreads links):

Words, Words, Words by David Crystal.

Is That a Fish in Your Ear? by David Bellos.

Alpha Beta by John Man.

The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker.

Like and/or reblog for a chance to win all four of these books (both count)! You can reblog as many times as you want.

Before you enter, you should know: there’s a noticeable crease on the cover of the Pinker (you can kind of see it in the photo) and a weird circular brown stain on the Man book (you can definitely see that in the photo). Apart from that, the books are in perfectly readable condition.

You don’t have to be following me!

You do, however, need to have your inbox open so I can message you if you end up winning. Also, you should be willing to give me your address so I can send you the books. That would be cool.

I’ll figure out a way to do international shipping, so don’t worry if you’re not in the UK - reblog away!

You have until April 1st.

A dear friend of mine, who is also a trans male, is being given the options to:

a) Wear a dress to graduation 

or 

b) Wear a tux, and not graduate. 

Miyata Masayuki 宮田雅之 (1926-1997)

What a year! I finished my MA in linguistics at McGill at the end of 2013, so in 2014 I started writing linguistics for a general audience full time. By comparison, here’s 2013’s (much shorter!) highlights post. 

I started the year at the LSA in Minneapolis, where “because x” — which I’d written several posts about — was voted Word of the Year for 2013. 

I wrote A Linguist Explains the Grammar of Doge. Wow. It was my second article for The Toast and currently has nearly 50k shares (wow.) Related: the article summarized as a doge image, the second generation of internet language, Dogeblanca, French doge, wuge, and my interview with the BBC. 

Further Toast pieces included: 

A Linguist Explains What Old-School British Accents Sounded Like

A Linguist On the Story of Gendered Pronouns

A Linguist Explains the Syntax of Fuck

If you’re not familiar with this man, you should be: