Stories by This Author
Lingua Franca
Anne Curzan reflects on what she has learned from blogging about language and teaching.
Lingua Franca
Anne Curzan finds herself trying to define slang after one student misunderstands another’s remark on a snowy day.
Lingua Franca
Anne Curzan describes a new twist to her teaching this semester, which is allowing her to play DJ.
Lingua Franca
Anne Curzan celebrates the lexical creativity of slang.
Lingua Franca
Anne Curzan responds to a reader’s quibble with her choice of fun as an adjective.
Lingua Franca
After reading her blog post about her nonstandard pronunciation of “mischievous,” Anne Curzan’s students tackle the topic of what is and what isn’t “standard” English.
Lingua Franca
How do you say the adjective form of mischief? Anne Curzan reflects on her own decision to “correct” the nonstandard pronunciation, which she is not entirely convinced is nonstandard.
Lingua Franca
Anne Curzan is intrigued by the possibility that another word may have come to mean its opposite.
Lingua Franca
After two headlines in the news, Anne Curzan contemplates whether we should be debating tasing versus tasering, or more important issues.
Lingua Franca
Anne Curzan finds herself curious about a healthy past participle whose verb may be gasping its last breaths.