Even if we’re trying not to be the grammar police, we all have that internal voice that notices linguistic difference, and categorises people thereby.
How do we deal with that inner prescriptivist? How can we have linguistic discussions with grammar …
Akimbo. Throes. Tizzy.
Some words only appear in limited contexts. But what do they mean? The fascinating histories of these words can tell us more about how English works — and language in general.
We’re in tatters — or …
Juxtapose. Obfuscate. And of course, absquatulate.
All these words appear in a new dictionary for young people. It’s The Dictionary of Difficult Words, and we’re talking to the author, lexicographer Jane Solomon.
Activate your sesquipedalian …
The questions never stop, and neither do we.
What happens to language when newcomers move in?
Language isn’t just for communication — it also signals membership in a group, and this is especially clear in a gentrifying community in Washington DC. Black residents are using African-American English to stake …
Gesture. We all do it. But what are our brains doing while it’s going on?
What does gesture contribute to our interpretation? Can we work out complex meanings when words are replaced by gestures? And when a gesture like the …
Imagine watching your language erode away.
How would you help it to stay alive? What can one person do in the face of language loss? There’s good news: lots of people are taking up the challenge and becoming language activists. …
Which words, phrases, and pronunciations are unique to your family?
We often talk about languages, dialects, and even our own personal ideolects, but for most of us, home is where language starts. So what it’s doing at your place?
Our …
They feel so right, but sound so wrong.
They’re false friends — pairs of words in different languages that seem like they’d mean the same thing, but don’t. Which ones have you run across in your language experience?
Our friends …
Again we tackle the questions that others dast not.
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