Google now searches more words at once

Yesterday I threw some boilerplate into Google. I thought there was a mistake in the text, and this search often finds similar sentences that throw light on the defective text. I put a lot of words in, even though I know Google doesn’t search many. But yesterday, all my words were underlined as a search header!

But I am afraid I didn’t believe it till I read it in Language Log… Google’s ten-word limit has been raised to thirty-two.

Mark Liberman followed this with a report on some problems in Google’s Boolean search, but I’m not going to read about them.

Deutsche Monatsnamen

In einer deutschen Genealogie-FAQ gefunden:

bq. Januar: Hartung, Ianuarius, Jänner, Jenner, Eismonat, Erster Monat
Februar: Hornung, Februarius, Feber, Harnung, Regenmonat, Taumond, Schmelzmond, Narrenmond
März: Lenzing, Martius, Lenzmond, Windmonat, Frühlingsmonat, Merz
April: Ostermond, Aprilis, Grünmonat, Ostermonat, Osteren, Wandelmonat, Apprell, Launing
Mai: Wonnemond, Maius, Wonnemonat, Blütemonat, Blütenmonat, Weidemonat
Juni: Brachmond, Brachet, Iunius, Brachmonat, Wiesenmonat, Rosenmonat
Juli: Heuert, Iulius, Heumonat, Heuet, Heumond
August: Ernting, Augustus, Erntemonat, Hitzmonat, Augst, Augstmonat, Eichelmond
September: Scheiding, Herbstmonat, Fruchtmonat, Herpsten, 7ber, 7bris, VIIber
Oktober: Gilbhard, October, Weinmonat, Wynmonat, 8ber, 8bris, VIIIber
November: Nebelung, Wintermonat, Reifmonat, Nebelmonat, Windmonat, 9ber, 9bris, IXber
Dezember: Christmond, Christmonat, Julmonat, Julmond, Wolfmonat, December, 10ber, 10bris, Xber

Gilbhard indeed!

LATER NOTE: Native American full moon names
According to Wordlab, we have the Full Wolf Moon tomorrow. More names here:

bq. January 25, 5:32 a.m. EST — The Full Wolf Moon. Amid the zero cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. It was also known as the Old Moon or the Moon After Yule. In some tribes this was the Full Snow Moon; most applied that name to the next moon.

It’s very urbanized here in Fürth, but there is some snow on the cars, and a couple of dogs tied up outside the supermarket have been barking.

Heavy metal umlaut

Abnu of Wordlab kindly draws my attention to a Wikipedia article entitled Heavy metal umlaut. This is about gratuitous diacritics in the names of rock bands.

bq. A heavy metal umlaut is an umlaut over letters in the name of a heavy metal band. Umlauts and other diacritics with a blackletter style typeface are a form of foreign branding intended to give a band’s logo a tough Germanic feel. They are also called röckdöts. The heavy metal umlaut is never referred to by the term diaeresis in this usage, nor does it affect the pronunciation of the band’s name.

Many examples and links are given.

bq. David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) in the film This Is Spinal Tap opined, “It’s like a pair of eyes. You’re looking at the umlaut, and it’s looking at you.”

Using the Web as a language corpus/Economist article

The Economist currently has an article on using the Web as a language corpus. It quotes Language Log, where the whole article is given too (this link should remain functioning).

bq. Search engines, unlike the tools linguists use to analyse standard corpora, do not allow searching for a particular linguistic structure, such as “[Noun phrase] far from [verb phrase]”. This requires indirect searching via samples like “He far from succeeded”. But Philip Resnik, of the University of Maryland, has created a “Linguist’s Search Engine” (LSE) to overcome this. When trying to answer, for example, whether a certain kind of verb is generally used with a direct object, the LSE grabs a chunk of web pages (say a thousand, with perhaps a million words) that each include an example of the verb. The LSE then parses the sample, allowing the linguist to find examples of a given structure, such as the verb without an object. In short, the LSE allows a user to create and analyse a custom-made corpus within minutes.

Buch: Das österreichische Deutsch im Rahmen der EU, Markhardt

In an earlier entry I mentioned an article and dissertation by Heidemarie Markhardt on Austrian German in the EU. The dissertation has now appeared as a book, or a book based on the dissertation has appeared:

MARKHARDT, Heidemarie (2005): Das Österreichische Deutsch im Rahmen der EU., Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2005 (376 Seiten). ISBN 3-631-53084-6.

It can be ordered through info@peterlang.com. Here’s the publisher’s page, with details about other books in the same series too:

Heidemarie Markhardt (Autorin)
Das Österreichische Deutsch im Rahmen der EU
Österreichisches Deutsch Sprache der Gegenwart. Herausgegeben von Rudolf Muhr und Richard Schrodt, Peter Lang Europäischer Verlag der Wissenschaften, Frankfurt, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles etc; 2005

ISSN 1618-5714
ISBN 3-631-53084-6

The Bundeskanzleramt site also has a little blurb on the book:

Markhardt-Buch: Das Österreichische Deutsch im Rahmen der EU

Elfriede Jelinek, Literaturnobelpreisträgerin 2004, hat mehrmals darauf hingewiesen, wie sehr sich ihre Sprache und diejenige ihrer österreichischen Kollegen wie z.B. Peter Handke, Friederike Mayröcker oder Ernst Jandl von deutschen Schriftstellern unterscheide, auch durch eine andere „Musikalität“. Unsere Englisch-Übersetzerin Dr. Heidemarie Markhardt hat ein grundlegendes Werk, basierend auf ihrer Dissertation, veröffentlicht: „Das Österreichische Deutsch im Rahmen der EU“. Eingehend setzt sie sich mit den österreichischen Ausdrücken der deutschen Sprache auseinander, die durch das so genannte Protokoll Nr. 10 offiziellen Eingang in die EU fanden. Es geht nicht nur um Paradeiser (dt. Tomaten), Erdäpfel (dt. Kartoffeln) oder Marillen (dt. Aprikosen). Für Feinspitze, die das Deutsche differenziert genießen wollen, unbedingt lesenswert.