For decades, forensic linguists have helped crack cases involving false author attribution, masked voices, false confessions in criminal cases and copyright disputes.
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Articles on Linguistics
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Hashtags are infiltrating language well beyond their original use on Twitter — and linguists are struggling to define their role.
While some adults see implicit meaning in sentences, children can miss it. Two linguists explain how this can happen, and why it matters in communication.
Accusing a person or company of 'virtue signalling' has become a common putdown. But slurs like these are not new.
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.
In languages from Central Asia to the Amazon and New Guinea, stringing multiple ideas together is something children learn at an early age.
"Karen", the name that has become code for boorish, entitled behaviour, joins a long history of names being appropriated for various purposes – often unkindly.
The use of military metaphors in some contexts can be helpful. In medicine? Not so much.
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.
New linguistic research suggest early Germanic language and culture was strongly influenced by the Mediterranean superpower Carthage more than 2,000 years ago.
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.
Those with a diagnosis of schizophrenia may be more likely to interpret metaphorical thoughts literally.
Generic names can take on a linguistic life of their own, becoming powerful forms of social commentary.
Dickens had some clever little narrative tricks, which become clear when his work is analysed as a single data set.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee highlights the richness of the English lexicon by picking some tough entries with foreign roots.
The etymology of an epidemic.
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.
Have you been pulled up by a "grammar Nazi"? Now you can correct them back.
It's all about context.
Top contributors
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Lecturer in Linguistics, Monash University
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Professor of Linguistics, Monash University
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Associate Professor in Linguistics, Macquarie University
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Professor of Linguistics, University of Essex
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Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford
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Associate Dean and Professor of Psychology, University of Memphis
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Professor, Charles Darwin University
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Course coordinator, The University of Queensland
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Reader in Discourse Studies, Lancaster University
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Professor of Linguistics, Yale University
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Reader in Linguistics, Department of English Language and Linguistics, University of Birmingham
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Professor in Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University
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Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, Aston University
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Associate professor, University of Sydney
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Professor of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University
