What is the meaning of um?
We make hesitation noises and tiny pauses in conversation all the time, but what’s the meaning behind them? And is it true that different cultures have different tolerances for silence?
We’re talking to …
Category: universal grammar
How do Creole languages arise?
A controversial new paper is rocking the linguistic world. Are Creole languages different from other languages? How do they start? And what does this all mean about the human language ability?
Daniel Midgley speaks with …
Oxford Dictionaries has named its Word of the Year, and it’s post-truth.
Are we in a post-truth world? If you’re in the reality-based community, are you obsolete? Or do facts still matter?
We’ll also reveal what word is the …
The biggest idea in linguistics is back on the table.
Is there such a thing as the Universal Grammar? Do you have to have a human brain to learn language, or is learning a language just like learning anything else? …
Why do all human languages resemble each other? And how do children learn language so fast?
For many linguists, the answer is Universal Grammar. It’s one of the biggest ideas in linguistics, but now it might possibly be coming unstuck. …
Linguists are discovering signed languages in unexpected places.
Created where there are high rates of congenital deafness, these village sign languages are challenging traditional ideas about how humans do language. What can they teach us about language and the mind?…
Are we hard-wired for language?
New studies have found that infants (and even adults) seem predisposed to certain combinations of sounds and words. But is this evidence for innateness, or is there another explanation?
Linguist Daniel Midgley takes us into …
Why do languages have the grammar they do?
For some Australian languages, grammar is shaped by the stuff you’re not supposed to say. Linguist Joe Blythe is finding out about the evolution of language, and challenging one of the biggest …
Why do human languages resemble each other?
Is it coincidence, or do our brains come hard-wired with a language? A new experiment suggests another possibility: humans adapt language in ways that make it easier for human brains to process.
Linguist …
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