Attended LangSoc Edinburgh's first lecture series. It was a show of confidence from me, after their successful interactive session for the screening of The Linguists. The speaker was Professor Geoffrey K. Pullum, Head of Linguistics & English Language at the university and happened to be my Programme Director's boss. The title of the lecture was "Blogging Language Science", which didn't make much sense to me initially, with the exception of notions that it was about Blogging, Language and done by a group of Language Scientists. Nonetheless, the 1.5 hour session was really insightful, as Prof Geoff told us stories about the men and woman (yeap, there's only 1 lady blogger so far) behind this group blogging project, Language Log, where this group of linguists write about their observations of language in use in both serious and wacky styles.
To have a sample of what's on the blog, do take a look at Victor Mair's entries. This guy's a Prof in Chinese Lang and Lit and he has done quite a bit of work studying Chinglish. Being one of the few Chinese in the LT this evening, I was glad to have a full appreciation of what's being shared, as the signs and posters captured on his blog entries brought back fond memories of my undergrad days.
As for an insight into Prof Geoff's wit and humour, though one might think it is simply sarcasm, and how he had entertained us with his readings this evening, take a look at The Dan Brown Code and its series, where he put to pen his disdain for Dan Brown's misuse or "abuse" of metaphors and the English language.
I really admire people with the flair of a language and that keen eye and mind, keeping good track of their thoughts and sorts!
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