Ezra Vasquez

The personal blog of an applied linguist, writer, & educator

Month: December 2022

  • Edge Effect — Conversation Analysis and Art Criticism

    Edge Effect — Conversation Analysis and Art Criticism

    I returned today from my first post-pandemic visit to the Getty Center in Los Angeles. I enjoy visiting museums, but I always wish the visits were more productive. This post represents the fruits of that impulse. My trade is applied linguistics, so I considered what insights can be gleaned from the world of art by […]

  • The Pragmatics of Greeting Cards

    The Pragmatics of Greeting Cards

    I’m writing this around the holidays, so I wanted to examine a mainstay of the holiday season from a linguistic perspective. The greeting card occupies a peculiar niche in the social fabric of modern society. Why do we buy cards with sentiments written by strangers to no one in particular in order to express personal […]