Digital Commons Network^™

The Vulgar Tongue, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

Slang forms a significant part of the English language. The first slang dictionary appeared over 300 years ago, recording terms that are now mostly obsolete. Some of the old favourites survived though, and a few were thought too vulgar to include in standard dictionaries until quite recently.

Magic Word Dice, Jeremiah Farrell

Word Ways

The illustration below is the graph of an ordinary cube with its six faces labeled with the letters H opposite P, O opposite A and T opposite D, thus forming the HOT-PAD die.

Shifting Vowels & Consonants Independently, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

A basic shift sees the letters of a word shifted along the alphabet n steps, looping from Z to A, to make another word. Today, however, the alphabet, as we recognise it, no longer exists. The 5 major vowels have opted out of that all-embracing 26-letter series to set up an alphabet of their own, predictably christened the 'vowel alphabet', AEIOU.

A Special Type Of Word-Shift Square, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

In Language on Vacation, p140, Dmitri Borgmann shifted the words of the 3 x 3 square HER - EMU - RUT, letter by letter, 10 steps along the alphabet, looping from Z to A, to make a second square ROB - OWE - BED. Tom Pulliam topped this by shifting the 4 x 4 square BARE - ANER - RENA - ERAR, letter by letter, 13 steps along the alphabet to make the square ONER - NARE - ERAN - RENE (WW76104). The current article deals exclusively with 3 x 3 squares. Both the above shift exercises involve 2 …

New York Times Crossword Goofs (Continued From Vol. 40, February 2007), Will Shortz

Word Ways

A collection of mistakes printed in the New York Times crossword puzzles from 1993 to 2002.

Kickshaws, D. Morice

Word Ways

I never met Rex Gooch in person, but I got to know him via email over the past few years. He truly had his own vision of language, and his articles were brilliant, thorough, and detailed. When a Kickshaw item invited readers to find other examples of a specific form of wordplay, Rex often would send a bountiful supply of words.

Anamonics, Jeff Myers

Word Ways

Attention, recreational linguists! Scrabble players of the world have explained their reach well beyond memorizing massive word lists and anagramming racks of letter tiles. They do not just sit across a multicolored board from each other and smack their chess clocks and shake their tile bags.

Dictionary Limericks 3, Max Gutmann

Word Ways

A collection of limericks defining words.

Some Of My Favorite Squares, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

Word squares have been around for centuries. I have constructed a few over the years, and admired the efforts of others too.

I See Where You Are Coming From, Leonard R. N. Ashley

Word Ways

Or maybe not, because much as readers of Word Ways know about etymologies they may be unfamiliar with words, sometimes given quite a twist in meaning in English, that come from truly unusual origins. Here are some that are literally way out.

Where They Are Coming From, Leonard R. N. Ashley

Word Ways

Some pretty common words have unexpectedly uncommon origins. Here's a little romp in the usually dry-as-dust field of etymology (from Greek for the origin or literal sense of a word), Quintillian's originatio.

Canadianisms?, Andy Liu

Word Ways

What is special about this collection of sentences?

Sudoku Patterns, Christopher Mcmanus

Word Ways

The sudoku puzzle form has enjoyed a meteoric rise. Books of sudoku puzzles and its variants fill the shelves of bookstores. Often overlooked by sudoku devotees is the fundamental fact that sudoku is not inherently arithmetic.

Spooneristic Variations, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

A plethora of spoonerisms has appeared in Word Ways over many years. A spoonerism is the result of exchanging the initial letter(s) of a pair of words to make another pair of words.

Look Back!, A. Ross Eckler

Word Ways

Over the years Word Ways has displayed a varied logological corpus. In this column I revisit forgotten ideas, connect seemingly-disparate concepts, and suggest further investigations.

Rex Gooch Remembered, Susan Thorpe

Word Ways

Rex Gooch died on Tuesday 13th March. He was 67.

Building On The Cultural And Linguistic Capital Of English Learner (El) Students, Kathryn Brooks, Katya Karathanos

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

...While our nation has a long history of competing ideologies and political controversies related to English immersion (in which the primary language of instruction is English) programs versus bilingual education, scholars contend that these two educational approaches need not be conceptualized as dichotomous. Rather, when educators consider what approaches and strategies will provide the best opportunities for particular students to learn in particular contexts, they must bear in mind that for EL students, their native languages and cultures are key resources to draw upon for teaching both content and language (Lucas & Katz, 1994). They must also think about how …

Deranged Loners And Demented Outsiders? Therapeutic News Frames Of Presidential Assassination Attempts, 1973-2001, Kristen Hoerl, D. L. Cloud, S. E. Jarvis

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

There were 7 assassination attempts on U.S. presidents between 1973 and 2001. In this article, we critically examine coverage of each attack in The New York Times and The Washington Post, describing how the coverage employs therapeutic discourse frames that position the president as vulnerable and portray the attackers as lonely and demented outsiders. Noticing contradictions in this pattern, we also identify counterframes, including those acknowledging the political motivations of the assassins, the diminished public sphere that is a context for those actions, and the contradictions in a legal system that denies the insanity pleas of those framed so extensively …

La (Des) Pluralización Del Verbo Haber Existencial En El Español Salvadoreño: ¿Un Cambio En Progreso?, Alexander Quintanilla

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

This study analyzes the pluralization of the verb haber in Salvadoran Spanish. Spanish uses the verb haber ‘to have’ for existential sentences. According to traditional grammars, existential sentences with haber are impersonal, that is, they are conjugated only in the third-person singular. However, it is common in most Spanish varieties to conjugate haber in the plural when the nominal phrase is plural.

Recent studies have suggested that the pluralization of haber is an innovation in modern Spanish and that it is advancing from lower to higher classes. My study shows that on the contrary there is little evidence indicating that …

The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism In Its Jewish Context, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Chapter 5: "Monotheism and Worship in the Book of Revelation" is an excerpt from The Only True God. Copyright 2009 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Used with permission of the University of Illinois Press. This excerpt, in whole or in part, may not be reproduced, distributed, photocopied or posted on-line without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Out Of India: Immigrant Hindus And South Asian Hinduism In The United States, Chad M. Bauman, Jennifer Saunders

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The article provides a survey of research on immigrant Hindus and South Asian Hinduism in the United States, focusing in particular on certain trends in the development of American Hinduism (e.g., Americanization, protestantization, ecumenization, congregationalization, homogenization, ritual adaptation) and prominent themes in more recent scholarship on the topic (e.g., race, transnational connections, and Hindu nationalism).

Atypical Language Lateralization In Epilepsy Patients, Gabriel Möddel, Tara T. Lineweaver, Stephan U. Schuele, Julia Reinholz, T. Loddenkemper

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Purpose:  To investigate whether atypical language dominance in epilepsy patients is related to localization and type of lesions.

Methods:  Four hundred and forty-five epilepsy patients received bilateral Wada testing. Language was classified as left (L), right (R), bilateral-dependent (BD, speech arrest after left and right injections), or bilateral-independent (BI, no speech arrest after either injection). Groups were compared regarding handedness and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) lesions. Lesions were classified as “early” (congenital), “late” neocortical (acquired after birth), and hippocampal sclerosis (HS).

Results:  Of all patients, 78% were L, 6% R, 7% BD, and 9% BI. Right-handers with left lesions did …

Gender Differences In Communication:Implications For Salespeople, Daniel H. Mcquiston, Kathryn A. Morris

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

As more women enter into the traditionally male-dominated occupations of sales and purchasing, an understanding of gender differences in communication can provide salespeople with added information to increase their effectiveness. 1his paper begins with a review of the research on gender differences in verbal and non-verbal communication and then applies these findings to the field of sales. The paper concludes with managerial implications and recommendations for how salespeople might account for gendered aspects of their communications and by so doing potentially increase the effectiveness of their sales process.

Spanish Foreign Direct Investments In Latin America: Internationalization Strategies And Financial Management Practices, Roberto Curci, Guillermo Cardoza

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

This study analyzes the internationalization strategies and the financial management practices of seven Spanish companies with the largest volume of investments in Latin America. The companies selected for an in-depth analysis represent approximately 80 percent of the total Spanish foreign investments during the period of analysis. Their investments have taken place mainly in service sectors such as banking, energy, and telecommunications. The study identifies the market conditions and the corporate strategies that have allowed these Spanish companies to successfully initiate and expand business activities into Latin America. The findings suggest Spanish investors have strengthened their global competitiveness and have accomplished …

Ramanuja And Schleiermacher On Language: Comparative Theology For Constructive Theology, Jon Paul Sydnor

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

The truth of the Veda is affirmed in the aphorism, 'The relation of words to facts is natural [autpattika: inherent, original, primordial] (Mimamsa Sutras I.I.7)'. Just as fire and water do naturally possess their properties like heat, just as the senses like sight and hearing are naturally productive of particular kinds of cognition, words also have a natural power of imparting knowledge.

Book Review: "An Encounter Of Peripheries: Santals, Missionaries, And Their Changing Worlds, 1867-1900", Chad Bauman

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

A review of An Encounter of Peripheries: Santals, Missionaries, and their Changing Worlds, 1867-1900 by Marine Carrin.

Crossword

Word Ways

A crossword puzzle.

Kickshaws, D. Morice

Word Ways

In the February 2009 issue of Word Ways, I will have completed my 1,000^th page of Kickshaws. This count includes the columns that I've put together; it doesn't include columns by all the very talented guest editors or by the highly esteemed Dave Silverman, founder and long-time editor of Kickshaws. The February column will be 25-35 pages long.

The Apple-Sauce Chronicles, Louis Phillips

Word Ways

Word Ways resumes this anthology of light-hearted wordplay (see the May 1984, November 1984, and August 1986 issues) with suitable foods and drinks.

Accidental Tautonyms, Jeff Grant

Word Ways

Whether you call them repeaters, double-ups, reduplications, or technically, tautonyms, words like FROUFROU, HINAHINA and GUITGUIT are fascinating. From ATLATL to ZOOZOO, and KAVAKAVA to TUCUTUCU, from DIVIDIVI to QUINAQUINA, and RIRORIRO to CHIQUICHIQUI, they all catch your eye.