The fear of your mom sternly stating your full name in public is no longer a human-only experience. A new study published in June of 2024 has revealed that elephants appear to use different calls for each member of their family. It is still hard to tell what exact part of the elephant’s rumblings is […]
Does language shape thought? One of the biggest questions linguists tackle is whether our individual languages affect how we experience the world. Let’s explore one side of the debate that agrees with the idea of language influencing thought, often called Whorfianism. Although Benjamin Whorf graduated with a degree in chemical engineering in 1918 and worked […]
The horse raced past the barn fell. Huh? If this sentence is confusing – you are not alone! This is a classic example of a “garden-path sentence,” one that is grammatically correct but leads you down the wrong “path” as you read it. The term “garden-path” refers to the saying “to be led down the […]
👋! Emojis may seem like a strange topic for linguistic analysis, but they have a lot to offer when studying languages. Emojis can exhibit the feature of human language called polysemy. Polysemy is when a word has multiple meanings, like play, bank, and run. The goat emoji 🐐 can represent a literal goat or the […]
Knock knock. Who’s there? To. To who? Actually, it’s to whom. I loved knock-knock jokes as a kid. The linguistics of humor has been studied for a long time. It goes all the way back to Roman philosopher Cicero, who made a distinction between “de re” and “de dicto” humor, modernly known as “referential” (uses […]
Whale hello there! Did you know that sperm whales not only have a language, but they have an alphabet as well? It’s not exactly like the ABCs you learned in preschool though. Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) is a team of scientists, including linguists, that are determined to decode sperm whale communication. It began in […]
Gricean Maxims may sound like the hero of an epic Greek myth, but in fact, the term refers to general rules (maxims) for conversation outlined by British philosopher Paul Grice. Important! One should avoid “flouting” or violating these rules: 1) Maxim of Quantity – Be Informative: This rule requires a delicate balance between saying everything […]
You’re traipsing through the Amazon, deep in the heart of South America. Suddenly, you stumble upon a tribe with a language unlike any other: Pirahã. Pirahã is truly one of the most fascinating languages. I reviewed articles from MIT News and The New Yorker (links below) to better understand the unique facets of the Pirahã […]
What do doggie, seedling, and booklet have in common? They are all diminutives, something that you probably use every day although you might not know what they were called. Diminutives are modified words that convey a sense of smallness, endearment, or even belittlement (e.g., sweetie, kiddo, tallish). It turns out diminutives are trendy. Why do […]
What makes any mystery more interesting? Being unsolved for 600 years! A fifteenth century document known as the Voynich Manuscript has puzzled linguists, historians, and code breakers alike. Even after all this time, no one has been able to decipher the manuscript’s language (including famous mathematician Alan Turing and the FBI). As many now wonder, […]