Linguistics Cartoon Favorites - English Teachers

Thank you to Scribbles and Dots for spotting this one.

Budweiser - An Inaugural Attempt at Wordplay?

Spotted this Budweiser ad on the back cover of this week's Newsweek magazine.

I really got a kick out of the wordplay. I was impressed with the creativity and simplicity of adding the letter "E" to inaugural to change the word both phonetically and semantically. Actually, inaugurale could also be thought of as a portmanteau word (a blend of inaugural and ale), and this is likely one of the messages Budweiser's ad agency was hoping to promote...new president, new beginning, try a new beer. But, was this new word really coined by Budweiser's ad agency's or did someone else come up with the idea first?

Upon doing a bit of research I came across the above beer bottled by Schlafly Beer of the Saint Lewis Brewery. Additionally, according to washingtonpost.com, Capitol City Brewing has been offering InaugurAle since shortly after the Nov. 4 election. And, last but not least, washingtonian.com ran an article on January 13 about a Mount Pleasant, Michigan homebrewer, Sam Chapple-Sokol, who had a friend print labels with an “InaugurAle Edition” emblem modeled after Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Regardless of who first came up with the idea, I still enjoy the wordplay.

Academic Blog Reviews

It was recently brought to my attention that some students from a class at the University of Michigan (SWC 200: The Interplay of Text and Imagery) have started blogs about the phenomenon of blogs and blogging. After all of my hard work with this blog, I thought I would give myself a pat on the back by sharing an excerpt from one of these blogs. This particular post from a blog called New fad Media reviewed three academic blogs, one of which happened to be mine.

"A Walk in the Words for me is like the baby bear in Goldie Locks: just the right amount of humor and intellectual journalism to hold my attention. The design is clean and not cluttered, posts are submitted regularly, and the content is original yet not overwhelming."

Thank you for the favorable review. It is nice to be recognized and appreciated.

Mr. Monk and the Bracketing Paradox

Last week's episode of Monk had the perfect example of a compound word bracketing paradox.

In the episode, Lieutenant Disher is interviewing the cousin of a suspect.

Disher: "Your cousin is a former cop killer."

Interviewee: "You mean he used to kill cops?"

Disher: "No he tried to kill a former cop."

[[former] [cop killer]]

[[former cop][killer]]

Crystal Light's Advertising Word Choice

The wording in this ad for Crystal Light Lemonade gave me pause.

Do I have to mix Crystal Light Lemonade AND the sweet tang from a natural lemon to attain a pitcher of magical sunshine?

Here is an idea for a better choice of wording -

Stir up a pitcher of sunshine WITH the sweet tang of natural lemon in Crystal Light Lemonade.

The Subfields of Linguistics

SR = Speech Recognition; NLP = Natural Language Processing

From: School of Computer Science and Engineering

Peevologists Unite

Surprisingly, I had not previously encountered the word peevologist until I noticed it on Mr. Verb. I say this is a surprise because I am obviously a peevologist myself.

I have since seen the term used on numerous other grammar-related sites - I guess I am behind the times.

Peevology is defined as: The collecting and public airing of language peeves.

I have many language peeves and a large part of this blog is the airing and sharing these peeves.

Peevologists unite - This is a call for all readers to share and air their language peeves. Please click on the comment button below and let them rip.

A Winter Funny

The Washington Post and Frisbeetarianism

In regards to today's earlier post about the common word/alternate meaning contest run by the Washington Post -

It appears that the Washington Post did not do their research on the word Frisbeetarianism. Frisbeetarianism, as it is listed in the contest, is not a common word and the meaning was not conceived by a reader. While the word may have been supplied by a reader, it was coined and defined by the late comedian George Carlin as, "the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck." Thus the meaning listed in the contest is not an alternate meaning, it is the original meaning.

Washington Post's Word Fun II - Common Words/Alternate Meanings

As a follow up to yesterday's post, the Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings
for common words. And the winners are:

1. coffee (n.): The person upon whom one coughs.
2. flabbergasted (adj.): Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. abdicate (v.): To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. esplanade (v.): To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. willy-nilly (adj.): Impotent.
6. negligent(adj.): Absent-mindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. lymph (v.): To walk with a lisp.
8. gargoyle (n.): Olive-flavoured mouthwash.
9. flatulence (n.): Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. balderdash (n.): A rapidly receding hairline.
11. testicle (n.) A humorous question on an exam.
12. rectitude (n.): The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. pokemon (n.): A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. oyster (n.) A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism (n.): The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. circumvent (n.): An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

Come on readers - we can come up with some better ones. Send comments.