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Linguistics – Analysis and Comment
We are only just starting to understand the linguistic tools that get stuff done, move us to tears, bore us to death, or make us dizzy with delight.
How do you make a digital mapping system give directions like a stranger in the street?
In his new book, Randall Munroe of xkcd fame takes the principles of clear communication to what feels like their furthest extent, but there’s a place for dense grammar in our theories and ideas.
The Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year is causing a bit of a stir – probably because it’s not a word at all.
During the 20th century, English accents began to pick up traits from the capital. In the west of Scotland, though, something different has been going on.
A linguist explains how words get co-opted from one language to another.
Much has been written about vocal fry in recent years, with the focus on what it is, where it comes from and what it means … at least when it comes to females who fry. What’s really going on here?
The idea that the Australian accent may be the product of drunkenness in early European settlers is wildly speculative. And yet it has gained international attention in the past week. Why?
The discovery that “Huh?” crops up in many languages may have won the researchers an Ig Nobel Prize. But they found much more than that in their search for the universals in language.
What’s in a name? Many words are arbitrary – there’s no reason a dog must be called a dog or a table must be called a table. Why do we tend to assume there’s a reason any object has its specific name?
What can a bunch of people grunting in a lab teach us about our capacity to create language systems? A lot about the gesture- or vocalization-based origins of language.
There are two functions of language: communication and access to knowledge. Each must be pursued as an objective in its own right rather than being lumped together.
In the face of war, disease and outside cultural pressures, the Chitimacha language has survived – and now thrives.
Parental concerns that Minions given as toys in McDonald’s Happy Meals have been dropping the F-bomb raises an issue: how far – if at all – should we go to prevent children from exposure to “bad” language?
Language can subtly undermine women’s sports in a number of ways.
Within Australia, there has historically been a clear social distinction between Cultivated (British-oriented) and Broad or General, distinctly Australian ways of speaking.
Liberalism is a dirty word for the majority of South Africans. This goes back to early colonialism. Liberals opposed apartheid but not the close relationship between capitalism and apartheid.
A unique language spoken by 2,500 people in central Sweden will start being taught in preschool.
In subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways, our language reflects societal attitudes.
There’s nothing like raising an infant to help galvanise one of the greatest debates in modern linguistics.
This Anzac Day the words “lest we forget” will often be spoken. It’s a usage that we don’t otherwise hear. Why do linguistic fossils such as “lest we forget” linger – and how do they help us remember the fallen?
Don’t listen to the naysayers. New ways of communicating have created a wealth of new opportunities to harness – and study – language.
Genetics and linguistics show Aboriginal people spread iconic boab trees around north west Australia.
Are tests to prove asylum seekers come from where they say they do impossible to do fairly?