Category: Language Studies
Posts of studies and ideas about the English language, grammar, and linguistics
We Have Never Been Rational: A Genealogy of the Affective Turn
David Stubblefield, Senior Editor While the humanities have traditionally privileged the realm of language and symbolic behavior, the contemporary affective turn has questioned this bias and raised important questions about […]
Making Good Inductive Arguments
David Stubblefield, Senior Editor The famous 18th century, Scottish philosopher David Hume claimed that we cannot know for certainty that the sun will rise tomorrow. His reasoning rested on his […]
Negative Perceptions of Black English and its Speakers
Sadie Wyant The following presentation was given on November 4, 2017 at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association conference (SAMLA) in Atlanta, Georgia. This presentation was given in partial fulfillment […]
The Art of Writing Papers
Dakota Smith If you ask different professors how to write a paper, they will likely have different responses. They may differ in forms of style or opinions, but there are […]
Milk, Cream, and the Oxford Comma
Dakota Smith The question “Should I put a comma before the word ‘and’ in my list?” is a common question among students. The comma referred to by these students is […]
C.S. Lewis and ‘The Death of Words’
Aaron Brickle In his essay “The Death of Words,” C.S. Lewis briefly describes the horrific consequences of (for lack of a more succinct description) the evolution of language. Words change […]
Saved by the Dog Who Bit You: The Life of the Rhetorical Figure
David Stubblefield, Senior Editor “Like a dog!, he said, it was as if the shame of it should outlive him.” (Franz Kafka, from The Trial) Why do people find metaphors, […]
Why I declared war on the split infinitive rule (and so should you)
Chad Chisholm, CIFC Director When I was going through the public school system, I got my fingers figuratively bruised a few times by some old school English grammarians: there was […]
What I want: confessions and tidbits from an English professor
Chad Chisholm, CIFC Director When I began teaching almost 15 years ago, this time of year was often hectic for me and my students. Many of my nicest and brightest […]