Anne Curzan
Contributor, That's What They SayAnne Curzan is the Geneva Smitherman Collegiate Professor of English and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan. She also holds faculty appointments in the Department of Linguistics and the School of Education.
As an expert in the history of the English language, Anne describes herself as a fount of random linguistic information about how English works and how it got to be that way. She received the University's Henry Russel Award for outstanding research and teaching in 2007, as well as the Faculty Recognition Award in 2009 and the 2012 John Dewey Award for undergraduate teaching.
Anne has published multiple books and dozens of articles on the history of the English language (from medieval to modern), language and gender, and pedagogy. Her newest book is Fixing English: Prescriptivism and Language History (2014). She has also created three audio/video courses for The Great Courses, including "The Secret Life of Words" and "English Grammar Boot Camp."
When she is not tracking down new slang or other changes in the language, Anne can be found running around Ann Arbor, swimming in pools both indoor and out, and now doing yoga (in hopes that she can keep running for a few more years to come).
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If we talk about a brand-new brand, both of those brands go back to fire. -
If you have one staff, as in a stick, and then you add another staff, you now run into the question of whether you have two staffs or two staves.At least,… -
The words "previous" and "prior" are synonyms and don’t get much attention from language commentators.That is, they don’t get much attention unless “to”…
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We do things more often "to no avail" than "of no avail."These constructions have been on our minds since a listener asked about the relationship between…
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If you shine your shoes today, tomorrow you’ll be able to say you shined your shoes.That’s pretty straightforward, but things get tricky when you…
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Even for speakers who feel solid about the distinction between "lie" and "lay," they may lose that distinction when "low" is added to the mix.Recently,…
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The 1967 song "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" was one of Frankie Valli's biggest hits.It's been covered by dozens of artists, including rapper Lauryn Hill.…
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When we wet our whistle at a bar, we have a "wh" in whistle but not in "wet." That fact spurred an argument in the comments section of an article we found…
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An eminent person can also be a prominent person. That same person can also be preeminent in their field. A self-described “confused” listener recently…
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This week, we have got to address a question a listener recently sent us about whether there's anything wrong with saying "have got to" instead of just…
