linguistlaura

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Friday, 1 May 2026

Literally non-literal, when literally asked about literalness

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Someone on Reddit was trying to identify the fibre their yarn was made from, and someone suggested burning a bit of it since burning hair/wo...
Thursday, 18 December 2025

A jug of cocktail

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The Archers (BBC Radio 4) is no stranger to drama. This week, Ambridge has been divided over whether this is grammatical:  I'll make a j...
Sunday, 16 June 2024

Put the lottery on

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As you know, I'm a big fan of just listening out for interesting linguistic usages, anything that catches the ear or eye. So recently, w...
Monday, 25 July 2022

Getting drank

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Beavertown Brewery currently have these billboard adverts up, with the slogan Out of this world beer. Drank on Earth :  Photo: @nicholasd on...
Monday, 18 July 2022

Performing a flying fuck

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At our students' graduations this week, a colleague told me about a (non-canonical) ballet step which, because of the particular way tha...
Friday, 8 July 2022

Despatches from Barcelona

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I’m just back from Barcelona. If you haven’t been, I recommend it, it was great! Here’s a selection of linguistic observations.  I spoke mos...
Wednesday, 4 May 2022

Is a great deal more than a lot?

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I'm sure this survey made it clear what the options meant, but to me, 'a lot' and 'a great deal' mean exactly the same t...
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