Verbal Energy

When young women find their 'creaky' voice

The speech phenomenon known as “vocal fry” annoys some curmudgeons but may also demonstrate how young women are the innovators in our language.
A fascination with vanishing languages

In a world that seems relentlessly bent on homogenization, there's something appealing about languages that so perfectly fit the distinctive tribal cultures of their speakers.
Stative verbs – I'm lovin' them

You know much more than you think you do about something you may never have heard of.
Dynamic passives and the 'exonerative past'

A look at the language of responsibility in Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
Vivid verbs defended with verve

Constance Hale's 'Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch' is a good read on writing, especially on the power of verbs.
Hail to the neologizers in chief

US presidents – and one president in particular – seem to have a knack for coining new terms.
Etymology notes on a scandal

In the wake of the Petraeus affair, words nerds want to know the derivation of the term 'blackmail.'
Constitutional copy-editing

Oregonians pass by a landslide a ballot measure to copyedit their state constitution; are there other documents we’d like to tinker with?
What it means when things 'go viral' on the Web

How did we end up with a disease metaphor to refer to the way information travels through society?
Life at C-level: too many chiefs?

The Monitor’s language columnist looks at the proliferation of 'C-level' job titles.
The unbearable smartness of being

The Monitor's language columnist feels the lexical ground shifting on just what 'smartly' means.
Janus words in the language of dreams

Words with mutually contradictory meanings indicate how our minds cope with complexity.
Walking back, to avoid climbing down

A pedestrian metaphor proves to have legs in this electoral season
Sit tight, drive safe, and watch for flat adverbs

An article on women in the CIA offers, in passing, a grammar lesson.
Flying to center field with the boys of autumn

A newspaper account of a 14-inning ball game makes a point about irregular verbs.
Earworms and the 'mononymous' phenomenon

Doing a spell-check on a pop singer's name, the Monitor's language columnist is reminded how writers can get words, as well as music, 'stuck' in their ears.
He perhaps didn't build that sentence very well

A grammar geek has to love it when 'syntax' makes headlines.
Something we should stop having done

A news story from London's National Gallery illustrates the trouble with something people say every day.
'I'm finna start training so hard …'

A new form of a familiar idiom shows how an Olympian went for the gold.
Modulating our opposition to new prepositions

A 'new' preposition, borrowed from the world of math, is a reminder of how closely language allies with logic.