Thanks, John, for pointing me to this article about translations by Wendy Lesser. Among other thing, it compares Alfred Birnbaum's translations of Haruki Murakami with Jay Rubin's versions. Here's Jay Rubin's version of the beginning of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which is also the first story in The Elephant Vanishes:

When the phone rang, I was in the kitchen, boiling a potful of spaghetti and whistling along with an FM broadcast of the overture to Rossini's 'The Thieving Magpie', which has to be the perfect music for cooking pasta.

I wanted to ignore the phone, not only because the spaghetti was nearly done, but because Claudio Abbado was bringing the London Symphony to its musical climax.

And here's Alfred Birnbaum's version:

I'm in the kitchen cooking spaghetti when the woman calls. Another moment until the spaghetti is done; there I am, whistling the prelude to Rossini's 'La Gazza Ladra' along with the FM radio. Perfect spaghetti-cooking music.

I hear the telephone ring but tell myself, Ignore it. Let the spaghetti finish cooking. It's almost done, and besides, Claudio Abbado and the London Symphony Orchestra are coming to a crescendo.

Which do you prefer? John and I have talked before about Murakami's language and wondered how much is determined by the translator. It's interesting to have parallel texts to compare. Like Wendy Lesser, I prefer Birnbaum but I'm not sure it's for the same reasons as her.

btw, if you haven't read any of Haruki Murakami's work, you should. The Elephant Vanishes is a good place to start (it's where I started after John gave me a copy).

B-)

At last it happened. The kids realised the potential of our little bit of wasted ground at the front of the house. Oisin started the idea. He gathered up some bunches of dead dried flowers and set up a stall selling 'bouquets' for 20 pence. The other kids joined in by making bouquets from the weeds growing between the concrete. Soon every passer-by was being accosted. Actually, they didn't even wait to be passed by - they were yelling up and down the street and even trying to stop passing cyclists. In about an hour they made 2 pounds 65. Hope they don't follow Ohna's example - apparently she used to gather up lots of her mum's things and try to sell them.

(They're giving the money to 'Action For Kids', btw - Kiloh's favourite charity).

B-)

Gulp.

So John Major had an affair for four years with Edwina Currie. We all saw that one coming, didn't we? Not.

I can't decide what's funniest. The whole idea? Mary Archer's bitchy comment? No, my vote goes for Major's statement that Norma has forgiven him. This calls for the famous 'two-positives-can-make-a-negative' utterance: yeh, right.

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You can read here about 'Science's 10 most beautiful experiments'. There are some beauties here, but I have to say one of my scientific heroes, who I read about in this book is the guy who discovered that helicobacter pylori (say it a few times - go on, it's fun) contributes to ulcerous stomach problems. No-one believed him so he took a scrape of bacteria from the inside of a sufferer's stomach, cultivated it in a petrie/petrey dish (not sure how to spell this) and then swallowed it. He got symptoms within a week and then cured himself with antibiotics.

What a guy!

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....going out and learning a language.

Today is the European Day of Languages. I wonder if David Blunkett is taking part?

I've been reading a few interesting emails about Blunkett's comments. One linguist thought his comments revealed an assumption that bilingualism was a kind of 'schizophrenia'. Another pointed out that Blunkett was actually arguing for multilingualism, i.e. he thinks parents should add English to their repertoire rather than that kids should drop other languages. I'm sure this could all be used as the basis for a seminar or two.

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Email exchange this morning:

billy: quick bit of google research suggests that Skara Brae is the band you were in. Is that right?

jim: Uuuggh. Found out. Yes, I'm afraid so. I hate Google.

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Well, I went straight to the source and asked Jim McCloskey, who replied:

Billy:

Well, I'm partly very chuffed and partly very pissed off that these rumours are around. Jesus Christ, I mean: `fur-lined sheepskin jacket', cheating at Subbuteo, watching `University Challenge'. Not me.

No, both of these rumours are completely untrue. But I can see what little grain of sand might have provoked each of the pearls to form.

[1] Feargal Sharkey (lead singer for the Undertones) is my cousin. But the song `My Perfect Cousin' was written by Damian O'Neill (lead guitar) and Michael Bradley (bass), and it's about Mickey's cousin (not Feargal's or Damian's). I knew this person, and his name really is Kevin, but beyond that I am not willing to go. It's a great song though. I have never owned a fur-lined sheepskin jacket, nor have I ever cheated at Subbuteo.

[2] No, I was never the drummer for the Hothouse Flowers. But I was the bass player in another Irish band that married traditional music and rock (for want of a better word) music. That band made just one recording, which was re-issued on CD a couple of years ago, and I wrote the sleeve notes for the CD re-issue. That band was important for the evolution of recent Irish music, if I can say this without sounding boastful, not so much because of what we did at the time (which was sort of soppy and amateurish), but because it was the training ground for people who later went on to form the two most important and innovative bands in Irish music of the past 20 years, namely the Bothy Band and Altan. These people are my closest friends. I'm very proud of my (very small) part in what they achieved, and I'm still in close touch with all of them (which mostly these days means going on the piss with them when they come round here to gig, or when I go back home to Ireland).

Cheers. Thanks for alerting me to this,

Jim

Linguists have been discussing David Blunkett's comments about how people should be urged to talk English in their homes. BAAL (the British Association of Applied Linguists) and the LAGB (Linguistics Association of Great Britain) are preparing a response to them. But some linguists think what he said might not be so bad after all. Here's the text of what Blunkett said (this is the only reference to language in the whole 20 pages):

'I have never said, or implied, that lack of fluency in English was in any way directly responsible for the disturbances in Bradford, Burnley and Oldham in the summer of 2001. However, speaking English enables parents to converse with their children in English, as well as in their historic mother tongue, at home and to participate in wider modern culture. It helps overcome the schizophrenia which bedevils generational relationships. In as many as 30% of Asian British households, according to the recent citizenship survey, English is not spoken at home. But let us be clear that lack of English fluency did not cause the riots.'

Some linguists take this as just saying that it could be a problem if parents can't speak a language being used by their kids. On the other hand, others say that it's presupposing English is the main language everywhere in the country. And they raise the question of whether the (local) government in Wales is 'promoting schizophrenia' by promoting use of Welsh as a first language?

Well, I thought I'd pass this on just in case I'm beginning to seem unfairly biased against the lying, deceitful ...

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A lot of interesting discussion of yesterday's Iraq debate in the papers today. The most striking piece for me was this from Robert Fisk. His main point is that the dossier is full of words like 'if', 'probably' and 'maybe'. If they remain this doubtful then we don't have enough evidence to go to war. If they are not, and therefore Saddam has been managing to carry on building 'weapons of mass destruction', then half a million Iraqi children have been killed for no reason. Here's an extract:

Let's go back to 12 May 1996. Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, had told us that sanctions worked and prevented Saddam from rebuilding weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Our Tory government agreed, and Tony Blair faithfully toed the line. But on 12 May, Mrs Albright appeared on CBS television. Leslie Stahl, the interviewer, asked: 'We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that's more than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?' To the world's astonishment, Mrs Albright replied: 'I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it.'

Now we know - if Mr Blair is telling us the truth - that the price was not worth it. The price was paid in the lives of hundreds of thousands of children. But it wasn't worth a dime. The Blair 'dossier' tells us that, despite sanctions, Saddam was able to go on building weapons of mass destruction. All that nonsense about dual- use technology, the ban on children's pencils - because lead could have a military use - and our refusal to allow Iraq to import equipment to restore the water-treatment plants that we bombed in the Gulf War, was a sham.

B-}

Just listened to Gavin Essler in a programme called Lost For Words on radio 4 talking about language death, mainly in Australia. Unfortunately, it's not been granted 'listen again' status so you have to tune in at 11am next Wednesday if you want to hear the next one (which is about Hawaii).

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Another linguist writes:

...my head of dept says that J McCloskey was the drummer in the Boomtown Rats...he left to do postgraduate studies and the rest is history

Jennifer, I think your head of department is pulling your leg. Mind you, I don't know whether he's Feargal Sharkey's perfect cousin, either. Maybe the whole thing is as true as the great eskimo vocabulary hoax?

B-)

I am officially a 'language nerd'. It says so here and further evidence comes from my being fascinated by the discussion of *(...) which began with this posting to LINGUIST

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Here is another interesting article about the effect of those abbreviations inspired by SMS, the internet etc.

ITIMSVIRAYMD (I think it makes some very interesting reading anyway - you might disagree)

One thing that leapt out at me was when:

Montana Hodgen, 16, .. said she was so accustomed to instant- messaging abbreviations that she often read right past them. She proofread a paper last year only to get it returned with the messaging abbreviations circled in red.

'I was so used to reading what my friends wrote to me on Instant Messenger that I didn't even realize that there was something wrong,' she said. She said her ability to separate formal and informal English declined the more she used instant messages. 'Three years ago, if I had seen that, I would have been `What is that?' '

Some good evidence there that the verb to be has joined the verb to go as an alternative to say in reporting speech.

I'm wow!

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Peter Paphides is on top form in The Guide today (not webbed, as far as I can see) talking about the desire to take the guy from the Halifax ad aside and:

...fill him in on the bigger picture that somewhere in Halifax's head office, there's a Mr. Burns character rewinding tapes of that ad and laughing at the willingness with which employees debase themselves for a bit of fame and an end-of-year bonus.

As he says, though, it would be a bit like telling a four-year-old that Santa doesn't exist.

There's another interesting article by him about pop music and songwriters here ( if pop music in the 21st century is carrying on as though the Beatles never happened, there's a good reason for it. The Beatles were never meant to happen).

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As someone who insists on typing in full versions of every word and sentence even when sending Short Messaging Service messages, this is pretty scary news.

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Nigel says that the person referred to in My Perfect Cousin by The Undertones is Jim McCloskey, famous Irish linguist.

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Well, I guess I'd better stop being a Liberal Democrat and say what I think about this.

First, I don't really give a lot of weight to anyone who goes on about 'breaking the law of the land'. I mean, who hasn't broken the law of the land at some time or other? As I type, Ohna has a photo on her desk which shows her driving our car in a bus lane. She's about 10 yards from the road she's turning left into and her indicator is clearly on, but it's still illegal so she has to hand over 40 quid. And of course we all know that car drivers, motorbikers, cyclists and pedestrians all break the law every day. (I have to say, mind you, that it seems to me like motorcyclists are the most law-abiding of the lot - at least in town). So I think we probably want to separate the question of what the law should be from what our moral attitude is to breaking it.

Second, I don't have that much faith that changing the law or road layouts or traffic signals would have much effect. How often do cars stop between the advanced stop lines for bicycles at traffic lights? How many motorists understand the rules for mini-roundabouts (identical to those for ordinary roundabouts, btw)? How many pedestrians understand that a cycle path is a thing people will probably go cycling on? How many builders with skips/vans/whatever to park could care less? (My favourite cycle path obstacle is the ice cream van which regularly parks on the path in Whittington Park). I don't think cyclists should get too upset about all of this. It's just stuff you need to think about and be aware of and cycle around.

Which leaves the moral question about whether cyclists should break the law or not. My feeling is that nobody should break the law but that if you get upset every time someone does you're heading for dangerously high stress levels.

So what do I do when I meet a red light? Well, usually I stop and wait. I have been known to sneak through when it's really obvious nothing else is moving in the vicinity. And the one place where I think it makes sense is at a busy junction where getting away early means you're out of the way of the motorists before they've got a chance to plough into you.

Anyone want to start on the cycling on the pavement question?

B-)

(sorry Billy, I couldn't read that last post and not reply - delete away)

"It's the motorists that are the problem."

Ha! until you cyclist types pass a full license and pay road tax you should legally be target practice for the rest of us. It's getting nasty out there as there are, to quote a song lyric, "too many of us". I think now is the time for everyone to get off their fucking high horse and start being a little helpful, courteous and sensible.

In my case, that means: let motorcyclist drive anywhere and park anywhere;-)

I'm going to let this correspondent (i.e. Mark have the last word:

Isn't it an extraordinary equation? Speeding, lights-jumping motorists kill people. Speeding, lights-jumping cyclists get killed. If the roads were filled with only cyclists, only the very frailest of pedestrians would be killed if hit by a cyclist. If the roads were filled with only motorists, lots lots more people would, and do, get killed.

How can people ignore this disparity?

The only reason a rule-breaking cyclist is a problem is that there are motorised road-users around to turn a minor mishap into a lethal disaster. It's the motorists that are the problem.

B-)

Another cyclist writes:

I see people in cars drive through red lights most days.

B-)

This discussion is raging on. Cyclists seem pretty evenly divided between those who think it's no biggie to jump a red light (as long as it's carefully done) and those who think it's always wrong, e.g.:

Cycling home a few weeks back, waiting at the Duke Street/Oxford Street junction, a gentleman - American, clearly only recently arrived here - came up to me and said: "Back home, all the cyclists jump the lights." I imagine that very shortly afterwards, his naive belief that he arrived in a land of law abiding cyclists was shattered.

My problem with people jumping lights is twofold - first of all, it creates a bad impression which makes it harder to campaign for cyclists. Secondly, it encourages others to do the same - I now regularly see motorcyclists jump lights, probably as a direct result of cyclists' behaviour.

B-)

Another cyclist comments:

From a legal perspective, the policeman is correct. Intent is a rather important concept in law.

By stopping, your friend showed herself to be aware of the light against her. Had she not stopped, she could have pleaded that she had not seen the light. Instead, she made her intent to break the law obvious to the policeman.

Providing no one is killed, injured, or placed under stress, the running of a red light (by cars, bicycles, or any other vehicle) is a victimless crime. In fact, society might even gain from the savings in commuting time made by the individuals. Most traffic laws fit this description. However, there is the troubling proviso: no one gets killed etc.

Until the highway code is changed to allow cyclists to jump red lights, I'll see them in the same light as the motorists who tear down my residential street at 45mph. After all, they only do it when they think it's safe, and they are saving time.

B-)

While we're on the subject of red light jumping, a friend of mine (nameless to protect the not innocent) was stopped by police recently for going through a red light on her first day in her new job as a courier. She was given a telling off and, believe it or not, the officer said to her,

'and what makes it worse is that you stopped to think about it and have a look to see if anything was coming before you went through'

B-}

Someone (names have been removed to protect the innocent) has been warning cyclists that City of London cops have started giving on the spot fines to cyclists who go through red lights:

A colleague told me about it during an after-work drink, and about half an hour later ... on my way home along the deserted City streets I saw a cyclist (in Queen Street) getting his card back from a police motorcyclist. He hopped back on his bike and when he stopped at the next set of lights I asked him about it. 'Done for going through a red light. 30 quid fine.'

Another cyclist responded:

Ah well, if the streets were deserted it sounds like the traffic cop was just bored. One example doesn't make a trend. And one fine for one violation every x number of years for doing something you do several times a day every day isn't going to stop anybody who does it either.

That's the spirit, eh?

B-)

Found this via LINGUIST. It suggests that a subtle kind of accommodation correlates with the results of presidential elections. They looked at every presidential debate since 1960 and found that in every case, the candidate with the 'most steadfast' voice won the popular vote, up to and including when Gore won the popular vote last time.

The LINGUIST post, from Richard Sproat, raises some interesting questions and points out at least one definite error in the story. Let me know if you don't follow what he's saying.

B-)

At last a game that uses the full potential of the internet.

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That donkey on the edge just pointed to this.

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I am very busy. Hope to get back in touch with you later today,

Billy

Scarlett Thomas tore into James N Frey's new writing book How To Write Damn Good Fiction in Sunday's Independent (not on the web yet, as far as I can see). Not that she needs to, really. I mean, who would dream of buying a book with a title like that?

She obviously doesn't like the idea of 'how to write' books at all, as you can see from the beginning of the review (note the scare quotes):

In 'On Writing', the only contemporary writing 'manual' worth reading, Stephen King gives three of the best pieces of advice for people who want to write. He suggests, among many other things, that would-be writers should sit at a humble desk, should avoid TV and should, above everything else, read a lot of books.

Stephen King's book is great but it's only partly a writing manual. It's an autobiography focussing on his writing life with a 'toolbox' section with some tips on writing. His tip about the humble desk is one of the best tips in the book. He says you should have a humble desk in the corner of the room to remind you 'that art is a support system for life and not the other way round'.

But my favourite tips were in the toolbox. He begins by saying that what he would really have liked to do would have been just to write a book on grammar but that his editor wouldn't let him. He goes on to show that he does understand grammar (i.e. he doesn't mean that he'd like to go on and on about split infinitives and stuff) by saying that we shouldn't be scared of grammar since we all know it all implicitly. A good grammar course, he says, mainly just tells you what the names are for things you already know about. The two bits of specific linguistic advice he gives are:

a) kill all adverbs

and

b) never use the passive voice

You just can't argue with that, can you?

B-)

Just got a puncture and had to take the bus home. Walking home from the bus stop I realised how seldom I actually walk anywhere these days, and how nice it is.

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I hate to be negative at a time like this, but I was listening to the memorial service on the radio and the main thing that struck me when listening to the Gettysburg address was the horrible irony that this sentiment was being expressed in a country which had just elected George W Bush (OK, I know they didn't elect him but ykwim).

B

A highlight of today was watching Watchdog. Nicky Campbell approached someone who had (allegedly) ripped off 16 of their viewers. Instead of punching the camera and yelling abuse, this guy talked effusively about how hard it was for him. I think he said there would be full employment for everyone if people would just give him a chance.

Anyway, the amazing moment was when he came out clutching a wad and handed over the money that each of the Watchdog viewers said he'd ripped off from them.

What a refreshing change!

B-)

The Stop The War Coalition just asked me to publicise this:

John Pilger's Palestine film set for late slot by TV company.

John Pilger's new documentary, "Palestine is still the issue", is due to be broadcast on ITV on Monday 16th September...but the broadcast time has been moved to 11pm.

John's film comes at a crucial time and focuses on a central issue in the 'war against terrorism'. It will be a vital educational experience for millions of people in the immediate run-up to the Stop the War Coalition demonstration on 28th September where John is one of the platform speakers.

Please use your email and website facilities to advertise John's film, including the showing time. John has also said that he is happy for campaigning organisations to use videos of the film for meetings and discussions.

B-)

ZNET has just put up part of an interview (full version next month) with Chomsky on Iraq (scroll down a bit on the right-hand column).

I find Chomsky's political views mainly spot on, although I don't think he always communicates them that well. I like 'Bush#1' as a way of referring to the older Bush, although I don't know whether that's a Chomsky coinage.

Meanwhile dug has some important thoughts about 9/11 and Iraq. I agree with the general points but I actually agree with Christopher Hitchens on one thing, which is that people have responded much less hysterically than you might have expected, and that this contrasts with the received account of the reaction after Pearl Harbour.

B

here (and have a look at all the language and linguistics and philosophy stuff while you're there)

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Whoops, looks like that url is broken now - I'll let you know if it gets fixed.

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The enigmatic mermaid pointed me to this site, and simultaneously to this article (from 1998) on 'bridging the language gap'.

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Went to the Institute of Visual Culture in Cambridge yesterday to celebrate the opening of their new building in the grounds of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and a new piece by Angela Bulloch. It's a really good piece, about pixels and colour and Zabriskie Point and deja vu and ...., and a great building too (all thanks to Stefan's hard work). The kids put a comment in the book - 'loud but enjoyable' - and then started cartwheeling on the flat roof of another little building in the grounds. We were wondering if we should be worried but then all the guests applauded them and they were embarrassed enough to get down.

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Apart from being particularly shocked by Blunkett's brazen dishonesty, and impressed by Paul Vallely's comments, I'm interested in this because these utterances are great to use in class. You can use them to talk about how meanings are communicated in general as well as in these weaselly ways, and also to show how you can understand these things using a theoretical approach. I do still get depressed when I see politicians getting away with things like this, even though I've seen it so blooming often.

B-(

For historians, you can read a report of the 'read my lips' quote here What Blunkett said was:

'Let me say this very slowly indeed. In fact, if you can, watch my lips - no selection either by examination or interview under a Labour government.'

You can read Nick Assinder on what Blunkett said when selection under a Labour government was confirmed here.

The first explanation offered was that he really meant 'no further selection' but didn't bother to correct the misunderstanding for a few years until the selection policy was confirmed. The second explanation was that it was clearly just a joke. The problem, as Nick Assinder pointed out, was:

... few believe that, by quoting US President George Bush's famous words "Read my lips, no new taxes" , Mr Blunkett was actually saying there would be selection under Labour.

B-)

I enjoyed Paul Vallely's advice for David Blunkett, even though he didn't mention the famous 'read my lips' lie.

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Went to see the Sleek geeks at the Soho Theatre on Friday evening. Basically, they tell you funny stuff which has a bit of a science connection about it. Highlights included Mike the headless chicken who was one of the highest earning performers in the world for eighteen months in the late 1940s after he had his head chopped off and survived (tragically he died by suffocating on his own bodily fluids in a motel room in Arizona after a gig), and the slide showing us that a collection of stars-to-be millions of light years across the galaxy are giving us all the finger as I type.

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Do you remember warm leatherette by The Normal?** Death In Vegas do.

Have a listen to the new single 'Hands Around My Throat'). (Don't be put off by the form on the way in -you can enter any old gobbledygook.)

**Not to be confused with the town of Normal, Illinois. Anyone know anyone from there?

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The headline to this story is:

Bush To Spell Out Iraq Strategy

Is he trying to prove his intellectual abilities? Hope he's not a big tabloid reader.

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Just read a linguist who is dismayed by the lack of accuracy in a discussion of 'sentences without verbs' on Lehrer News Hour. You can read a transcript of the show here.

I dunno, I just think they're people talking about language like what people do. It might have been a good idea to get a linguist on the show, but then they might have scared their viewers off with white coat syndrome.

And even linguists aren't always technically accurate. I tell my students that they'll never read or hear a sentence (since sentences are abstract/mental representations) and then I comment in their margins when they write something that's 'not a sentence'

B-}

The Independent also reported OUP's 'tabloid spelling' story and their leader writer takes a most enlightened view about it.

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Read about children's 'tabloid spelling habits' here

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Read here about new (well, some of them don't seem that new to me but anyway) insights into what babies know and when they know it (not just about language)

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Poor Sashinka. Somebody help her out.

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Hey dug, the Guardian likes your 'whimsical personal/tech log'

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Me, Holly and Ohna just took five kids on a bit of an adventure cycling round Haringey. We left the house at 5pm and got back just after 8 after cycling round the famous (well, famous to us) Parkland Walk, a disused railway line running from Finsbury Park up to Highgate and picking up again at Muswell Hill to go on to Ally Pally. It's a unique bit of countryside in the middle of the city. You get trees and nature and you get kids spraypainting under bridges (legitimately), skateboarding and setting fire to motorbikes (once, Kiloh and I were cycling along innocently when some kids called out to warn us about the burning bike about to explode right next to us).

This trip involved: tree swings, great views, the littler kids yelling abuse at each other while the bigger ones were oceans of calm, traveller kids warning us we were trespassing on their private property (and their grownups making jocular remarks), millions of near things with pedestrians (including guests at an Indian wedding and an angry man on the reservoir) and their pets, many tumbles (some not intentional), nettle stings, cheeky comments from stoop kids in search of a stoop, Aidan (who'd brought his little radio controlled car) bumping into some serious model fans ('they're using petrol!'), and chips and fizzy drinks when we got home. They were all exhausted, but not too tired for a couple of hours of tag in the dark after they'd eaten.

Oh, and we even squeezed in some grownup conversation.

I'm tired.

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Blueyonder are terrible. They put an amazing amount of energy into letting you know that they don't want to hear from you ('thanks for calling - now are you sure you want to bother us?'). Still, it's good to be back in the world of broadband. I've been told I used to use dialup, but I have no memory of this. I guess they're just pulling my leg.

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Gratuitous image time. I have two of these and I am celebrating that after taking them down for a bit of decorating, I managed to find out how to stick them back up again. Now I just need to save up for a decent turntable.

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Read about it here

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here is the best bit of news for ages. Bend It Like Beckham, here we come.

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Here is a new Word Grammar site from Dick Hudson. Dick is a top linguist at UCL who stands out there because he doesn't follow a Chomskyan approach. He's also one of the best counterexample-finders I've ever come across (counterexample-finding is a bit of a UCL specialty, btw). His site has lots of other interesting stuff, if you've got time to have a look around.

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Ta, dug. Good to hear some sense being spoken about coffee, btw. Have you heard of the campaign to replace the term 'dark roast' with 'burnt'?

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