Some fun new terms I'm learning:
Pied-piping
Pied-piping is the name for the linguistic process of bringing a preposition along with a moved wh-word. Presumably the wh-word is the piper and the preposition is the rat or child.
1. With what shall we celebrate Pied-Piping Day?
2. On which day shall we celebrate pied-piping?
The opposite of pied-piping is preposition-stranding, where the preposition is left (stranded) in its original position.
3. What shall we celebrate preposition stranding with?
4. Which day shall we celebrate preposition stranding on?
Cognitively intact
It seems many drivers older than 70 (ahem) have accidents, and mostly because they are cognitively impaired (dementia, Alzheimers...). Alberta has apparently a test to see if older drivers are cognitively impaired, in which case, they don't get a licence (presumably). Those who pass the test are considered cognitively intact. Which is what I hope I am.
Vocal fry
I don't know why I've never heard of this before. It's the lowest vocal register, also called creaky voice and is apparently negatively perceived especially when used by young women. Sometimes goes together with uptalk to produce speech that annoys some older people (see Cognitively intact, above).
Amazeballs
The Oxford Dictionary, no less, has taught me to use this as an adjective...
Ojiplático
Muy sorprendido. "¿Cómo han reaccionado cuando les has dicho que te ibas?" "Pues, se han quedado ojipláticos." (con ojos como platos...)
I also learned recently that when you split an infinitive, what you're really doing is putting a preverbal modifier immediately before the verb in a to-infinitival complement clause
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