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While a lot of slang words come and go (‘good riddance’, ‘amazeballs’), others endure. And exactly why that happens is something of a mystery.
How many colors in your language’s rainbow?
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New research investigates how people sequentially add new color terms to languages over time – and the results hold surprises about assumptions linguists have made for 40 years.
New linguistic studies show the ratio of “he” to “she” in Australian news reporting is 3.4 to 1.
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A new database that shows the use of gendered words in major Australian newspapers tells us much about whose voices are being heard.
The Australian National Dictionary is charting our rapidly evolving language.
Australian National Dictionary
Our communications revolution is changing the way we write and speak, and ‘Slanglish’ has never had it so good.
Go ahead, just let off some steam.
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With the taboo on swearing loosening over the past few decades, will profanity lose its effectiveness in spoken language?
Research shows the letters used for product names are subject to trends, much like anything else.
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How did K come to be used more often in brand names than would be expected by chance?
…and Red Little Riding Hood.
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The use of adjectives in English has caused an internet storm – here are the ‘rules’ explained.
The biggest issue is still getting the kids to eat them.
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When botany and linguistics collide: pumpkins are fruits and there’s technically no such thing as a vegetable. But try telling that to a five-year-old and see how far you get.
Balga is the Noongar name for the grass tree - seen here in the Flinders Ranges.
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Words from 100 Indigenous languages are in the new edition of the Australian National Dictionary – reflecting a heightened interest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.
Our relationships, desires, anxieties are reflected in the way we communicate.
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A “passion” was once thought of as a love or desire so irresistible as to take one to the threshold of death. What are we to make, then, of a passion for innovation or management consulting? What’s happening to our words?
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From Jabberwocky to the BFG’s gobblefunking, playing with words is the first step to mastering them – not something to be ironed out of teaching.
ICYMI, the ‘air-punch’ has made it into the Oxford English Dictionary.
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From ‘shiok’ to ‘narcocorrido’ to ‘sweary’, the OED’s new words are a linguistic smorgasbord. They include, for the first time, entries from Singapore and Hong Kong English - and an expression dating back to 1723.
Brave new world? We should embrace language that gets things done.
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Going forward, perhaps we ought to cut office patois some slack – it greases the wheels of business, after all.
A world of deceit.
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Fibbers beware: experts have developed a new digital lie detector.
New research shows how we can track and even anticipate terrorists’ movements using social media.
In the past 20 years, budget speeches have been delivered in increasingly less complex language.
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We all know about the ‘jobs and growth’, but there was also ‘tax’ and various forms of ‘new’ – read innovation – in this year’s federal budget.
Ted Cruz and his backpfeifengesicht?
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Even if you don’t have a word for it, you can make one up.
The best way to remove the potency from an “offensive” word is to use it frequently.
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The word “cunt” has made its way into popular discourse, and while some are still offended by it, it’s nowhere near as outrageous as it once was.
Language learning is not a passive process in which children simply absorb and copy their parents.
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Children don’t learn all aspects of language from their parents, but invent a language structure themselves.
Gender fluidity is becoming more mainstream.
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As genders blur, language is rapidly adapting. Look no further than the American Dialect Society’s 2015 Word of the Year.