Guestbook
Thanks for stopping by to sign our guestbook! Here you can rave, rant, and respond all you want! Go wild (but not too wild; this is an all-ages website).
A monthly online magazine that brings language- and linguistics-focused stories and research to the masses
eNewsletter| Popular Linguistics Magazine, Volume One - 2011 |
I really enjoyed the article I read (by Patience Epps) and am looking forward to the next installations. Please add the month and year of publication to every article. There’s a lot of “Check back next month” and “Continued next month” and “This month on…” on the site, but for all I knew the article I read had been published in 2006! (I was kind of hoping it had, so that I could read all 4 parts without waiting.)
Judging from the other comments in the guestbook I surmise that this site was actually launched in 2011, but there’s no way to tell that from the content pages. Assuming that you’re hoping for months and years of publication success, it will provide important context and navigational guidance to your readers to include publication dates.
Yes, the January 2011 issue is the first; specific dates for “next month” will start with February’s issue.
-ds
Kudos on your new magazine. As an english major who learned french, german, italian and a smattering of classical greek and latin and spent my career as a journalist, I have always been interested in language. Since retiring I’ve spent countless hours reading about linguistics, and as an amateur, I’m very pleased about this new magazine. One criticism; I agree with other commentors about the black and white issue. Good luck!
Congratulations on this exciting venture! I am a high school student that has just begun exploring the field of linguistics, and I know this magazine will be a remarkable resource.
Hi,
Linguist by training and translator by trade, this is my kind of place. I’m looking forward to reading more.
Possibly because I’m a contrarian by nature, or possibly because it’s just gentle on the eye, I’d like to pipe up for those of us who actually like the light text on a dark background. I spend most of my days working at the computer, and black on white really starts hurting the eyes after a few hours.
Guess I’m in the minority here so far, but, hey, if we minorities don’t speak up for ourselves, no-one’s going to do it for us.
This is a very good initiative! Good luck.
Perhaps the editor-in-chief could outline what kind of articles or contributions would be welcome from the public at large??
With best regards,
Nico.
Nico,
Certainly. Submissions on linguistic- and language-related research from professionals in the field are always welcome. Please see the submission guidelines under Home>>Contact Us.
-ds
Thanks so much for putting this together. I teach an introduction to linguistics to juniors and seniors in high school, and it’s been a struggle to find writing that is accessible and lively. I am bookmarking this for them. (We have a Diigo account with almost 900 bookmarks pertaining to linguistics–search “Words R Us” in Diigo groups.)
That’s fantastic! What I wouldn’t have given for a linguistics course when I was in high school!
-ds
I wish you the best of luck with your new publication. I am a firm believer in promoting an interest in and appreciation of language to all. I have asked my readers to check out your new magazine and to share it with other language lovers they know.
Great idea! I will be bookmarking this and directing my students to it.
I love the idea of this place but have great trouble reading the site because of the white text and black background. When I leave the site, my vision blurs and I see lines that aren’t there. This happens to me on all websites with white text and black backgrounds. So, I am afraid I won’t be able to enjoy this site as much as I probably would if I could read it.
Congratulations on launching a very informative new site. The content is compelling, and makes me want to read every word, but the format of reversed type is not user-friendly. As a graphic designer, one of the first things I learned was that white type on a black background is simply hard for people to read. It just wears out the eye and makes one want to read less. This format is appropriate for headlines and to highlight brief snippets, but for long articles and essays – strictly verboten.
congratulations ! i wrote a post on my blog to present your wonderful magazine to the french public, linguists and nonlinguists i hope :
best regards
I highly applaud the initiative; it is always good to welcome new attempts at popularizing the study of languages and linguistics. However, there are some aspects of the site which I think could use improvement.
As for the white-on-black layout, I personally would prefer something easier on the eyes, but this is of course a matter of taste.
My main point concerns the architecture of the site, which struck me as somewhat random and unorganized. The many tabs with their respective sub-tabs (the existence of which I didn’t notice until after a while) made me lose my way entirely, not knowing what to find where or to what categories the contributions were supposed to belong. Along with the fact that the articles are not dated (on which I strongly second Eve’s suggestion above), I fear that the appearance of future issues will only add to this confusion.
So if I may summarize, I would say that the idea is great, but for the magazine to rejoice a broad audience and gain future potential as a respected contribution to the field of popular linguistics, some logistic refurbishing is definitely required.
I enjoyed this issue very much and look forward to the next. Keep ‘em coming!
Also, on the color scheme–contrary to many others, I do like it currently. Light text on a dark background is much easier to look at.
Thanks for putting out this “webzine.” I am hooked and look forward to the next issue.
One comment on “Morphology: How are words formed?” by Corrine McCarthy. She says that “WTF” is an acronym when I think it is an initialism. An acronym is a word made from the letters whereas an initialism is not a word. Nobody says wft (weuft), they say W-T-F (double-you tee eff). One could even argue that LOL is not an acronym because most people say “el oh el,” not lol (as in lolly pop).