Ventriloqurping
Ventiloqurp - noun. A new word I made up to describe the very surprising ventriloquism burp that they throw at me, making it sound like I'm the one burping.
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Decadence's second meaning
Decadence is also a noun for "a period of decline." - Which, makes sense when you break the word apart.
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Diving in on rhyming (meant for rapping)
A fantastic look at rhyming and things like the phonetic alphabet.
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A deep look at North American dialects
A man's hobby has led to this amazing resource that delves into the regions of English around North America, complete with audio samples which exemplify regional dialects.
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50 Psychological & Psychiatric Terms to Avoid
Not just a listicle, it's an academic article and provides explanation for each term on the list. They sort them into five groups: Inaccurate or Misleading, Frequently Misused, Ambiguous, Oxymorons, and Pleonasms.
This isn't a list of terms to avoid for social reasons, it's about real problems the authors of this paper have with usages of these terms in pschological and psychiatric studies and papers. Very interesting stuff.
For example, why they discourage the use of the term 'antidepressant medication' to refer to a wide range of medications, some of which are actually used for treating anxiety, etc.
(2) Antidepressant medication. Medications such as tricyclics, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, are routinely called "antidepressants." Yet there is little evidence that these medications are more efficacious for treating (or preventing relapse for) mood disorders than for several other conditions, such as anxiety-related disorders (e.g., panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder; Donovan et al., 2010) or bulimia nervosa (Tortorella et al., 2014). Hence, their specificity to depression is doubtful, and their name derives more from historical precedence—the initial evidence for their efficacy stemmed from research on depression (France et al., 2007)—than from scientific evidence. Moreover, some authors argue that these medications are considerably less efficacious than commonly claimed, and are beneficial for only severe, but not mild or moderate, depression, rendering the label of "antidepressant" potentially misleading (Antonuccio and Healy, 2012; but see Kramer, 2011, for an alternative view).
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"What Happens When You Offer Grammar Advice to Complete Strangers in the Middle of Manhattan"
She set up a table in New York City to answer grammar questions for passerby. She encourages people to vent to her about their grammatical frustrations, and sometimes she settles debates for people, but she also found that people who were learning English would come and ask questions to help their understanding. A nice and entertaining read!
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Natalie Diaz on the Mojave Language and Where English Fails Us
[Auto Generated Summary]:
While sharing meals throughout our residency discussing literature, politics, and love, Natalie's precision and passion around language was immediately apparent. In addition to teaching at Arizona State University and writing poetry, Natalie actively works to preserve the Mojave language with its last remaining speakers. "My body is its own lexicon and I also fight for a language, in Mojave and English, that helps me to hold it in the space of love." It's an out of time place. Natalie went on to say that this is one of the ways she "Refuses to be prophesied" by the English language and works hard to be capacious in English.
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On vs. In - When it Comes to Modes of Transport
I saw a post on Reddit that was a screenshot from Tumblr. A quick googling did not turn up the original content so I can't link it. But I refuse to further share the screenshots, but I will credit Tumblr user 'cynth3tic' for their explanation:
How not to mix them up (for those who might be learning English): If you walk upright when boarding, you're getting on.If you sit into a seat from the door, you're getting in.
So, for example, you also get on a plane or boat, and in a carriage.
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