A Blind Mind’s Eye: How People with Aphantasia Experience Language

2 months ago

How does someone who cannot form mental images understand a phrase like "a forest of emerald green"? This post explores…

I Heard, I Saw, I Inferred: The Linguistic World of Evidentials

2 months ago

In English, we use optional phrases like "I heard" or "I saw" to show how we know something. But in…

The Power of a Question: How Linguistic Manipulation Shapes Police Confessions

2 months ago

A confession can seem like the most straightforward form of evidence, but the language used to obtain it is incredibly…

The Unwritten Rules of Conversation: Are You Violating Grice’s Maxims?

2 months ago

Ever felt a conversation was awkward or that someone was being evasive, but couldn't pinpoint why? Philosopher Paul Grice proposed…

The Character with a Secret History: How a Roman Scribble Became the Ampersand

2 months ago

The ampersand (&) is more than a simple stand-in for "and"; it's a linguistic fossil with a secret history. This…

The Pressure-Cooker Consonants: An Introduction to Ejectives

2 months ago

Ejectives are a fascinating category of consonants found in languages from the Caucasus to the Americas. Made by building up…

U and Non-U: The Linguistic Class Divide That Rocked 1950s Britain

2 months ago

In the 1950s, a fierce debate erupted in Britain over a simple yet profound idea: that your choice of words…

The World’s Lego Languages: How Agglutination Builds Meaning Brick by Brick

2 months ago

This article explores the world of agglutinative languages like Turkish, Finnish, and Swahili, where long, complex words are built by…

The First-Contact Linguist: The Ethical Tightrope of Studying a Previously Uncontacted People’s Language

2 months ago

What are the ethical responsibilities of a linguist who is the first outsider to document a language from a previously…

Speaking in Tones: The Art and Science of Politeness in Japanese (Keigo)

2 months ago

Beyond "konnichiwa" lies Keigo, a complex system of Japanese politeness that goes far beyond simple pleasantries. This linguistic art form…

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