linguistic universals

The Amazon’s Verbal Art: The World of Hixkaryana

Journey to the Amazon basin to explore Hixkaryana, one of the few confirmed languages with a default Object-Verb-Subject (OVS) word…

2 weeks ago

The Hidden Logic of Baby Babble

Is a baby's babbling just adorable, random noise? Far from it. Linguists have discovered that babbling is a highly structured…

3 weeks ago

The Grammar of Swearing

Far from being linguistic sludge, swearing is a surprisingly sophisticated system that follows its own intricate grammatical rules. Profanity is…

3 weeks ago

Thinking With Your Hands: The Unconscious Grammar of Co-Speech Gestures

We don't just talk with our mouths; our hands are constantly performing a silent ballet that helps us think, speak,…

3 weeks ago

The Grammar of the Bees: Do Animals Truly Have Language?

We marvel at the honeybee's 'waggle dance' and the intricate alarm calls of prairie dogs, but do these complex systems…

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

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