Language and Linguistics

Latest Articles

An education funding formula, hailed as a breakthrough, faces its critics

Fuzzy math
For years, Rhode Island was one of just two states in the union without a funding formula for its public schools. And then, for a time, it was the only state with that dubious dis-tinction.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 24, 2010

Beach Fossils | Beach Fossils

Captured Tracks (2010)
There are currently no functioning synonyms (ask Thesaurus) for the term “lo-fi,” so I’ll spare us all the agony of trying to find a more nuanced way to pigeonhole this band.
By CARRIE BATTAN | May 19, 2010

Review: On the road with David Foster Wallace

David Lipsky’s Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself treads lightly in the footsteps of a literary giant
David Foster Wallace had a crush on Alanis Morissette. He drank Diet Rite soda by the case. David Lynch changed him.
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | May 17, 2010

Jakob Dylan | Women + Country

Columbia (2010)
“Boring” is the sort of adjective used by music snobs (hi there!) to describe the Wallflowers, the band who brought Jakob Dylan’s hoarse and unexcitable voice into the mainstream.
By ZETH LUNDY | April 21, 2010

Review: The Secret In Their Eyes

The Academy got it wrong
The Counterfeiters (Austria) won in 2008, Departures (Japan) triumphed in 2009, and in 2010 the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar went to this piece of crap from Argentina.
By PETER KEOUGH | April 14, 2010

Review: Ajami

This Middle Eastern Boyz N the Hood teeters, but doesn't Crash
Set in the Arab neighborhood of the title, this Israeli nominee for the Best Foreign Language Oscar starts out like a Middle Eastern Boyz N the Hood .
By PETER KEOUGH | February 24, 2010

Ask a Black Woman: Harry Reid edition

Diverse City
Just in time for Black History Month, another installment of "Ask a Black Woman," thanks to JT in Portland who in early January asked me: What's your take on the Harry Reid thing?
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY | February 03, 2010

Internet Slang

Reality Check
Laughing online
By DAVID SIPRESS | February 03, 2010

Tight but loose

Jangly + angular = Glowkid
I had never come across the adjective "jangular" until I visited the Glowkid website.
By CHRIS CONTI | January 20, 2010

Book Review: The Tin Drum

Günter Grass and Tin Drum 2
There are — and have always been — two Günter Grasses. There's the Grass who was born in Danzig and the Grass who was born in Gdansk.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | December 15, 2009

The Big Hurt: ''Losing'' news in brief

Aerosmith lose Joe; A-Ha lose everybody; Diddy loses bling; Corgan just loses it
AEROSMITH ’s disastrous summer of canceled tours and geriatric folly has taken its toll on guitarist Joe Perry, who recently told MTV that the band were on “indefinite hiatus” — which is music-industry slang for “I hate Steven Tyler.”
By DAVID THORPE | October 27, 2009

Hans Rickheit versus the novel

Exploding Cow Dept.
In high-school English class, we're taught that literature features three basic types of conflict: man versus man, man versus environment, and man versus himself.
By MIKE MILIARD | September 30, 2009

Plain talk

Jesse Sheidlower gives the f-word its due
Jesse Sheidlower, an editor-at-large of the Oxford English Dictionary , an expert in slang, and the author of The F-Word , can't stop talking about fuck.
By JUSTINE ELIAS | September 15, 2009

La Fogata

A cozy Eastie spot for Colombian snacks and more
Few Boston neighborhoods are as blessed with affordable restaurants, or as unfairly overlooked, as Eastie.
By MC SLIM JB | August 26, 2009

A Danish punk

The Theater at Monmouth's Hamlet
The sad mad Danish prince is probably the most oft-quoted tragic hero in the English language, but he's a lot more than that. He is also, as I was reminded recently by a theater companion encountering him for the first time, pretty exasperating to be around, as well as "kind of a punk."
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | August 05, 2009

. . . And so is your mom

If you don't have anything nice to say dept.
Va te faire enculer . Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Actually, I just told you to fuck off. Pardon my French!
By CAITLIN E. CURRAN | August 08, 2011

Living Colour, Michael Madsen, and Rhody's new media

Rhode Island has seen its share of media strife in recent years.
The travails of the Providence Journal are the stuff of coffee house and talk radio chatter. And the troubles afflicting the local newscast fill the pages of this week's Phoenix .
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 24, 2009

Review: Departures

Deliberate, detailed, and delicate
Yôjirô Takita's film won the Best Foreign Language Oscar this year, and for good reason.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 16, 2009

Men plus money equals mess

The financial crisis is a man-made problem. And it might not have occurred if we had listened to women.
Since Iceland is something of the epicenter of the global financial crisis — its government being the first to essentially go belly up — it's probably not surprising that the Icelanders have come up with the most novel and interesting theory as to what caused the meltdown. And they may be right.
By STEVEN STARK | May 14, 2009

Class project

Atom Egoyan offers reasons for Adoration
Atom Egoyan was one of the first and most insightful of filmmakers to ponder the consequences and the moral implications of technological advances in media and communications.
By PETER KEOUGH | May 18, 2009

Dueling morals

Mad Horse's masterful The History Boys
A battle of pedagogies is raging at an English grammar school for teenage boys.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | April 29, 2009

Takeo Toyama | Etudes

Karaoke Kalk (2009)
Takeo Toyama's song experiments here run the gamut from sublime to unsettling. The first half offers mannered, consonant melodies.
By MICHAEL PATRICK BRADY | April 21, 2009

Kaidoku XXXVIII

Psycho Sudoku!
Psycho Sudoku!
By PSYCHO SUDOKU | April 22, 2009

Great Taste Bakery and Restaurant

A Chinatown eatery that lives up to its name
After a series of unimpressive Chinese restaurants (and one Korean place) had vacated the premises, this odd double-storefront reopened with a silly name — and actually delivers on it. All the food we had did taste great!
By ROBERT NADEAU | April 15, 2009

Say what?

The Big Hurt: A chat with Bill Buckholz of UnderstandRap.com
Good news for perplexed suburbanites: a new site called UnderstandRap.com lets experienced rap interpreters explain difficult urban slang to hip-hop neophytes.
By DAVID THORPE | April 13, 2009

The worst word

How F**K became our top taboo term -- and why we need it to stay that way
Then it happens: you look up at the TV screen and see Bono, the lead singer of U2, step up to the podium to accept a statuette for recording the Best Alternative Music album. "We shall continue to abuse our position," he says, "and fuck up the mainstream."
By TIMOTHY GOWER | April 07, 2009