Comments on: Monthly Gleanings: November 2011 http://blog.oup.com/2011/11/nov-gleanings/ Academic insights for the thinking world. Wed, 22 May 2013 15:58:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Anelie http://blog.oup.com/2011/11/nov-gleanings/#comment-240989 Anelie Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:32:50 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=19976#comment-240989 I must chime in to say that Australian students routinely go "to uni", sans article, too. I must chime in to say that Australian students routinely go “to uni”, sans article, too.

]]> By: John Cowan http://blog.oup.com/2011/11/nov-gleanings/#comment-240565 John Cowan Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:11:09 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=19976#comment-240565 Another amusing and common typo is <i>pubic</i> for <i>public</i>, as in your first paragraph. Google claims almost 50,000 hits for <i>pubic affairs</i>. Yet more fine examples of anarthrous noun phrases: Johnny Cash was in jail seven times, whereas Elvis was merely in the jail while performing "Jailhouse Rock". (Cash was never in prison, though he performed in several of them.) The suffix <i>-ology</i> is often extended from the subject of study to the object of study, as in the standard use of <i>psychology</i> to mean 'psychological outlook', OED3 sense 2c (which is OED2 sense 2a). The first OED3 quotation is from 1834. <i>Ecology</i> in the sense of the object of study appears figuratively in an Auden poem ("the Catholic ecology") from 1941, and literally in 1967. Another amusing and common typo is pubic for public, as in your first paragraph. Google claims almost 50,000 hits for pubic affairs.

Yet more fine examples of anarthrous noun phrases: Johnny Cash was in jail seven times, whereas Elvis was merely in the jail while performing “Jailhouse Rock”. (Cash was never in prison, though he performed in several of them.)

The suffix -ology is often extended from the subject of study to the object of study, as in the standard use of psychology to mean ‘psychological outlook’, OED3 sense 2c (which is OED2 sense 2a). The first OED3 quotation is from 1834. Ecology in the sense of the object of study appears figuratively in an Auden poem (“the Catholic ecology”) from 1941, and literally in 1967.

]]> By: Fabio Bart http://blog.oup.com/2011/11/nov-gleanings/#comment-240564 Fabio Bart Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:05:38 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=19976#comment-240564 In Scotland also, people go to universtity without the article. (Eyebrows would be raised were a person to take an article to the university!) In Scotland also, people go to universtity without the article. (Eyebrows would be raised were a person to take an article to the university!)

]]> By: Kevin http://blog.oup.com/2011/11/nov-gleanings/#comment-240558 Kevin Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:23:03 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=19976#comment-240558 In Eastern Canada, anyway, it's common for a student to say they "go to university," article-free. "Go to the university" would sound odd, unless it was clear from the context that there could only be one university in question. In Eastern Canada, anyway, it’s common for a student to say they “go to university,” article-free. “Go to the university” would sound odd, unless it was clear from the context that there could only be one university in question.

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