Posts tagged as:

Language

Reclaiming Slut Fights the Wrong Battle

07.25.2011

Of late, I’ve heard much about this idea of “reclaiming” words. Most often the idea of reclaiming is connected to negative and derogatory words. The goal is to remove the power to degrade from words that get used as verbal weapons. The latest word reclamation project that’s come to my attention is “slut.” At first [...]

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Language in the Financial Markets

03.25.2008

Our economic markets are a mess. If you follow the noise on CNBC or regularly scan what passes for journalism in magazines like Smart Money, you might think the world is coming to an end. Beyond our fascination with the numbers, we forget that words play a powerful role in our financial markets. Consider the [...]

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Amazon's Language Problem

02.13.2008

I’ve debated for weeks whether to write this post (I apologize in advance. It’s long). I’m questioning my relationship with Amazon. How, you might ask, does my relationship with Amazon relate to this blog? Amazon’s language has crossed a point where I believe it warrants examination. Let’s start with a little background. I have an [...]

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Taking Language to the Extreme

02.11.2008

Of late, the extremes that we use in language caught my attention: best vs. worst, highest vs. lowest, most vs. least, and always vs. never. The flexibility of language extremes makes them so fascinating. Sometimes, you don’t want the thing described as the most or the highest. Other times, you’ll refuse to settle for anything [...]

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Language Crashes

02.05.2008

I’m not a particularly patient person. I’m reminded of this shortcoming every time I get in a car. No, I don’t subscribe to out-of-control road rage, but I do tap the steering wheel and “yell” at the cars going under the speed limit or straddling the lane lines. (I offset this aggravation by singing along [...]

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The Business of Incentives

11.19.2007

Business incentives handed out by communities and states are interesting things. Government officials are quick to point out how such incentives benefit the area as a whole. Company officials are quick to highlight the benefit of working in a particular community and how much they appreciate said community (i.e., government) support. The language becomes very [...]

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Reporting A Scandal: When Everyone Knows

10.31.2007

I came across a post today that related a story about a supposed scandal brewing concerning a presidential candidate. I don’t care about the scandal. I’ve mentioned before that personal antics are of no interest to me. However, the language used to describe the situation is interesting: So I was down in DC this past [...]

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Lowest Common Denominator

10.10.2007

Ladies, this post is for you, although I have a sneaky suspicion guys can benefit, too. When you’re with girlfriends, how do you talk to each other? Even better, how do you talk about and talk to other women in general? Rachel Lucas posted her observations (warning: some language) on how women in their 20s [...]

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