Accusing a person or company of ‘virtue signalling’ has become a common putdown. But slurs like these are not new.
The coronavirus forced the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary to break with tradition.
Illustration by Anurag Papolu/The Conversation; dictionary photo by Spauln via Getty Images and model of COVID-19 by fpm/iStock via Getty Images
Updates to the Oxford English Dictionary provide a fascinating glimpse into how language changes in the face of rapid and unprecedented social and economic disruption.
“Karen”, the name that has become code for boorish, entitled behaviour, joins a long history of names being appropriated for various purposes – often unkindly.
Big, tough and strong is only helpful when you’re fighting other people.
Sergi Rodriguez Lopez/EyeEm via Getty Images
We want to be whitelisted and not blacklisted for jobs. White lies make stretching the truth okay, but you don’t want to receive a black mark on your record.
Dido building Carthage, or The Rise of the Carthaginian Empire. Joseph Mallord William Turner, c 1815.
The National Gallery
New linguistic research suggest early Germanic language and culture was strongly influenced by the Mediterranean superpower Carthage more than 2,000 years ago.
Oh come on, you could tell it was sarcasm … right?
AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki
Because sarcasm is often difficult to discern and improperly used, it can operate as a linguistic mulligan. But deploy the excuse too much, and you might raise some eyebrows.
Worried you won’t be understood while wearing a mask? Don’t be. We studied how people sound while talking through fabric and the results are encouraging.
Dickens had some clever little narrative tricks, which become clear when his work is analysed as a single data set.
Co-champions celebrate at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland, on May 31, 2019. The winning spellers made history with eight co-champions, most ever in spelling event’s history.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
One anthropologist found 1,072 similar words for ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ in the world’s languages. It turns out a mix of biology, culture and encouragement from parents explains this phenomenon.
The ability to achieve native-like language proficiency cannot be exclusively attributed to age as other factors, such as cognitive, social and emotional aspects, are important.
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Second-language learners from different age groups seem to have equal chances of becoming highly proficient speakers as long as they are placed in a supportive environment.