Digital Commons Network^™

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.

Harmonizing Bml Approaches: Grammars And Data Models For A Bml Standard, Dietmar Kunde, Thomas Orichel, Andreas Tolk, Ulrich Schade, Michael R. Hieb

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

Battle Management Language (BML) is being developed as an open standard that unambiguously formalizes and specifies Command and Control information, including orders and reports built upon precise representations of tasks. BML is a language specification, based on doctrine and consistent with Coalition standards. The goal of BML is to enable and improve the interoperability in the C2 area, especially by enabling also the military communication with simulation systems and future robotic forces.

Although the need for BML is well documented, a SISO standard has still not been achieved. At present, there are two recommended approaches focusing on different aspects. In …

T-Glottalization In American English, David Eddington, Michael Taylor

Faculty Publications

In word-final prevocalic position (e.g., right ankle), there are various possible phonetic realizations of /t/ in American English: [t], [r], [?]. The present study focuses on the linguistic and social factors associated with the use of the glottal stop. Datat were gathered by having participants repeat sentences they were presented auditorily (e.g, She twisted her right ankle). The particular pronunciation of /t/ in the presented sentences was masked with a tone. Logistic regression analysis identified three significant factors: (1) glottal stops were favored by following front vowels; (2) younger female speakers were most likely to use glottal stops, which …

Language And Linguistics, J. J'Fellers, Theresa Mcgarry

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: The ways in which language and linguistics figure in women’s science fiction reference communication both within human societies and among humans and other societies.

Pirahã, Language Universals And Linguistic Relativity, Nina Moffitt

Honors Papers

In this thesis I will place Dan Everett's work on the Pirahã in the context of these linguistic theories, criticisms and perpetual questions.

Korean- And English-Speaking Children Use Cross-Situational Information To Learn Novel Predicate Terms, Jane B. Childers, Jae H. Paik

Psychology Faculty Research

This paper examines children’s attention to cross-situational information during word learning. Korean-speaking children in Korea and English speaking children in the US were taught four nonce words that referred to novel actions. For each word, children saw four related events: half were shown events that were very similar (Close comparisons), half were shown events that were not as similar (Far comparisons). The prediction was that children would compare events to each other and thus be influenced by the events shown. In addition, children in these language groups could be influenced differently as their verb systems differ. Although some differences were …

The Acquisition Of Pragmatic Competence: Compliment Response Strategies In Learners Of Spanish, James Bryant Smith

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The areas of Pragmatics and Second Language Acquisition have existed separately in the field of Linguistics for some time. Their connection, however, has more recently seen a great deal of study by researchers like Scarcella and Brunak (1981), Rintell (1981), Brown and Levinson (1987), Koike (1992, 1996), Saito, Beecken (1997), Félix-Brasdefer (2003, 2006) and Huth (2006). A common thread in these studies is the effect of language transfer or cross-linguistic influence that the first language has while learners are attempting to acquire the pragmatic and politeness principles that are central to the target language and culture. One speech act that …

‘This’ Is Not ‘Love’: A Cognitive Assessment Of The Lyrics And Translations Of Jalāl Al-Din Rūmī'S Ghazal #1919 From The Divān-I Shams, Matthew Miller

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Language Attitudes, Linguistic Knowledge, And The Multicultural Education Of Pre-Service Teachers: A Sociolinguistic Study, Maria Elisa Paredes

Dissertations

Abstract This research created, implemented and evaluated the impact of a language unit designed to increase linguistic knowledge and change attitudes toward linguistic diversity for pre-service teachers taking an education class that focused on child and adolescent development at an urban university in Missouri. Both quantitative and qualitative measures were used to document learning and attitude change toward linguistic variety during 4-8 hours of instruction. The language unit included a pretest/posttest design, an overview of general linguistics, phonetics, phonology, sociolinguistics, language acquisition and bilingualism; the unit utilized multiple digital tools (DVD & CD) created by the researcher. Demographic correlates to …

Multiple Pre-Nominal Adjective Usages By Asian L2 Learners Of English, Sarah D. Mcmahon

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis focuses on adjective ordering in the English language, particularly in how it affects Asian ESL students’ grasp on English grammar. In order to complete the thesis, research was done comparing the aforementioned ESL students’ handling of pre-nominal adjective placement with that of generally accepted English adjective order. This was used for the following reasons: (i) to identify whether adjective placement is innate or learned; (ii) to discover common errors made by ESL students in adjective ordering; and (iii) to show that the findings may, upon extension, be used to implement ESL curriculum.

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.

The Soldier, Gary Foshee

Word Ways

A poem.

Holiday Limericks, Joseph Teeters

Word Ways

Limericks inspired by the holiday season.

Foshee Magically Interpreted, Jeremiah Farrell

Word Ways

Martin Gardner notes that Lewis Carroll begins Alice in Wonderland:

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do; once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading.

Gardner now asks the reader to select any of the first 12 words.

A Seasonal Puzzle, Dick Hess

Word Ways

Noted puzzlist Dick Hess supplied this poser to friends as a holiday message. Can you solve it?

Odes From The Odd Topics Society, Howard G. Baetzhold

Word Ways

Butler's Odd Topics Society meets every now and then to discuss Odd Topics of any nature. Professor Baetzhold is the Poet Laureate Odd Topics Society.

Punk Whiz 5, A. Anil

Word Ways

Another misdefinition pun quiz. Numbers in parentheses are the letters in the answer.