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Anne Curzan

Stories by this Author

  • Lingua Franca

    The Unexpected Lessons of Lingua Franca

    Anne Curzan reflects on what she has learned from blogging about language and teaching.
  • Lingua Franca

    ‘That Walk Was a Bear!’ Is ‘Bear’ Slang in That Sentence?

    Anne Curzan finds herself trying to define slang after one student misunderstands another’s remark on a snowy day.
  • Lingua Franca

    A Little Music Before We Begin

    Anne Curzan describes a new twist to her teaching this semester, which is allowing her to play DJ.
  • Lingua Franca

    Why I Chose ‘Judgy’ Over ‘Judgmental’

    Anne Curzan celebrates the lexical creativity of slang.
  • Lingua Franca

    How Are We Supposed to Have Fun?

    Anne Curzan responds to a reader’s quibble with her choice of fun as an adjective.
  • Lingua Franca

    When My Class Discussed ‘Mischievious’

    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

    Mischievous Pronunciations

    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

    Turning the Fashionable ‘Bespoke’ on Its Head

    Anne Curzan is intrigued by the possibility that another word may have come to mean its opposite.
  • Lingua Franca

    How ‘Taser’ Became a Verb

    After two headlines in the news, Anne Curzan contemplates whether we should be debating tasing versus tasering, or more important issues.
  • Lingua Franca

    What Rives?

    Anne Curzan finds herself curious about a healthy past participle whose verb may be gasping its last breaths.