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Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
have on (2)
If you have something on at a certain time, you've arranged to do something at that time.
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Word of the Day
auxiliary
Definition: (adjective) Functioning in a supporting capacity.
Synonyms: subsidiary, supplemental, supplementary.
Usage: The main library and its auxiliary branches serviced the needs of the large community.
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ough for the Snake River (for now; I may find additional information as I continue to follow its serpentine path through the mountains).
My brother and his partner were blessed to have lived for years not far from the Tri-Cities area in Walla Walla. Let's see what AI Overview has to say about the origin of its unusual-sounding name:
The name "Walla Walla" comes from a Nez Perce word that means "place of many waters" or "running waters":
*
* Place of many waters: The original settlement was located at the junction of the Snake and Columbia rivers.
* Running waters: The name may refer to the place where a small stream flows into a larger one, such as the convergence of Mill and Dry creeks in the Walla Walla Valley.
*
* Walatsa: A Nez Perce and Cayuse word that means "running".
The name was given to the settlement by the county commissioners on November 17, 1859. The settlement was originally named Steptoeville after Lieutenant Colonel Edward J. Steptoe.
The Walla Walla people, also known as Walawalałáma, are a Sahaptin* Indigenous people of the Northwest Plateau. [*There's that David Thompson early 1800s "Shawpatin" word again.]
[variant several minutes later] The Walla Walla people are an Indigenous group of the Northwest Plateau. Their name, Walawalałáma, translates to "People of Walula region along Walla Walla River".
Every time I look up "Walla Walla" on Google –> AI Overview, I get slightly different answers, so I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the one given above. History Link.org:
On November 17, 1859, Walla Walla County commissioners name the town that has grown up around the U.S. military Fort Walla Walla. They elect to name the town Walla Walla. The town begins with a rich history, which includes Native North Americans, fur traders, missionaries, soldiers, and pioneers. Walla Walla's earliest businesses are raising cattle and supplying the fort. The town will be incorporated and become the county seat in 1862. A gold rush followed by a growing agricultural industry will help Walla Walla become the largest city in Washington Territory by 1880. During the twentieth century, Walla Walla will continue to develop as an agricultural center for various crops, including wheat, onions, apples, peas, and wine grapes. The Time before the Town “Walla Walla” was a Nez Perce name given to one of the indigenous groups who lived in what is now the Walla Walla Valley. The name means “running waters” or, more specifically, the place where a small stream runs into a larger one. A number of rivers flow across the valley into the Walla Walla River and join the Columbia River. In addition to the Walla Wallas, native North American groups who lived in this area included the Nez Perce, the Cayuses, and Umatillas. In 1806, the Lewis and Clark expedition camped near the mouth of the “Wallahwollah river” on the Columbia and encountered the “honest and friendly … Wallah wallahs.”
I do scores, maybe hundreds, of Google searches every day. It is increasingly evident that AI Overview is doing more and more of the heavy lifting in replying to such routine searches, but also daring to take on esoteric topics as well. When responding to my queries, AI Overview does something cute before spewing out its responses — a flashing nanosecond whirl akin to cogitation, while formulating (putting / pulling together) what it is going to tell me. A cosmic dance. Utterly fascinating. Closing note
The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics (mind you!) went to two scientists, John J Hopfield (a physicist most widely known for his study of associative neural networks in 1982) and Geoffrey E Hinton (computer scientist, cognitive scientist, cognitive psychologist, known for his work on artificial neural networks which earned him the title as the "Godfather of AI"), for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks. The laureates themselves were astonished to hear the news that they were the recipients of the Nobe[...]
Language Log
Ai Overview: Snake River and Walla Walla
[N.B.: If you don't have time to read through this long and complicated post, cut to the "Closing note" at the bottom.]
Lately when I do Google searches, especially on obscure and challenging subjects, AI Overview leaps into the fray and takes precedence at the very top, displacing Wikipedia down below, and even Google's own responses, which have been increasingly frequent in recent months, are pushed over to the top right.
AI Overview, on first glance, seems convenient and useful, but — when I start to dig deeper, I find that there are problems. As an example, I will give the case of the name of the Snake River, and maybe mention a few other instances of AI Overview falling short, but still being swiftly, though superficially, helpful.
I'm in Boise ID, scouting out my route westward for the next month.
As I was scrutinizing the maps, my eye kept focusing on the Tri-Cities (Pasco, Richland, and Kennewick [about which I will likely have more to say in a future communication]) area of Washington state, trying to figure out why that minor conurbation developed there in the hinterland. Finally, I realized that it's probably because of its location at the confluence of three significant rivers: the Columbia, the Yakima, and the Snake.
Then I started to think, how did the Snake get all the way over in south central Washington State, when I've been following it for hundreds of miles to the southeast in Idaho? Tracing its path, I see that "snake" is indeed an apt name for that amazing river, though it's probably not the true etymology, which I shall write about below. The Snake River twists and turns through the mountains and high plains mimicking, for me, the movements of its erstwhile namesake. It's an amazing phenomenon of nature, carving spectacular canyons and deep gorges in the land as it wends its way, leaving in its wake impressive falls and cascades.
I wanted to see if the Snake got its name from its super-sinuous movement throughout the mountainous terrain. Naturally, I looked it up on Google ("Why is it called the Snake River"), and right away up popped AI Overview:
The Snake River is named after the Shoshone people, who lived along the river's banks and used a hand sign that European explorers misinterpreted as a snake. The sign actually represented swimming fish and meant "the people who live near the river with many fish".
The Snake River has also been called by other names, including: Lewis River, Great Snake River, Shoshone River, Saptin River, and Yam-pah-pa River.
I just noticed this sentence at the bottom of the AI Overview: "Generative AI is experimental."
Contrast the AI Overview answer with this from Wikipedia:
The river's modern name comes from a misunderstanding of the Shoshone Tribal Sign in PISL [Plains Indian Sign Language]. The Plains Indians referred to the Shoshone people as "Snake People", while the Shoshone are believed to have referred to themselves as "People of the River of Many Fish". However, the Shoshone sign for "salmon" was the same or similar to the Plains Indian common sign for "snake." The English name for the river was likely derived from this interpretation of the hand gesture, although it is uncertain when the name was first used.
Not very satisfying. Wikipedia usually does a better job with its etymologies (see, e.g., the "Appendix").
While we're at it, and nothing seems very definitive yet, we'll run through some other accounts of how the Snake River got its name, especially since some of them have interesting linguistic aspects. Here, by a man who has lived the Snake for more than four decades, Dave Hansen Whitewater: The Snake River Doesn’t Have Snakes!
Have you ever wanted to take a rafting trip on the Snake River but you were scared because of the name of the river? [...]
Language Log
English is innocent
Yesterday's guest post by Andreas Stocke, "English influence on German spelling", covered Duden's grudging admission that 's is allowed in certain restricted contexts, and noted the widespread negative reaction attributing this "Deppenapostrophe" (= "idiot's apostrophe") to the malign influence of English.
But Heike Wiese, via Joan Maling, sent a link to Anatol Stefanowitsch, "Apostrophenschutz", Sprachlog 4/26/2007, which offers a very different take.
Wann kamen die „Deppenapostrophe“ hinzu? Glaubt man den Apostrophenjägern, so muss dies in jüngerer Zeit geschehen sein, da ein intensiver Einfluss des Englischen sich erst seit dem Ende des zweiten Weltkriegs beobachten lässt, und die vemeintlichen Hauptschuldigen, die Elektronikmärkte, gibt es sogar erst seit dem Ende der siebziger Jahre. Eine schöne Erklärung, mit der man die Apostrophitis als eins von vielen Symptomen des „denglischen Patienten“ abhaken könnte.
Leider ist diese Erklärung falsch.
Der Genitiv-Apostroph findet sich bereits seit Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts, erst bei Eigennamen und bald auch bei Ortsnamen und anderen Wörtern. Der Plural-Apostroph findet sich seit dem Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts. Zunächst störte sich auch weiter niemand an diesen Verwendungen.
When did the "idiot apostrophes" come into being? If you believe the apostrophe hunters, this must have happened more recently, since the intensive influence of English has only been evident since the end of the Second World War, and the supposed main culprits, the electronics markets, have only existed since the end of the 1970s. A nice explanation that could be used to write off apostrophitis as one of the many symptoms of the "Denglish patient."
Unfortunately, this explanation is wrong.
The genitive apostrophe has been around since the middle of the 17th century, first in proper names and then in place names and other words. The plural apostrophe has been around since the end of the 18th century. At first, no one was bothered by this use.
Stefanowitsch's examples unfortunately don't go back to the 17th century, but they do include these, from someone who was neither an idiot nor a sufferer from Denglish disease:
In Friedrich Nietzsches Briefen und Notizen beispielsweise finden sich hunderte von Genitiv-Apostrophen:
Vielleicht sieht sich unser Gebahren doch einmal wie Fortschritt an; wenn aber nicht, so mag Friedrich’s des Grossen Wort auch zu uns gesagt sein und zwar zum Troste … (Menschliches, Allzumenschliches I/Nachgelassene Fragmente).
Ich gehe, seit einigen Monaten schon, jeden Abend von 1/2 10–11 in raschem Schritt durch Theile Venedig’s (Brief von Heinrich Köselitz an Nietzsche, 1882)
Aufs Kind die Hände prüfend legen Und schauen ob es Vater’s Art — Wer weiss? (Menschliches, Allzumenschliches I/Nachgelassene Fragmente)
In Friedrich Nietzsche’s letters and notes, for example, there are hundreds of genitive apostrophes:
Perhaps our behavior will one day be seen as progress; but if not, then Frederick the Great’s words may also be spoken to us, and indeed for consolation … (Human, All Too Human I/Posthumous Fragments).
For several months now, every evening from 10:30 to 11:00 I have been walking briskly through parts of Venice (Letter from Heinrich Köselitz to Nietzsche, 1882)
Lay your hands on the child and examine it and see if it is like the father — who knows? (Human, All Too Human I/Posthumous Fragments)
Stefanowitsch's account suggests that German apostrophe-phobia, like most cases of prescriptivist peeving, originated as the decision of a self-appointed authority, in this case Konrad Duden:
Erst ab Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts trafen diese Verwendungen auf Widerstand. Vor allem die Entscheidung Konrad Dudens, sie explitzit als regelwidrig zu behandeln, trugen zu ihrem Niedergang bei. Nicht jeder ließ sich allerdings von diesen Verbo[...]
Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
loaded (1)
wealthy, rich
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Idiom of the Day
brain surgery
A task requiring extreme intelligence, skill, or competence, usually used in a negative or rhetorical manner to indicate the opposite. Watch the video
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Drunk History vol. 1 (part 2) - Featuring Michael Cera (Inside The FOD Vault Episode 2)
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", 1/15/2012
"Apostropocalypse again", 12/1/2019
And a couple about spaces, hyphens, and nil:
"Prescriptivism and national security", 10/4/2005
"Level(-)headedness", 3/3/2010
Update — Andreas explains the "neben" parentheses in the quoted section of the new rule:
die Grimm’schen Märchen (neben: die grimmschen Märchen), der Ohm’sche Widerstand (neben: der ohmsche Wider stand)
The meaning is identical to the version with apostrophes and capitalized names. Unlike in English (Whorf > Whorfian), when you derive an adjective from a name, you don't keep the capitalization of the name. It becomes lower-case, like all adjectives in German. So as in the possessive cases, the apostrophe enables you to preserve the original spelling (and recognizability) of the underlying name.
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Here's What Went Into Telling A Story On Drunk History (Inside The FOD Vault Episode 2)
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Word of the Day
Word of the Day: exorbitant
This word has appeared in 158 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
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Idiom of the Day
breach of etiquette
A violation of established social norms or expectations, especially as relates to polite society or specific professions. Watch the video
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l Prize in Physics. That tells you something about where we're headed. Selected readings
* "The unreasonable hilarity of recurrent neural networks" (5/21/17)
* "Generative linguistics and neural networks at 60" (11/13/17)
* "AI encroachments" (7/21/23) Appendix
Here, on "Sahaptin language (Name)", is a good example of Wikipedia showing its stuff (with plenty of footnotes [omitted from this post]).
Sahaptin is typically known as Ichiskiin in its various dialects. In the Yakama dialect, it is called Ichishkíin Sɨ́nwit, spelled variously Ichishkíin, Íchishkin, Íchishkink, or Chishkíin. In the Umatilla dialect, it is called Čiškíin or Ičiškíin.
The words Sahaptin, Shahaptin, and Sahaptian are derived from the Columbia-Moses name for the Nez Perce, sħáptənəxʷ. Cognates appear in other Interior Salishan languages, such as Okanagan sʕaptnx 'Nez Perce' or Spokane saʕáptni 'Nez Perce', indictating the ancient age of the ethnonym. The name Sahaptin has also been spelled "Shahaptin", "Sahapten", "Shahaptian", and "Shawpatin".
The first usage of the word "Sahaptin" dates to 1811, in the journal of fur trader David Thompson, who wrote of the "Chief of all the Shawpatin Tribes", referring to the Nez Perce. At the time, "Sahaptin" (and variants) was used to refer to the Nez Perce, while "Walla Walla" was used to refer to the Sahaptin-speaking peoples. Alexander Ross visited a large camp on the Walla Walla River later that year, identifying "the Walla-Wallas, the Shaw Haptens, and the Cajouses". In 1844, Horatio Hale wrote of the "Sahaptin or Nez-Perces" language and the "Walawala" language. At the same time, the Snake River was also sometimes called the Sahaptin River, because it led from the Columbia River to the country of the Nez Perce.
In the 1960s, the name "Sahaptin" was used by linguists, but it was rare for Sahaptin speakers to even be aware of the term. Most speakers used the terms Ichishkínk (Yakama) or Chishkín (Walla Walla and Umatilla), which mean literally "in this way/manner"
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Have no fear! As it turns out, the Snake does not actually have any snakes in it. Why, then, is it called the Snake? While some may think that the reason it is called the Snake is because its shape has many twists and winds similar to a snake, it is actually believed to have received its name from a Native American hand symbol. Brief History of Names of the Snake River
Throughout the years, many explorers gave different names to the Snake. In 1800, David Thompson first recorded the Native American name of the Snake as Shawpatin. Next, Lewis and Clark gave the name Lewis River or Lewis Fork in 1805. Other American explorers’ records after Lewis and Clark show a variety of names associated with the river. Various stretches of the Snake have held at least fifteen different names throughout the years. These names include the Shawpatin River, Lewis River, Mad River, Shoshone River, and Saptin River. It wasn’t until the year 1912 that the United States Geographic Board made official the name, “The Snake River.” The Snake River Got It’s Name From a Misinterpretation
Over 11,000 years ago, the Snake was a vital source of life for the Native Americans, specifically the Shoshones, that were living along the banks of the river. While they weren’t Snake River rafting as we are today, the Snake was very important to them primarily because of the salmon from the Pacific Ocean. The Snake was given its present day name when it was derived from an S-shaped hand sign made by the Native American tribe, the Shoshones. European explorers misinterpreted this hand sign representing swimming fish as a snake. This hand sign is now thought to have truly meant, “the people who live near the river with many fish.”
Still a lot of surmises, so now we turn to the Idaho State Historical Society, whose Reference Series, Number 38 (February 1964) begins thus:
The Snake River is named for the Snake Indians, through whose country the greater part of the river flows. The Indians, in turn, were named "Snake" by their Plains neighbors to the east, possibly because they reputedly used snake heads painted on sticks to terrify their Plains enemies. (At least the Blackfeet on upper Bow River reported finding such Shoshoni snake sticks in about 1784.) Or possibly the sign employed to designate the Snake Indians in conventionalized sign language—a snake-like motion—may have suggested the name to the Plains Indian. In any event, the name used to identify the Snake Indians in various Plains Siouan languages was the word for snake or rattlesnake. The French picked up the name from the Plains Indians, and the British, in turn, translated it from the French.
Although it comes from the Idaho State Historical Society, this convoluted explanation is not satisfying to me.
A Tri-Cities radio station (10/10/23) has a record of an earlier version of Wikipedia that gives an even more whimsical explanation of the Shoshone sign language for the river:
In the early 1800s, explorers from Europe, who were in direct contact with the Shoshone tribe, misinterpreted Shoshone sign language. The Shoshone people described the river using an “S” shape swimming motion with their hands. The explorers interpreted this motion as a snake, not realizing what they really meant was a “river of many fish” or Salmon. Another version from Wikipedia, says, “the sign language used by the Shoshones representing weaving baskets was misinterpreted to represent a snake”. The Basket River? The Weaving River? The Salmon River?
It would have been so much more helpful if the many European explorers who passed through this region had asked the Shoshone or other tribes who lived along the Snake how they said its name in their spoken language. As a matter of fact, we already apparently do have this datum, and that is David Thompson's 1800 [more likely 1811 — see below] "Shawpatin" (probable contraction "Saptin")*. I put it as a task for Native American language specialists to interpret what that means (but see the Appendix).
En[...]
ten beeindrucken. So soll Thomas Mann den Apostroph nach Lust und Laune weiterverwendet haben.
It was not until the middle of the 19th century that these uses met with resistance. Above all, Konrad Duden's decision to explicitly treat them as illegal contributed to their decline. However, not everyone was impressed by these bans. Thomas Mann is said to have continued to use the apostrophe as he pleased.
For a more recent and extensive survey of the topic, we should turn to a source that I've barely had time to skim: Luise Kempf, "Die Evolution des Apostrophgebrauchs: Eine korpuslinguistische Untersuchung." Jahrbuch für germanistische Sprachgeschichte (2019). My impression so far is that foreign names do play a pre-Duden role, as indicated in these tables: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/KempfTable2.png http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/KempfTable3.png But the recent influence of English is definitely not the whole story.
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Word of the Day
Word of the Day: synthesize
This word has appeared in 40 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?
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Phrasal Verb of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
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Word of the Day
unequivocal
Definition: (adjective) Admitting of no doubt or misunderstanding; having only one meaning or interpretation and leading to only one conclusion.
Synonyms: univocal, unambiguous.
Usage: Franz complimented Albert, who looked at himself in the glass with an unequivocal smile of satisfaction.
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Language Log
Graphical Trumpian discourse analysis
Ian Prasad Philbrick and Ashley Wu, "The 9 Elements of a Trump Rally", NYT 10/8/2024:
The energy for Mr. Trump’s third White House campaign comes from his rallies. Since President Biden dropped out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris took the helm, Mr. Trump has held nearly 20 of them, speaking for about 90 minutes at each.
Like most politicians, he repeats things at every speech. Unlike most politicians, he offers a grim view of the country, makes up nicknames for his opponents and pledges to use the power of the government to punish his rivals.
To help readers experience what a Trump rally is like, we used video to break down the nine themes he consistently returns to.
Those nine "themes" are:
1. Savior and protector
2. Insults
3. Deceits
4. The hits
5. Political violence
6. The Trump agenda
7. Digressions
8. Anti-democratic statements
9. Stumbles
Read the article for the details, as well as clever tableaux of video clips and a cool carpet plot of the theme-weave in his 9/29 Erie PA rally:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/TrumpRallyCarpetPlot.png
I like the general idea, Ashley Wu's graphics are impressive, and it's tempting to use modern topic and sentiment analysis techniques to derive similar things automatically.
But I wonder how good the inter-annotator agreement for the human version of this analysis would be?
One obvious problem is that the "themes" are potentially overlapping — Trump's digressions are often also insults or deceits or threats of violence, etc.; his stumbles can occur in any of the other segments; some of his greatest "hits" are also insults, deceits, or savior/protector assertions; and so on. Furthermore, some of the themes are matters of content or tone (e.g. insults), while others are a question of discourse structure (e.g. digressions) or overall topic statistics (e.g. hits).
Those overlaps and ambiguities will make it easier for an automatic analysis to produce plausible results, but they'll also make the overall results less informative. And while I agree that Donald Trump's rhetorical style is in some ways special, it would be better to demonstrate that with an analysis that positions him in the same space as other speakers.
The cited 9 "themes" can certainly be applied to speeches from other politicians (or other people in general) — but when we start analyzing others, we're going to want additional "themes", and the whole system will need to do a better job of engaging the general problem of discourse analysis.
Still, the article makes sense, and the graphics are great.
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Language Log
English influence on German spelling
Below is a guest post by Andreas Stolcke.
This is an item maybe worthy of a note on Language Log — Philip Oltermann, "Germans decry influence of English as ‘idiot’s apostrophe’ gets official approval", The Guardian 10/7/2024:
A relaxation of official rules around the correct use of apostrophes in German has not only irritated grammar sticklers but triggered existential fears around the pervasive influence of English.
Establishments that feature their owners’ names, with signs like “Rosi’s Bar” or “Kati’s Kiosk” are a common sight around German towns and cities, but strictly speaking they are wrong: unlike English, German does not traditionally use apostrophes to indicate the genitive case or possession. The correct spelling, therefore, would be “Rosis Bar”, “Katis Kiosk”, or, as in the title of a recent viral hit, Barbaras Rhabarberbar.
However, guidelines issued by the body regulating the use of Standard High German orthography have clarified that the use of the punctuation mark colloquially known as the Deppenapostroph (“idiot’s apostrophe”) has become so widespread that it is permissible – as long as it separates the genitive ‘s’ within a proper name.
I couldn't believe they did this, and looked up the new rule. The relevant part is
2. Der Apostroph steht zur Verdeutlichung der Grundform eines Personennamens vor einer Endung:
*
* gelegentlich vor dem Genitiv-s, sofern der Personenname mit dem folgenden Substantiv zusammen einen Eigennamen (z. B. Firmen namen) bildet ‹§ 80 E1›;
Zum Beispiel:
*
* Willi’s Biomarkt
* Andrea’s Kiosk (hier auch verdeutlichend zur Unterscheidung vom männlichen Vornamen Andreas)
* Aber nur: Willis Karotten, Andreas Ware
*
* vor der Adjektivendung -sch ‹§ 62, § 80 (2)›.
Zum Beispiel:
*
* die Grimm’schen Märchen (neben: die grimmschen Märchen), der Ohm’sche Widerstand (neben: der ohmsche Wider stand)
2. The apostrophe stands for clarifying the base form of a person name before a suffix:
*
* occasionally before the genitive -s, as long as the person name together with the following noun forms a proper name (e.g., of a company)
For example:
*
*
* Willi's Biomarkt
* Andrea's Kiosk (here also to differentiate from the male given name "Andreas")
* but only: Willis Karotten, Andreas Ware
[These cases require the forms without apostrophe, because the whole phrase is not a proper name]
*
* before the adjectival suffix -sche
For example:
*
*
* Grimm's fairy tales, Ohm's resistance
Are you aware of other languages (e.g., English) where spelling or punctuation rules are specifically different for named entities? Of course I recognize that, being names, their spelling is always de facto less regulated and often idiosyncratic. But, Germans being rule-loving folks, they come up with a rule for when the rule has an exception ;-).
BTW, another area where I noticed English having exerted definite influence on German is in the segmentation of noun compounds. Unlike in English, in German you traditionally must either join or hyphenate compounds. However, recently I'm noticing more and more simple juxtaposition (separated by spaces) of nouns to form compounds. So where you would traditionally write
Taylor-Swift-Konzert
you now occasionally see
Taylor Swift Konzert
A more extreme example is "Tailor Swift Eras Tour Kleidung" — http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/DeutscheErasTourCompound.png Anecdotally, I find this often involves English borrowings or proper names, as you might expect.
Language evolving …
Above is a guest post by Andreas Stolcke.
A few of our many past posts about apostrophe usage in English:
"A soul candidly acknowleging it's fault", 6/9/2004
"Angry linguistic mobs with torches", 4/16/2008
"'Grammar vigilantes' brought to justice", 8/22/2008
"Apostropocalypse Now[...]
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Slang of the Day | Vocabulary | EnglishClub
on the blink
out of order, not working
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