Crikey's Language Blog
Follow @fullysicblog on Twitter
Fully (sic)
Latest
Goodbye, Dolly!
After 46 years of advice on all things teen girl related, Dolly’s closing up shop (in print, at least). Melanie Burns explores what this might mean for language around sex, relationships, and sexualities.
Yijarni: True Stories from Gurindji Country – a sad, marvellous historical canon
The Wave Hill Walk Off is commemorated widely but what happened to Gurindji people on their own country before the Walk Off is less well known. A new publication, told bilingually in Gurindji and English, shares what Gurindji people want the world to know about what happened. Greg Dickson reviews Yijarni: True Stories from Gurindji Country.
Australians win medals at the Linguistics Olympiad
While our athletes are in Rio, Australian high-school students have come back from Mysore (India) with gold and silver medals from the International Linguistics Olympiad! Hedvig Skirgård and Dominique Estival report.
About this blog
LOTEs in the Election: your guide to linguistically-talented candidates (2016 edition)
It's election time again! But where have all the LOTE-speaking candidates gone? And why are they hiding? Allie Severin takes a look at the linguistic talents of this year's candidates for the Federal Election.
How to solve Australia’s language learning crisis
With the "moribund" state of language learning in Australia in the spotlight, Ingrid Piller busts some myths, arguing that it does not have to be this way and that something can be done about it.
Testing the critical literacy of voters, educators and…politicians?
While the Minister for Immigration and "Border Protection" has been scrutinising refugees' literacy and numeracy, the Australian Government has had its sight set on another group's abilities: Australia's pre-service teachers. Elisabeth Griffiths asks if the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students is worth its salt.
How to be a Shady Fish: Speaking like a Queen on RuPaul’s Drag Race
Do we ever sound like our authentic selves? Or is the way we talk always dependent on who we are talking to? Guest blogger Cass Bleechmore looks at the way the contestants of RuPaul's Drag Race communicate and create a shared identity. Despite using a distinctive lexicon, drag queens are just doing what we all do: using language to construct group identity.
Five use a mysterious preposition
Lurking in the seemingly innocuous pages of a classic children’s story is the perplexing use of an extraneous preposition. What’s it doing there? And what can it tell us about how language changes? Richard Ingold investigates.
“I am determined to be tenacious in relation to the use of my language”: Bess Price and breaking the English hegemony in NT Parliament
Aboriginal Northern Territory MP Bess Price is fighting to be able to use her first language, Warlpiri, in parliament. She argues that it's only fair given it's her first language and the language of half her constituency. The Parliament's Speaker continues to affirm that English is the language of the Assembly. Greg Dickson explores the debate further:
From ‘Captain’s call’ to ‘refugiado’: WOTY 2015
It's that time of year again. Linguists and wordsmiths the world over have come together to decree which word(s) should be given the top honour and crowned 'Word of the Year 2015'. Not everybody decides on the same one though, so here at Fully Sic we've collated a list for all your word-loving needs.