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Displaying all articles tagged:

Language

  1. science of us
    ‘Frumbled’ and Other Good Reasons to Make Up WordsOn “Russian blues” and the impossibility of seeing another person’s perception.
    By Katie Heaney
  2. word search
    A Brief, Convoluted History of the Word ‘Intersectionality’How an academic term morphed into a buzzword.
    By Kory Stamper
  3. science of us
    The 300-Year History of Using ‘Literally’ FigurativelyWomen have always been much quicker than men to move ahead into new linguistic territory.
    By Kory Stamper
  4. Apparently, These Are the Funniest Words in the English LanguageAccording to a new study.
    By Cari Romm
  5. To Understand Why We Have So Many Languages, Look Way, Way Back in Human HistoryRainfall and warfare are just two of the many factors.
    By Michael Gavin
  6. How to Find the Word That’s on the Tip of Your TongueWhen “whatchamacallit” isn’t good enough.
    By Cari Romm
  7. Why the Internet Tilde Is the Most Perfect Piece of Snark We HaveIs there any punctuation mark more of the times?
    By Jess Kimball Leslie
  8. The Real Purpose of Uptalk Is to Get You to Shut Up and ListenLinguists argue that the much-maligned habit is a way of holding a listener’s attention.
    By Cari Romm
  9. language
    How Do You Write About Something Like Alzheimer’s?The disease resists any easy attempt at metaphors, but that doesn’t mean patients and their caretakers don’t try.
    By Jesse Singal
  10. A Linguist Breaks Down What We Really Mean When We Call Our Friends ‘Close’Friendship between women has its own language.
    By Deborah Tannen
  11. mental health
    Sometimes, Mental-Illness Destigmatization Can BackfirePeople with severe mental-health problems really are suffering, and it doesn’t make sense to scrub the language we use to pretend they aren’t.
    By Jesse Singal
  12. Why You Trust Email Way More Than You ShouldIt’s not a casual spoken conversation. So why do we treat it like one?
    By Matthew Hutson
  13. Talking in Euphemisms Can Chip Away at Your Sense of MoralityUsing “indirect speech” to describe unethical behavior helps us feel better about it.
    By Laura Niemi, Alek Chakroff, and Liane Young
  14. Use This Storytelling Technique to Make Your Bad Memories Feel More MeaningfulAnd gain some much-needed distance.
    By Cari Romm
  15. This Chart of a Baby’s First 100 Words Explains How We Learn LanguageIn the earliest stages, babies’ speech follows a certain pattern.
    By Cari Romm
  16. This Finnish Word Makes Your Sad Weekend Plans Sound a Little CoolerIt’s a good night for some kalsarikannit.
    By Cari Romm
  17. Learning Sign Language Can Help You Improve Your VisionA new study found a link between sign-language fluency and “visual-processing skills.”
    By Cari Romm
  18. Why So Many Movie Villains Have British AccentsA linguist explains.
    By Cari Romm
  19. science of us
    Want Synesthesia? Try Learning a New LanguagePeople who became bilingual later in life are more likely to experience the mysterious blurring of the senses.
    By Cari Romm
  20. science of us
    Learning a Language Makes You Better at Handling AmbiguityBecause you’re not going to know everything.
    By Drake Baer
  21. linguistics
    Emoji Have a Dual NatureDepending on what they’re describing, people write with emoji using one of two logics.
    By Drake Baer
  22. You Can Be Lazy and Learn a New Language at the Same TimeThere are times when it’s best to put down the Duolingo.
    By Melissa Dahl
  23. Monkeys’ Mouths Are Built for Speech — Only Their Brains Are Holding Them BackA new study shows that they’re capable of noises that sound a lot like human language.
    By Cari Romm
  24. self-improvement
    When Ex-cons Change Their Vocabulary, They Stay Out of JailChange the way you speak, change the way you live.
    By Drake Baer
  25. emotion
    Having Finely Tuned Emotions Will Help You Process Trump’s WinThe richer your vocabulary, the greater your resilience.
    By Drake Baer
  26. Test Your Creativity: What Do These 3 Words Have in Common?One for the puzzle lovers.
    By Ashley Wu and Cari Romm
  27. The Possessive Your Guys’ Is American English at Its Rough-Spun BestThe language evolves.
    By Drake Baer
  28. The Boy Who Woke Up From a Coma Speaking a Whole New LanguageRueben Nsemoh knew only a few words of Spanish — until a head injury made him fluent.
    By Cari Romm
  29. How We Got ‘Bark’ for Dogs, ‘Quack’ for Ducks, and Other Words for Animal SoundsNew research shows how people across the world describe animal sounds.
    By Cari Romm
  30. personality
    The World Looks Different When You’re Speaking a Second LanguageA new memoir lends a fresh perspective to one of the great mysteries of modern linguistics.
    By Melissa Dahl
  31. science of us
    Thinking in a Second Language Makes You Less MoralWe feel more, and reason less, in our native language.
    By Cari Romm
  32. A Dictionary Wants Everyone to Calm Down About Using ‘Literally’ WrongWords evolve. English will be okay.
    By Cari Romm
  33. science of us
    Blind People Gesture Like Sighted PeopleWhether or not you can see, you talk with your hands.
    By Drake Baer
  34. science of us
    The Unexpectedly Existential Roots of Adjective OrderWhy it’s a “huge fuzzy blanket” and not a “fuzzy huge blanket.”
    By Drake Baer
  35. Your Dog Is Too Smart to Be Fooled by Your Fake Happy Voice“Who’s a big dummy? Who’s a big dumb boy?”
    By Cari Romm
  36. The Race to Study a Dying Sign Language Before It DisappearsIt’s making linguists rethink what they believe about how humans learned to speak.
    By Shira Rubin
  37. science of us
    The Man Who Woke Up One Morning and Forgot How to ReadA strange case that settled a long, contentious debate about the brain.
    By Cari Romm
  38. Babies Learn Accents Before They’re Even BornTheir cries sound different depending on the language their parents speak.
    By Cari Romm
  39. Stuttering Birds Are Helping Scientists Understand How Humans Learned to TalkWhat another species’ speech impediment reveals about our own capacity for language.
    By Cari Romm
  40. The Magic Word That Makes You Seem Extra PersuasiveIt’s not please.
    By Cari Romm
  41. If You Want to Bond With Someone, Swear at ThemIt’s fun, too!
    By Drake Baer
  42. Linguistics Explains Why Ending a Text With a Period Is So AwfulIt’s all about context.
    By Cari Romm
  43. Gorillas Talk With Their Hands the Same Way Humans DoSome gestures mean the same thing across species.
    By Cari Romm
  44. A Talking Orangutan Can Help Us Understand How Humans Developed SpeechHis name’s Rocky, and he sounds eerily humanlike.
    By Cari Romm
  45. How to Say ‘Um’ and ‘Like’ and Also Sound SmartThere’s a way to use filler words to your advantage.
    By Cari Romm
  46. The Next Frontier of Linguistics Is Monkey ChatterLike human speech, it has its own set of rules.
    By Cari Romm
  47. Talking With Your Hands Makes You Learn Things FasterSpeech is physical.
    By Drake Baer
  48. Humans Aren’t the Only Animals That Use Baby Talk With Their KidsBirds do it, too.
    By Cari Romm
  49. but we’re both equally annoying
    If You Want a Woman’s Real Opinion, Check Her FacebookA new study found women are just as assertive on social media as men.
    By Gabrielle Noone
  50. We May Never Know Why the Word ‘Moist’ Is So TerribleA new paper adds to an ongoing linguistic mystery.
    By Cari Romm
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