Andreea Calude • May 20, 2019 •
An innocent turn of phrase….or is it? If you are David Cameron, you will have by now learnt that size nouns used in SIZE NOUN + OF + NOUN constructions can get one in a whole bunch of hot water (well…maybe not the exact terminology but the idea behind it at least)! In 2016, he had the misfortune of Twitting the … Read More
Andreea Calude • May 08, 2018 •
This post was originally published on The Spinoff. The emphasis placed on formal written grammar in schools obscures the fact that English has many kinds of grammar – and they’re all equally valid, writes Waikato University senior lecturer in linguistics, Andreea Calude. “But don’t you want your kids to get a job one day?” There are almost 200 people … Read More
Andreea Calude • Mar 16, 2018 •
Andreea S. Calude, University of Waikato This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. My grammar checker and I are on a break. Due to irreconcilable differences, we are no longer on speaking terms. It all started when it became dead set on putting commas before every single “which”. Despite all the … Read More
Guest Author • Feb 02, 2018 •
By Dr Nicola Daly Often when we hear someone speak, we start making inferences about the characteristics and personality of the person. There is a considerable body of research concerning language attitudes which shows, for example, that when we hear a person speaking with a Received Pronunciation or RP British English accent (also known as the Queen’s … Read More