random lists and randomness

You can learn a lot about your mother tongue form non-native speakers. Here are some questions I was asked recently by a Korean exchange student in my linguistics classes:

1. What is the most offensive word you know? (fag)
2. What do you call petting a PERSON'S hair--petting, stroking, something else? (petting?)
3. What is your favorite metaphor? (he/she's 'hot')
4. Ambiguity....is nebulous? (yeah, but we don't really say 'nebulous'....)


Every morning I wake up with a different random song stuck in my head. Last weeks mental playlist:

Monday: Everybody was Kung Fu fighting!
Tuesday: the corny Titanic song
Wednesday: the states song (aaaalaaaabama, alaska arizona arkansas california colorado conneticut...)
Thursday: System of a Down-Lie Lie Lie


Random thought: Misuse of apostrophes should be banned.


I asked the (elementary) kids I teach Spanish to name some Spanish speaking countries. Their FIRST guesses:
1.New Mexico (NEW Mexico?)
2. Africa
3. Asia
4. Europe
It took about an hour of prompting to get them to guess Spain. heart kids.


I had an interesting conversation with my boyfriend today that perfectly exemplifies indirect speech acts:
Me: Hey Steve, you wanna go get ice cream?
Steve: No.
Me: I wanted to go get ice cream.
Steve: Why didn't you say so?
Me: I did!


I just found this epic quote:
"It is common knowledge that standard English inserts a glottal stop before a tautosyllabic voiceless plosive."
Common knowledge, indeed.

Randomness: