Linguistically Speaking

Cartoon by Dave Walker.

How Aussie are you?

Test your OZ-Q with a (very authentic) Aussie Quiz.

You might even learn some useful expressions (cf. title)! ;-)

O herrliche Fahrt im Windeshauch
Hinauf und hinab und zurück!
Nur kämpfend, und unterlieg ich auch,
Ist Leben Glück.

Aus: Ricarda Octavia Huch (1864-1947), "Sturmlied"

The following citations (which I had to share with you) come from an article by Susan C. Herring, called "Gender and Power in Online Communication" (1993). They explain the use of the Internet for women in general and feminists in special:

The Internet, like these earlier technologies [typewriters and telephones], can be considered inherently well-suited to female use, because it is clean, safe, and can be used indoors.

I strongly hope she is being sarcastic in this first one. The second is quite promising:

Should the circumstances propitious for a feminist revolution arise, the Internet may yet enable a fundamentally different kind of grassroots organization than has historically been possible.

Already looking forward to it ;-)

Is English capable of demagoguery?



From: YouTube

A perfectly tuned conversation is a vision of sanity.

Tannen, Deborah (1986): That's Not What I Meant! New York: Ballantine Books, 5.

American college girls did, and no doubt do, play down their intelligence, skills, and determinativeness when in the presence of datable boys, thereby manifesting a profound psychic discipline in spite of their international reputation for flightiness. These performers are reported to allow their boy friends to explain things to them tediously that they already know [...]

' One of the nicest techniques is to spell long words incorrectly once in a while. My boy friend seems to get a great kick out of it and writes back, 'Honey, you certainly don't know how to spell.'"

Through all of this the natural superiority of the male is demonstrated, and the weaker role of the female affirmed.

-- Goffman, Erving (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books, 53.