Category: languagePage 3 of 4
Recently there has been an uptick in talk about semicolons. Witness: Hooray for the ; I say! A subterranean semicolon! FANBOYS and the Semicolon Colbert on punctuation How…
When it comes to copy editing, I’m not particularly strict — let the author have some personal style. We all use words a little differently. But one thing…
Web 2.0 experiments with open content are showing the value of moderated forums. Democracy is great, but chaos isn’t necessarily so hot. Once upon a time tech types…
Language Hat has been following the arguments about Russian translation that have been taking place at the NYT Reading Room blog. Are the renderings of Richard Pevear and…
C.M. Mayo will be reading at Alta on Saturday. Her site, Madam Mayo, is a good blog for those interested in Latin American (especially Mexican) literature and the…
I don’t think I’ve mentioned here the book launch that will be held tonight at 6:30 for our new anthology of Latin American literature. The venue is Chronicle…
A classic skit on the perils of translation.
Systran software has ruled computer translation for years. It has been the technology behind both AltaVista’s Babelfish (now owned by Yahoo), and Google’s translation service, called Google Translate….
I found myself next to this vehicle on the approach to the Bay Bridge the other day. It reminds me a bit of the artworks of Xu Bing…
Since a big deal is being made about supposedly disappearing hyphens, let’s apply a little perspective to the discussion. The first thing to realize is that the furor…
Two Lines is calling for submissions for its 15th anniversary edition. This volume will be edited by John Biguenet (prose) and Sidney Wade (poetry). The deadline is October…
Fernando del Paso will receive the $100,000 FIL Literature Prize for lifetime literary achievement iat the 2007 Guadalajara International Book Fair on November 24. An excerpt from del…
The Save Desuetude movement starts here. How could the sentence “We’d be no poorer if desuetude, for one, fell into a state of itself” have been written without…
From a series by Tom Tomorrow. via language log
Edward Sedensticker, who died at 86 on Sunday in Tokyo, was one of the greatest translators of Japanese literature. He had been in a coma for months following…
In an article entitled “Prepositional Anxiety and Voldemort’s Wand” Language Log takes J. K. Rowling to task for this sentence, spoken by her evil wizard, Mr. Riddle: My…
The University of Rochester has begun offering an undergraduate certificate in literary translation. This is a great idea. Meanwhile the department of comparative literature at the University of…
Meanwhile, French readers are frustrated that it’s taking the official translator more than two weeks to complete a translation of the 759-page book. LINK: French teen detained over…
Eighteen members of New York’s City Council have sponsored a resolution to ban the use of bitch and ho as “hateful language [that] creates for all women a…
I’m posting this again because, when I linked to it before, a few weeks ago, there was an error in the link (I only recently discovered that —…
By MARK SHERMAN | Associated Press Writer: “[Supreme Court chief justice] Roberts walked out the hospital’s ambulance door wearing a blue sport coast, a blue shirt with no…
The University of Rochester has announced a new book publishing imprint called Open Letter. The press will publish twelve books of international literature a year — I guess…
via India Ink