# \#english

**URL:** https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/tag/english/4899.md

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## [Jorge Luis Borges on the English Language](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/jorge-luis-borges-on-the-english-language/4049)

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**Author:** [@johnwalker](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/u/johnwalker)\
**Replies:** 1\
**Last updated:** [1 December 2023 19:36 UTC](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/jorge-luis-borges-on-the-english-language/4049 "2023-12-01T19:36:57Z")

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On 1977-02-01 Jorge Luis Borges, Argentinian writer of imaginative fiction who, in 1941’s short story, “The Library of Babel”, imagined the “universal library”, an archetype which has since figured in innum…

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## [The Crazy Rules of Contractions in English](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/the-crazy-rules-of-contractions-in-english/3875)

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**Author:** [@johnwalker](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/u/johnwalker)\
**Replies:** 4\
**Last updated:** [19 October 2023 19:03 UTC](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/the-crazy-rules-of-contractions-in-english/3875 "2023-10-19T19:03:55Z")

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Much of what determines whether a contraction “sounds right” in English depends upon the theory of clitics, words which modify the meaning of other words but whose meaning derives from the host word. For m…