Free Shipping Today
I’ve been meaning to write a real post for a couple of weeks now, but until it’s up you’ll have to satisfy yourself with free shipping on all orders at the Arrant Pedantry Store with the coupon GIVETHANKSSHIP. You can use it at both the regular store and the new product designer, which allows you […]
Funner Grammar
As I said in the addendum to my last post, maybe I’m not so ready to abandon the technical definition of grammar. In a recent post on Copyediting, Andrea Altenburg criticized the word funner in an ad for Chuck E. Cheese as “improper grammar”, and my first reaction was “That’s not grammar!” That’s not entirely […]
It’s All Grammar—So What?
It’s a frequent complaint among linguists that laypeople use the term grammar in such a loose and unsystematic way that it’s more or less useless. They say that it’s overly broad, encompassing many different types of rules, and that it allows people to confuse things as different as syntax and spelling. They insist that spelling, […]
Some Exciting News
I meant to have a new post up this week, but things have been a little more hectic than I’d anticipated. I do have an exciting announcement, though: I’ve been asked to take over the column “Grammar on the Edge” in Copyediting newsletter. Every other month, I’ll cover difficult or obscure points of grammar. Watch […]
New Product Designer
Yes, it’s another t-shirt-related post. I’ve just launched a new product designer, where you can place designs on whatever products you want—t-shirts, hoodies, laptop sleeves, aprons, iPhone cases, and more. You can even change the colors of the designs and pick your own printing technique. Just click on the Product Designer tab on the menu […]
In Praise of Spreadshirt
Some of you may get tired of me hawking my t-shirts. If you’re one of those, I guess you can go ahead and plug your ears for this post. But I’d like to talk a bit about Spreadshirt and why I’ve chosen them to make my shirts. I first started designing my own t-shirts several […]
Relative What
A few months ago Braden asked in a comment about the history of what as a relative pronoun. (For my previous posts on relative pronouns, see here.) The history of relative pronouns in English is rather complicated, and the system as a whole is still in flux, partly because modern English essentially has two overlapping […]
The Data Is In, pt. 2
In the last post, I said that the debate over whether data is singular or plural is ultimately a question of how we know whether a word is singular or plural, or, more accurately, whether it is count or mass. To determine whether data is a count or a mass noun, we’ll need to answer […]
The Data Is In, pt. 1
Lately there has been a spate of blog posts on the question of whether data is a singular or a plural noun. Surprisingly, most of them come down on the side of saying that it can be singular—except when it’s plural. Although saying that it can be singular is refreshingly open-minded, I’ve still got a […]
International T-Shirt Day
Today is International T-Shirt Day! To celebrate, Spreadshirt is offering free shipping on all orders today only with the coupon code T-DAY2012. Check out the Arrant Pedantry Store, and remember that all designs are available for customization in the Spreadshirt Marketplace.