Syntax

A Heckin’ Good Syntax: The Surprisingly Complex Grammar of DoggoLingo

Beyond the cute misspellings of "doggo" and "pupper," the internet phenomenon of DoggoLingo has developed its own surprisingly consistent grammatical…

3 weeks ago

The “If” That Changes Everything: How Counterfactuals and the Subjunctive Mood Built Science

What if the ability to say "if" was a prerequisite for science itself? This post explores how counterfactuals and the…

3 weeks ago

Building Languages for Machines: The Linguistic Principles Behind Programming Languages

We think of Python or Java as "computer languages," but they are fundamentally constructed languages built on core linguistic principles.…

3 weeks ago

The Agent and the Patient: How Transitivity Shapes Blame and Responsibility

Who broke the window? The choice between saying "The boy broke the window" and "The window broke" is more than…

3 weeks ago

The Future Tense That Never Was: How Languages Without a Future Tense Shape Planning and Perception

Did you know that many languages, like Mandarin Chinese and Finnish, get by perfectly well without a grammatical future tense?…

3 weeks ago

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

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

3 weeks ago

The World in a Different Order: How Subject-Object-Verb Languages Challenge Our Linguistic Assumptions

For most English speakers, "The dog chased the cat" is the only logical way to say it. But what if…

3 weeks ago

The Language That Broke the Rules: Daniel Everett and the Pirahã Controversy

Deep in the Amazon, linguist Daniel Everett encountered a language that seemed to break all the rules. His claim that…

3 weeks ago

The Grammar of Silence: Why Sign Languages Are as Complex as Spoken Languages

Far from being simple pantomime, sign languages are a testament to the human brain's linguistic ingenuity. These visual-gestural systems possess…

3 weeks ago

Language Stories: “Up With This, I Will Not Put”

In the annals of linguistic anecdotes, few stories are as enduring, entertaining or illuminating as the exchange attributed to the…

2 years ago

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