cognition

The Grammar of a Menu: How Wording Whets the Appetite

Ever wonder why "Grandma's slow-cooked apple pie" sounds more appealing than just "apple pie"? The secret lies in menu engineering,…

3 weeks ago

The Two ‘Haves’ of Irish: Possession as a State

Unlike English, the Irish language doesn't have a single verb for "to have." Instead, to say "I have a book",…

3 weeks ago

Logograms vs. Ideograms: There’s a Difference

Is Chinese a language of "idea-pictures"? Not quite. This common misconception confuses ideograms, which are language-independent symbols for concepts, with…

3 weeks ago

The Speech of Sleep: Is Somniloquy a Language?

Ever wondered if the mumbles and groans of a sleep-talker are just random noise? We take a linguistic deep dive…

3 weeks ago

How Algorithms Read Your Resume

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) don't "read" your resume; they parse it using strict linguistic rules. To get past this digital…

3 weeks ago

Color as a Grammatical Marker

In most languages, color is purely descriptive, but in some systems, it plays a grammatical role. This post explores how…

3 weeks ago

Your Brain’s Internal Fact-Checker

When you hear a false statement like "The sky is green", your brain reacts in milliseconds, long before you consciously…

3 weeks ago

The Syntax of Silence in Japanese

In Japanese communication, silence is rarely an empty space. This post delves into the "grammar" of 沈黙 (chinmoku), exploring how…

3 weeks ago

Error Cascades: One Typo, System-Wide Failure

How can a single misplaced comma bring down an entire software system? This piece explores "error cascades" from a linguistic…

4 weeks ago

Kitchen-Table Creole: A Child’s Private Language

Ever heard a bilingual child say something that isn't quite one language or the other? This isn't a mistake, but…

4 weeks ago

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