This is a sad day for the English language

What is NZQA thinking?

How ironic

It's a great concept for a shirt, but funny that it proudly proclaims "Made in the USA". Out of anyone, Americans are the worst murderers of the English language.

This and other gear for writers here.

Beautiful books and deviant language

Click here to see gorgeous photos of the world's most grand libraries.

It seems companies want to control the way we use language. I don't know why Google has problems with us "googling" - I would have thought any publicity was a good thing.

Ever wondered where the 'slush fund' came from?

Common sayings with their origins from the sea:

To Know the Ropes
In the old days, there were miles and miles of cordage in the rigging of a square rigged ship. The only way of keeping track of these lines and to know the function of them, was to know where they were located. It took an experienced seaman to know the ropes.

Gone By the Board
Anything seen to have gone overboard or spotted floating past the ship (by the board) was considered lost at sea.

Start Over with a Clean Slate
A slate tablet was kept near the helm on which the watch keeper would record the speeds, distances, headings and tacks during the watch. If there were no problems during the watch, the slate would be wiped clean so that the new watch could start over with a clean slate.

Slush Fund
A slushy slurry of fat was obtained by boiling or scraping the empty salted meat storage barrels. This stuff called "slush" was often sold ashore by the ship's cook for the benefit of himself or the crew. The money so derived became known as a slush fund.

Tyranny of words

Writers, do you ever start to hate words that you just can’t help using over and over again? Last week I finished polishing my synopsis and draft letter for my submission. This week all I am doing is referencing a plethora of thesauri as I strive to cut down on the usage of these words which seem to pour forth from me at alarmingly frequent intervals. Last night it was “comfort” and it’s derivatives: uncomfortable, comfortable, discomfort, etc etc. I couldn’t believe how many times I’ve used it in my manuscript. And I have a list of about 15 other offending words. Pleasant, easy, glad, anxious, amiable…. where will it all end? If it takes me about 5 hours to fix each word throughout my script, I’m going to be here all year.

I’m getting quite impatient to submit the darn thing. Feedback from friends hasn’t been as comprehensive as I had hoped, and I just kinda want to get it out there to see what happens. The other option I have is to apply for the Writer in Libraries programme which runs May-July (the deadline for applications is this Friday). This is a one-on-one mentoring opportunity. Do I still want to be working on my novel in July though? NO! My goal is to send if off by Easter.

P.S. It’s our second wedding anniversary on the 20th. We’re taking Monday and Tuesday off, and spending a long weekend in the Rotorua region. There’s a jazz festival on Saturday, so that should be cool. Can’t wait for Friday afternoon.

It's official - Musicians are wired differently

Don’t be offended if musicians ignore what you’re saying while music is playing - the language part of their brains could be already fully engaged, research from the University of Auckland shows.

PhD student Lucy Patston from the faculty of science has discovered that musicians hear music as a language.

"Past research has shown that musicians process music on the left side of their brain as opposed to non-musicians who process music on the right side," said Ms Patston, who is doing her research through the faculty’s department of psychology.

"The left hemisphere is predominantly used to process language, so my research has been trying to find out if musicians actually process music as language."

Ms Patston tested 36 expert musicians and 36 non-musicians, using a battery of cognitive tests.

Each participant had to do two visual and two language tasks under three different testing conditions to see if their performance was enhanced or impeded.

"They had to do the tests with no music, while listening to music played with the right notes and while listening to music played with the wrong notes."

When the musicians did the language tests in silence, they scored better than the non-musicians. However, under the two music conditions their performance significantly dropped.

The performance of non-musicians was not significantly different in any of the conditions, suggesting they were not affected by the presence of music.

"The evidence from these initial tests suggests that musicians hear music as language because they have difficulty processing both language and music at the same time. The brain is competing for the same resources," Ms Patston said.

An unexpected finding of the research was that musicians scored higher in the test in silent conditions.

This might have repercussions for the way children are taught, she suggested.

Ms Patston recently received top prize in the faculty of science’s Postgraduate Society Poster Competition for her current research work.

The competition provided an opportunity for students to display their research in a manner that non-scientists could easily understand.

She said the competition was a good way of developing skills to explain the technical aspect of her study to non-specialist audiences.

In the next phase of her research Ms Patston hopes to put candidates through the university’s functional magnetic resonance imaging machine, which will show the specific parts of the brain working.

Using similar testing methods the machine will be able to further explore her findings.

- NZPA

Music and language

* Most people use the left side of their brain for analytical tasks such as language.
* The right side is used for more creative experiences, such as appreciating music.
* Musicians process music with the left side of their brains, suggesting they hear the notes as language.