DailyDirt: English Curiosities

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The English language is one of the hardest languages to learn. There are countless irregularities and significant differences between written and spoken English grammar that can trip up almost anyone. Here are just a few linguistic analyses of slightly older versions of English .

• A method of diagramming English sentences was invented 166 years ago as a way to teach English grammar in a simpler way. Imagine if this was invented today.... [url]
• Linguistic anthropology looks at how language has changed and influenced social life. Some words have changed their meanings more rapidly than others, and here's a chart showing some of the words that have stayed the most consistent with time. [url]
• The most significant change to the English language is... the progressive passive. People used to say sentences like: "The house was building" instead of "The house was being built". (And long ago, it was "The house is a-building" or "The house is on building".) [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: diagramming, english, grammar, language, linguistic anthropology, progressive passive, sentences