Language usage, as I am using the term (others will have different ways of using it), is concerned with how we use language for specified purposes. My study of language usage includes an interest in how power at times distorts language, because it has the power to do so. Language usage also concerns itself with the distinction between rhetoric and reality. As well, the category is concerned with the formal, systematic study of rhetoric, and with humanity’s attempts to define reality.
From LRT construction to waterfront development, Mississauga appears to be surpassing Toronto when it comes to vision: Dec. 5, 2017 Toronto Star article
/0 Comments/in Commentary, Committee of Adjustment, Toronto Local Appeal Body, Local Planning Appeals Tribunal, Jane's Walk, Language usage, Long Branch, Long Branch Character Guidelines, Long Branch Neighbourhood Association, Mississauga, Newsletter, Toronto/by Jaan PillA Dec. 5, 2017 Toronto Star article is entitled: “Mississauga is starting to think past its suburban status: From LRT construction to waterfront development, the city appears to be surpassing Toronto when it comes to vision, writes Christopher Hume.” Citizen engagement I have been written previous posts about the contrast between Mississauga and Toronto, when […]
Richard J. Evans’s trilogy and related 2015 text offers a valuable historical overview of Nazi Germany
/0 Comments/in Language usage, Newsletter/by Jaan PillRichard J. Evans’s Nazi Germany trilogy along with The Third Reich in History and Memory (2015) is strongly evidence-based, and is presented within a framework that is well-reasoned and well-informed by the available historiography. A Jan. 4, 2016 review by Christopher E. Mauriello, Salem State University, of The Third Reich in History and Memory (2015), […]
Florida Project: An open-ended treatment of the events, themes, and spectacles of everyday life
/0 Comments/in Commentary, Language usage, Newsletter, Toronto/by Jaan PillI recently saw the Florida Project playing at the Revue Cinema at 400 Roncesvalles Ave. in Toronto. I was impressed with both the film and the venue. If you have the opportunity to see this film, I recommend it strongly. As I noted in my film review on Twitter: Refreshing film addresses themes in a manner […]
Franklin Horner Community Centre program delves into history of Etobicoke’s lakeshore communities – Dec. 6, 2017 Etobicoke Guardian article
/0 Comments/in Commentary, Language usage, Newsletter, Toronto/by Jaan PillA Dec. 6, 2017 Etobicoke Guardian article by Cynthia Reason is entitled: “South Etobicoke Historical Voyage sails on to Alderwood: Franklin Horner Community Centre program delves into history of Etobicoke’s lakeshore communities.” First-rate article by Cynthia Reason I am very impressed with how this article is put together, with how it is constructed. One part flows […]
Long Branch Character Guidelines final staff report awaits debate at Toronto Council (Update: It’s been deferred)
/0 Comments/in Committee of Adjustment, Toronto Local Appeal Body, Local Planning Appeals Tribunal, Language usage, Long Branch, Newsletter, Toronto/by Jaan PillUpdate: A more recent post is entitled: Staff report regarding Long Branch Character Guidelines deferred at Dec. 8, 2017 Toronto Council meeting; slated to go to Council in January 2018 [End] The Long Branch Character Guidelines final staff report is on the agenda for the City of Toronto Council meeting that takes place on […]
As residents, neighbourhoods, and societies, we become what we imagine ourselves to be
/1 Comment/in Autobiography Stories - J. Pill, Commentary, Language usage, Newsletter/by Jaan PillThe concept that we become what we imagine ourselves to be (or what we pretend ourselves to be) is from a quote in a book by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. The concept also brings to mind a line from William Blake, who speaks of people who became what they beheld. I came across both concepts somewhere […]
Public education about stuttering: Stuttering 101 – Globe and Mail, Dec. 9, 2010 (that is, twenty-ten)
/0 Comments/in Autobiography Stories - J. Pill, Language usage, Newsletter/by Jaan PillSwearing pulls on the emotional centres of the brain – I Swear (2017) by Emma Byrne
/0 Comments/in Language usage, Newsletter, Toronto/by Jaan PillA Nov. 24, 2017 CBC article is entitled – and I swear this is true – “‘Swearing is Good for You’: The evolutionary advantages of f-bombs.” The article refers to a book by Emma Byrne entitled: I Swear: The Surprising Science of Our Dirtiest Words (2017) I swear. Sometimes. Especially when I’m in either the […]
When I visit the USA, I adopt the mindset of “the foreign correspondent”
/5 Comments/in Commentary, Language usage, Newsletter/by Jaan PillUpdate As noted in a comment at the end of this post, the flippant tone of my review of the Chicago Tribune “gentrification” article is perhaps not warranted. Accordingly, a tentative bottom line that occurs to me, influenced by the preface by Richard J. Evans in the first of his three books – his trilogy […]