Tag: quirks of the english language
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Quirks of the English Language: Place Names With Weird Pronunciation
As I like to travel about quite a bit (mostly by train at the moment, but I do drive) I’m often struck by the weird and wonderful place names I see around. As part of my MA in Landscape Archaeology, I did study some place name etymology and I often find myself trying to work…
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Figurative Speech: Oxymorons
Oxymorons – they can be amusing or ironic, or they can give you a headache as you try to get your head around them. We use oxymorons all the time. They are terms that make sense initially, but appear to present a contradiction by fusing together two different and opposing words or terms.
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Syntactic Ambiguity – English Language at its Funniest
No wait, don’t run away, please don’t be put off by the term “syntactic ambiguity” – yes I know it sounds dry and a bit like what you learnt in school and never want to learn again, it’s fun. In fact it’s one of the most amusing facets of the English language. Don’t believe me?…
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Quirks of the English Language
Now I am writing for a living, there are many curiosities that strike me about the language of English, seemingly contradictory grammatical rules, strange spellings, silent letters, that dreaded “i before e except after c” that has so many exceptions. This thread is just a dumping ground for some of the weirder quirks so please forgive me…
MG Mason Creative 