July 2nd, 2020
Imagine you're at a dinner party, and you're getting into a heated argument. As you start yelling, the other people quickly hush their voices and start glaring at you. None of the onlookers have to take further action—it's clear from their facial expre...
November 16th, 2018
A debate I’ve come across again and again is whether language is objective or subjective. It tends to crop up in moments like when dictionaries update the word "literally" with contradictory definitions or when people argue that Ebonics isn't "correct"...
February 13th, 2018
Dan Wang emailed me with some interesting additional hypotheses regarding the question of flaking that I raised last week:
I liked your piece on flaking. When I moved to New York, I found that flaking declined dramatically. So I think that any piece t...