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Does anyone know the term describing people's names that are also grammatical two-word sentences? I've forgotten what the term is, and Google search is no help. [more inside]
posted by Umami Dearest at 10:26 PM - 30 answers

I'm writing a novel. It centres love and found family, so is about emotional and sentimental subject matter, but I need tips on how to avoid cheap sentiment and cliche, and actually make a reader feel things without feeling manipulated. For the writers among you, what are some tips you would share? For readers, who are the writers you know who are doing this kind of thing well? [more inside]
posted by unicorn chaser at 2:55 AM - 13 answers

I'm trying to remember two words/ideas I encountered years ago, and what I have to go on is pretty thin. But always worth a shot to throw it out to folks here. [more inside]
posted by gigondas at 11:02 AM - 9 answers

Have you read some travel literature with detailed, vivid descriptions of South Africa mid-90s? I would be particularly interested in Black American travellers' perspectives. [more inside]
posted by QT at 3:31 PM - 1 answers

Taking into account both the translation and the reader, which edition should I listen to? [more inside]
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:45 PM - 2 answers

My favorite book that I read in 2024 was Liz Moore's "The God of the Woods." I loved it for many different reasons, and one in particular was the fact that it was possibly the best portrayal of denial -- as in the psychological state -- I have ever read in a work of fiction. I am now curious about other novels that you have read and that you think depict denial well. More specific details below. [more inside]
posted by virve at 10:20 PM - 14 answers

I'm interested in corpus to corpus comparison (I think that is what this is) to determine the likelihood of common authors across bodies of policy writing - or that authors have a common worldview. I am not a linguist and know very little about this (huge and diverse) subject. I'm looking for workflows, guides and software to carry out this kind of analysis. I have seen wordclouds in serious papers and (where robust - and not just pretty) their generation is useful to me. I'm not very interested in 'AI'/LLM solutions, or that involve a GPU (as I don't own one). [more inside]
posted by unearthed at 4:18 PM - 4 answers

I'm trying to find an article I read years ago on the shortcomings of corpus analysis as a way to gain insights about people/thinking in the past. [more inside]
posted by Senescence at 12:26 PM - 1 answers

I read it before the tv show, I’ll have you know [more inside]
posted by queseyo at 9:03 PM - 0 answers

I see and hear these words all the time, and I'm never sure where (or if) journalists and bloggers and anchorman draw a line between one and other. I consider these words more or less interchangeable, but i dont have a sophisticated political vocabulary nor any historical perspective on how the meaning of these words may have changed over time. How do you guys define these words, and what distinctions, if any, do see between them?
posted by BadgerDoctor at 4:53 PM - 26 answers

Inspired by this comment. I often find myself needing to say some version of “look me in the eyes” but I want to mix it up for laughs. [more inside]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:17 AM - 9 answers

The plot is a lady English language professor meets a guy on a dating app and they start dating. Said date sends her text poetry but he is not the author - he asks his friend to write to poetry on his behalf. The actual poet is a co-worker of hers. Anyone know the name of this movie? It is reasonably recent.
posted by Saucywench at 3:55 PM - 5 answers

In English, or at least the variety of American English I speak, it's understood that turning a dial/screw "right" means turning it clockwise. But this doesn't seem inevitable to me -- after all, while the tangential motion at the top of the dial is rightward, the motion at the bottom is leftward (and still other points are moving up or down). Are there languages/cultures where the convention is reversed, or where left/right would not be used in this context at all? [more inside]
posted by aws17576 at 2:23 PM - 22 answers

I remember a story about a boy and his family visiting an historic building that concludes with the boy having disappeared and with a feather drifting down a stairwell. [more inside]
posted by Peach at 2:31 PM - 2 answers

Recently, I've been watching a lot of police bodycam videos, and I've noticed a tendency among upset young people to put "uh" at the end of the last word in I sentence. For example, "I was just there" becomes "I was just there-uh" and "There's no reason" becomes "There's no reason-uh." I don't know if young people also do it when they're not upset or only when they're upset. Is there a specific linguistic term for this habit? For example, making a declarative statement with a rising tone that makes it sound like a question is "uptalk," and a crackling voice is called "vocal fry." So do linguists have a word for this "-uh"? Also, I feel like it's a relatively phenomenon. Does anyone know roughly where it started, where it came from, etc?
posted by Bugbread at 10:13 PM - 18 answers

Grilling in the UK typically means using "the grill" section of the cooker/ cooking using a heat source from above, but in the US I believe this is broiling/ using "the broiler", and grilling in the US is using a heat source from below (I think like a barbecue in the UK?). What other words might cause confusion for two English-speakers of different dialects, thinking they mean the same thing, but really they don't?
posted by 7 Minutes of Madness at 10:03 AM - 64 answers

My brother-in-law really likes crime fiction by Ed James, a Scottish self-published writer. It's partly the sense of place he likes; not sure what else. Is there anything similar people can recommend? Tried Ian Rankin and a few other contemporary crime writers like Kate Atkinson, but they haven't worked for him.
posted by anonymous at 4:55 AM - 6 answers

Is there a quote I can put at my desk to motivate me, particularly when I'm having a bad day, that isn't TOO *obviously* about having a bad day at work, disliking your job, and getting through it? [more inside]
posted by anonymous at 10:08 PM - 29 answers

I don't remember much about it, but the one strange detail that sticks out is that the clan had a special skill in paper marbling. [more inside]
posted by tavella at 8:28 PM - 3 answers

Around 1987, I read a choose-your-own adventure book where you played an acolyte or adept exploring a waterlogged city. You were sent to recover a giant orb ("The Eye of the Dragon" or something), and fought coral-encrusted foes called "kappa" (no relation to the Japanese yokai) [more inside]
posted by jibberish at 8:03 AM - 3 answers