Language & Culture

Said the Blind Man: The Lost Art of the Wellerism

Uncover the Wellerism, a quirky three-part joke format that owes its name to a character in Charles Dickens's *The Pickwick…

6 months ago

The Shaggy Dog’s Syntax: Deconstructing the Feghoot

A feghoot is a linguistic long con, a narrative bait-and-switch where the journey is an elaborate misdirection. It weaponizes the…

6 months ago

The Joke That Isn’t: The Pragmatics of Anti-Humor

Why do we laugh at jokes with painfully obvious punchlines? Anti-humor cleverly subverts our expectations by refusing to be clever,…

6 months ago

The Grammar of a Conspiracy Theory

Ever wonder why conspiracy theories can sound so persuasive, even when they lack evidence? This post unpacks the specific "grammar"…

6 months ago

Why Is Germany Not Called Deutschland?

Ever wondered why Germans call their country Deutschland, but we call it Germany? This linguistic puzzle is a perfect window…

6 months ago

The Copyright That Wasn’t: The Klingon Language Lawsuit

Can you own a language? This very question was at the heart of a high-stakes lawsuit when Paramount sued the…

6 months ago

Speaking Without a Tongue: A Linguistic Miracle

What happens when the tongue, our primary tool for speech, is lost? This article explores the linguistic miracle of glossectomy…

6 months ago

The Sound of Sarcasm: Decoding Ironic Prosody

Ever wondered how your brain instantly knows "Oh, *great*" really means "This is terrible"? The secret lies in the 'sound'…

6 months ago

Do Blind People Gesture When Speaking?

This article explores the fascinating research showing that individuals who have been blind from birth do gesture when they speak,…

6 months ago

Poetic Insults: The Lost Art of Flyting

Before the diss tracks and rap battles of today, Norse and Anglo-Saxon warriors sharpened their wits with a different kind…

6 months ago

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