The Chronicle of Higher Education web page has a section titled "Lingua Franca," which I recommend diving into. A nice feature is that it has an RSS feed, so you know when there is a new post.
Here is the latest one: http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca ... -but-when/
One bit of it made me think about a particular change in English. As more and more people do not understand the difference between less and fewer, more and more are writing less more and fewer less.
Lingua Franca at CHE
- Slava
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Lingua Franca at CHE
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
Re: Lingua Franca at CHE
I've noticed an interesting situation of overcompensation re 'less' vs. 'fewer'. People will write something like 'He is expected to receive a sentence of fewer than five years', as if anything that can be enumerated must be considered in discrete units.
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
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- Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
- Location: Finger Lakes, NY
Re: Lingua Franca at CHE
Less v. Fewer: a local grocery store has express lanes for people who aren't buying many items. One reads less, another reads fewer. I wonder if it is intentional.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
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