Blogging linguists II

Back in August 2006, I listed some blogs by linguists.  Most of them are still going in 2009, and they are kept up rather better than my blog.  I asked then whether PhD students who blogged this well would ever find time to finish their dissertations, so I am happy to see that the author of the excellent Tenser, said the Tensor has. 

A couple posts ago, I got a comment from Carole at Bloglingua, which made me think I need to update that list.  Bloglingua is from a translation services company, so they are linguists in the more popular sense of the word:  they know languages and use them professionally. From the Bloglingua blogroll, I found Transubstantiation and Blogos, which are also about translation, and are also regularly updated with lively language stories.

When I made my first list, I somehow missed Separated by a Common Language, by Lynne Murphy at the University of Sussex, perhaps because her blog was new then. And as her title suggests, she has a specific focus:

So, when you heard about a blog on British and American English, did you think: 'There's a blogger who's going to run out of material soon'? If only! I've written more than 300 posts on BrE and AmE over the past three-and-a-bit years, have 92 messages in my inbox requesting discussion of other (often MANY other) topics that I've not yet covered . . .

I come across (or produce) lots of examples of UK/US differences. Here's one:  when I say in my northwest US accent that my wife is going to her writing group, British people think it will be something to do with horses - unless they know my wife.  Like anyone from the US living in the UK (or presumably the other way around), I have a store of these examples, but I have never treated them with Murphy's thoroughness and skill, even when I briefly taught a course on the subject.  And she performs the service of listing both US and UK commentators on language, in lists that overlap with mine a bit. 

There is another list that is still updated at The Linguist List, but it is rather a mixed bag.

Blogging has moved on since 2006.  I didn't think I would find any linguistic Twitterers, but 40 people do find useful things to say at Linguistics Twibe.   Well, there are mostly queries and announcements;  apparently it does take more than 140 characters to say something about linguistics (I usually find the 8,000 words of a journal article rather restricting). 

There is a wonderful Twitter project linked to a study by my colleague Julia Gillen and Nigel Hall of Manchester Met:  it sends the message found on an Edwardian postcard every day. I've subscribed  because it seems like an excellent way to think about the similarities and differences between the two media for short texts, postcards and Twitter.  Julia and Cath Booth have even figured out a way to include the pictures.

Comments

[jarry]

Hi! Nice site and the bibliography shown is also very helpful.

I am beginning with investigation of blog language myself and I wished to ask if there is any good references for datasets or body of open-access texts for the study of blogs. I will really appreciate if you could help!
Thank you.

[el don]

just saw the announcement of your new book on the sysfunc list, and it came with a link to your blog here.
good stuff, a great resource - i've posted a link to the book and this blog on our own group blog where we are more generally interested in the dynamics of online interaction, the social technology of the internet and so on - but i myself am a linguist whose main direction is in the area of interpersonal language and how identity is 'crafted' or legitimised in online environments, so your links and references look like a gold-mine to me. thanks, and will be visiting again.

[spanish translation services]

Cool! I never had an idea that being linguistics can be such an important factor in the language world. It really never did occurred to me that being a linguistic person can get you places. But still, any place you would go requires you to adapt to their native language and being such a linguistic one can be a pretty advantage. Nice to know of such important information found from this site. Thanks!

[centre ville toulouse]

i've posted a link to the book and this blog on our own group blog where we are more generally interested in the dynamics of online interaction, the social technology of the internet