language and thought

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,…

8 hours 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",…

8 hours 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…

8 hours 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…

8 hours 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…

8 hours 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…

8 hours ago

The One-Word Language Myth: Yaghan

The viral myth claims *mamihlapinatapai* is an untranslatable Yaghan word for a romantic, unspoken look. The truth, however, is far…

7 days ago

The Birth of Grammatical Gender in PIE

Why is a table feminine in French? The answer is thousands of years old and has little to do with…

7 days 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…

7 days ago

The Brain’s Glue: Solving the Binding Problem

When you hear 'the blue ball', how does your brain know 'blue' applies to 'ball' and not something else? This…

7 days ago

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