Linguistics

The Making of a Nation’s Voice: How Italy Chose Its Language

When Italy became a nation in 1861, a famous statesman declared, "We have made Italy. Now we must make Italians."…

4 months ago

The Horse Raced Past the Barn Fell: Parsing Garden-Path Sentences

Read this sentence: "The horse raced past the barn fell." If you had to read it twice, your brain just…

4 months ago

How Search Engines Read Your Mind: The Linguistics of Search

Every time you use a search engine, you're interacting with a sophisticated linguistic machine that does more than just match…

4 months ago

Naming the Enemy: The Linguistics of Disease

The names we give diseases, from the ancient 'malaria' (bad air) to the clinical 'COVID-19,' are never just labels. They…

4 months ago

Go Buy Bring Come: The Logic of Serial Verbs

In languages from Thailand to Ghana, you can say "go buy bring the book" and be perfectly grammatical. This fascinating…

4 months ago

The Linguistics of ‘Google It’: When Brands Become Verbs

Ever wonder how "Google" went from a company name to a common verb in our dictionary? This article explores the…

4 months ago

Lost in the Supermarket: Brand Name Linguistics

Why did the Chevy Nova supposedly fail in Spanish-speaking markets? This cautionary tale, though likely a myth, highlights the high-stakes…

4 months ago

The Gestural Lexicon: When Hand Signs Become Words

We do it without thinking: a thumbs-up for a job well done, a wave to say hello. But these hand…

4 months ago

The Doctor-Patient Language Gap

In a medical consultation, a "positive" result can be devastatingly negative, and a "remarkable" finding is the last thing you…

4 months ago

The Language of Sensation: Exploring Ideophones

We all know onomatopoeia, but many languages have something far richer: ideophones. These "adverbs of the senses" don't just mimic…

4 months ago

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