Crash blossoms

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If you can’t understand newspaper headlines, it may be because of their unique grammar. Or it may be because you’ve found a crash blossom. The term derives from this headline:

Violinist linked to crash blossoms

It is possible to read this and wonder: What on earth is a crash blossom?

Violinist [is] linked to crash blossoms
noun verb + preposition noun phrase

In fact, the story is about a violinist whose career has blossomed (i.e. flourished) since the death of her father in a plane crash. The word blossoms is a verb here, not a noun:

Violinist [who is] linked to crash blossoms
noun relative clause verb

Can you spot the problem in each of these headlines?

  • McDonald’s Fries the Holy Grail for Potato Farmers
  • Fossil Yields Surprise Kin of Crocodiles
  • British Push Bottles Up German Rear [a war news story]
  • Google Fans Phone Expectations by Scheduling Android Event
  • British Left Waffles on Falklands
  • Gator Attacks Puzzle Experts
  • Republicans Look to Safety Net Programs as Deficit Balloons
  • Queen Mother tried to help abuse girl

The confusion in all of these is about whether certain words are nouns or verbs.

Read more about crash blossoms in the New York Times Magazine and Language Log.

Norwich Economic Papers

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Norwich Economic Papers is a journal written and edited by UEA School of Economics students, some of them graduates of INTO. In fact, one of our student wardens is the current editor.

There are 18 volumes so far, dating from 2010 to 2018. The latest volume includes articles on:

  • wage discrimination on Irish immigrants
  • the environmental impact of plastic waste
  • why people smoke
  • the fiscal viability of Universal Basic Income.

You can read all of the volumes online.

A Future in Chemistry

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The Royal Society of Chemistry website has a careers section called A Future in Chemistry. A chemist could:

  • discover new medicines
  • protect the environment
  • invent products and materials
  • solve crime using forensic analysis
  • teach chemistry (if all else fails)

besides some evil things that the website doesn’t mention.

There is lots of advice about jobs, study options, work experience, etc.

 

Periodic tables

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The Royal Society of Chemistry website has four periodic tables, with links to detailed information on each element.

  1. The main table has standard information about the various elements, plus their supply risk.
  2. A history table shows when each element was discovered and who by, and the origin of its name.
  3. An alchemy table shows 16 elements known to alchemists (antimony, arsenic, bismuth, copper, gold, iron, lead, magnesium, mercury, phosphorus, platinum, potassium, silver, sulfur, tin and zinc).
  4. A trends table displays the density, atomic radius, electronegativity, melting point, boiling point and first ionisation energy of elements.

The site also has some resources for the International Year of the Periodic Table.

International Year of the Periodic Table

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150 years ago Dmitri Mendeleev published his periodic table of the elements. To commemorate this, UNESCO has declared 2019 the International Year of the Periodic Table.

So how well do you know the periodic table? See if you can do these two quizzes.

Open quiz in new window

Seynt Valentynes day

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The Parlement of Foules (parliament of fowls, or birds) is a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer written in about 1381. It mentions Saint Valentine’s Day as a special day to find a lover:

For this was on seynt Valentynes day,
Whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make,
Of every kinde, that men thenke may;
And that so huge a noyse gan they make,
That erthe and see, and tree, and every lake
So ful was, that unnethe was ther space
For me to stonde, so ful was al the place.The Parlement of Foules (lines 309-315)

For this was on Saint Valentine’s day,
When every fowl comes there to choose his mate
Of every kind that men can think of,
And that so huge a noise did they make
That earth and sea and tree and every lake
So full was, that scarcely was there space
For me to stand, so full was all the place.

You can see the British Library’s manuscript of the poem. The language is Middle English. (See also this online dictionary.)

Word frequency symbols in online dictionaries

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Some online dictionaries use symbols to show word frequency. The more symbols a word has, the more common it is in English.

Macmillan

The Macmillan Dictionary uses 1-3 stars:

Longman

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English uses 1-3 circles:

Collins

The Collins English Dictionary uses 1-5 circles:

Oxford

The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary labels common words (the Oxford 3000) with a key:

Cambridge

The Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary labels some words with their English Profile level (A1 Beginner, A2 Elementary, B1 Intermediate, B2 Upper-Intermediate, C1 Advanced, C2 Proficiency):

opensubtitles.com

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The site opensubtitles.com (or its older incarnation opensubtitles.org) has film and TV subtitles in various languages.

And you find that sort of rootless existence appealing, do you?
Yes, ma’am, I do.
I mean, I’ve got everything I need right here with me.
I got air in my lungs and a few blank sheets of paper.
I love waking up in the morning not knowing what’s gonna happen …
or who I’m gonna meet …
where I’m gonna wind up.
Just the other night I was sleeping under a bridge, and now …
here I am on the grandest ship in the world …
having champagne with you fine people. Titanic

For some films there are even bilingual subtitles:

I am Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, 我是海军陆战队中士哈特曼
your senior drill instructor. 是你们的高级训练教官
You will speak 除非我先说话…
only when spoken to 你们不得擅自开口
The first and last words out of your sewers will be “Sir! ” 你们跟我说话首尾都要冠以”长官”一词
Do you maggots understand? 你们这些蛆虫明白吗?
Sir, yes, sir! 长官 是 长官 Full Metal Jacket

Ways to add subtitles to films are discussed here. To read them online, choose a film, a language, then one of the subtitle files. Then under Fileinfo click on the Transcript icon: