Language is not a big bag of sacrosanct words

Geoffrey K. Pullum, at Language Log, reports: I just got back from doing Talk Of The Nation (ToTN) with Neal Conan on NPR from WBUR's studio in Boston. It was about... words. Everybody sees language as just words, words, words. A human language, as most people see it, is simply a Big Bag O'Words (BBoW). Neal Conan believes a language is a BBoW just like everyone else does...
Read his defence of language evolution here.

Let's fiddle with the news

Today in the New York Times:

"The new Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has earmarked nearly $200 million for new housing in the territory in its budget, but that fell short of what the previous Liberal government had promised."

Three problems just jumped out at me as I read the news:

earmarked
fell short
35 word-length sentence

A version that would work better for the average reader:

The new Conservative government has budgeted nearly $200 million for new housing in the territory which is less than the last Liberal government promised."

Say What?

From today's post on the humor blog of U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer...

March 1997 - Did They Really Ask That?

From Oliver "Jackson" Schrumpf of Sulphur, La. (Schrumpf & Schrumpf),
this excerpt from the deposition of
the Vehicle Permit Manager, Louisiana Department of Weights & Measures,
taken in a civil case involving an overloaded log truck.

Q. And then under that appears the permit for the axle and gross vehicle load limitations. First, you have single axle. What is a single axle, Mr. Norman?

(after a long pause ...)

A. That's one axle.

Q. You're talking to lawyers.

Mr. Schrumpf : He thought it was a trick question.