Separated by a Common Language

Dipping into the email bag, we have a months-old note from Andy: I was wondering whether you've done anything on your language blog regarding the uses of the phrases "have you got", "do you have" and "have you". I get the impression that "do you have" is the preferred form in America, whilst "have...

Mark Liberman over on Language Log has blogged about the following sentence, which appeared in the Guardian today: Quite who Fatah al-Islam are, or where they came from, is a matter of dispute. Liberman finds the sentence-initial quite who very strange, preferring exactly who or just who. He suspects...

Out for lunch Saturday with Better Half's Mum and her Better Half, when BHM'sBH declares "I hate it when English people take on American corporate jargon." I expected he was talking about thinking outside the box and investing in excellence. The latter is one of my pet peeves, as well as the current...