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"The results are bad news for universalists: "most observed functional dependencies between traits are lineage-specific rather than universal tendencies," according to the authors. [...] If universal features can't account for what we observe, what can? Common descent. "Cultural evolution is the primary factor that determines linguistic structure, with the current state of a linguistic system shaping and constraining future states." It's important to emphasize that this study looked at a specific language feature (word order)."

"Even though these students are fluent in English, their brains still automatically translate what they see into Chinese. This suggests that knowledge of a first language automatically influences the processing of a second language, even when they are very different, unrelated languages."

"Even when daydreaming, there is a tremendous amount of communication happening between different areas in the brain... The fact that these areas are synchronized has led many scientists to presume that they are all part of an interconnected network called a resting-state network. ... that these resting-state networks look essentially normal in people missing the corpus callosum link... [it] highlights the brain's remarkable plasticity... the findings are significant when considering the link between brain connections and autism or schizophrenia."

Linguist are trying to document and record quickly dying languages. They try writing down and making dictionaries of these endangered languages. Documentation can be the key to revitalization. But if no one is interested in revitalization then there it is just like keeping museum artifacts.

Facebook shut down an Artificial Intelligence experiment shortly after developers discovered that the machines were talking in a language the machines made up that humans couldn't understand. The developers first programmed the chatbots so they could talk in English to each other when trading items back and forth. When the chatbots got into a long negotiation, they started talking to each other in their own language. Even though these chatbots were not highly intelligent, it is concerning that they went off on their own so quickly. In 2014, scientist Stephen Hawking warned that Artificial Intelligence could be the end of the human race. Hopefully the Matrix is science fiction, not science prediction.

Both metaphor and grammar influence how people think about political candidates and elections. voters' attitudes can be influenced by a number of factors, including which information the media chooses to emphasize and how it is slanted. Framing, how a message is worded to encourage particular interpretations and inferences, can influence the perception of political candidates. Negative framing is often used to make opposing candidates seem weak, immoral and incompetent. It is persuasive because it captures attention and creates anxiety about future consequences. Grammar, though seemingly innocuous, also encodes meaning and is linked to mental experience and physical interactions with the world. Information framed with past progressive caused people to reflect more on the action details in a given time period than did information framed with simple past. Using grammatical aspect to frame campaign information, positive or negative, appears to be an effective tool for influencing how people perceive candidates' past actions. It may also be tweaked to invite inferences about what candidates will do in the future because it influences inferences about how events transpire.

"Humans may love music, biologically speaking, because it mimics the sounds of our own voices. Neuroscientists say the use of 12 tone intervals in the music of many human cultures is rooted in the physics of how our vocal anatomy produces speech and conveys emotion." The study: http://purveslab.net/publications/bowling_purves_2009.pdf

This article talks about how society right now is living in "The Age of Profanity," meaning that swearing has become so much a part of our lives, that it isn't really viewed as "inappropriate" anymore. In the article, Benjamin K. Bergen and Michael Adams, who both wrote two different books about profanity, agree that the court system, English teachers, and parents who teach children that swearing is unacceptable, are the only reasons why profane words still exist today. Benjamin K. Bergen, author of, "What the F," talks about how there are very blurred lines between words classified as profane and words that are perfectly okay to say. He also points out that there is no evidence to say that exposure to profanity harms children, but slurs that are directed at people because of their racial, ethnic or sexual identities are. Michael Adams, author of, "In praise of Profanity," talks about how even though we are in "The Age of Profanity" now, it won't last for long because the future of swearing belongs to slurs. On the other hand, he talks about fearing a future where "nothing will be obscene, nothing profane and nothing taboo," because of how socially acceptable and common profanity has become.

Scientist discuss why humans enjoy swearing so much and what actually happens in our brains when we do use curse words.

Abstract: Self-affirmation theory posits that people are motivated to maintain a positive self-view and that threats to perceived self-competence are met with resistance. When threatened, self-affirmations can restore self-competence by allowing individuals to reflect on sources of self-worth, such as core values. Many questions exist, however, about the underlying mechanisms associated with self-affirmation. We examined the neural mechanisms of self-affirmation with a task developed for use in a functional magnetic resonance imaging environment. Results of a region of interest analysis demonstrated that participants who were affirmed (compared with unaffirmed participants) showed increased activity in key regions of the brain's self-processing (medial prefrontal cortex + posterior cingulate cortex) and valuation (ventral striatum + ventral medial prefrontal cortex) systems when reflecting on future-oriented core values (compared with everyday activities). Furthermore, this neural activity went on to predict changes in sedentary behavior consistent with successful affirmation in response to a separate physical activity intervention. These results highlight neural processes associated with successful self-affirmation, and further suggest that key pathways may be amplified in conjunction with prospection.

Very interesting article on how English will change in the future. It includes clips of what Old English, Modern English, and future English sound like compared to each other. It's interesting to see how English could start to sound like foreign languages as it picks up characteristics given by non-native speakers.

This article describes the result of an experiment which examined babies' neural responses to social interactions with their parents. They found the amount of brain activity had a positive correlation with their future language development and acquisition at three years old.

This article discusses that there is a new emergence of the "Tiktok voice". This accent is described as one with a rising intonation and declarative sentences which incapsulates a sense of persuasiveness and personalization. The "Tiktok voice" has been more concentrated in the younger female demographics as it is scientifically proven that women are often the innovators of linguistics.

Ann Curzan, a professor at the University of Michigan, discusses the possible benefits of the language used in electronically mediated conversation (EMC), and how it is not "ruining English."

Robert Provine, a neuroscientist and professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, examines laughter as a means of exploring mechanisms and evolution of vocal production, perception and social behavior. He examines laugh structure, compares human to chimp laughter, sociolinguistic contexts of laughter, the contagiousness of laughter, and pinpoints directions for future study. This article, originally printed in American Scientist 84. 1 (Jan-Feb, 1996): 38-47, is a more in-depth, scholarly article than the other, related article on laughter that I posted: Provine's "The Science of Laughter."

The Waverly Pilot is claimed to be the first "smart earpiece" capable of translating between two languages, similar to the BabelFish in Douglas Adams' sci-fi novel, _The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy_, providing instantaneous translation to its wearer. While this first generation device works only when speaking to someone also wearing an earpiece, future generations could listen to everything happening nearby, so pairs of devices won't be needed. It is designed to work offline so it won't incur data charges when used overseas.

Two remarkable students have used their spare time to pioneer an invention that may change the very way we communicate. Navid Azodi and Thomas Pryor, sophomores at University of Washington (UW), have created lightweight gloves that can translate sign language instantly.

Swearing, the critics say, may make us appear ill-educated, rude and untrustworthy, as our mothers might have tried to drill into us. But it could have some surprising benefits, from making us more persuasive to helping relieve pain.

This is about how text messaging has been affecting a student's way of writing in the classroom.

Slang and other text-talk terms have been making their way into student's academic essays and even their college essays. Students have stopped capitalizing words and stopped using punctuation altogether. While the future is unclear, it may be possible for academic writings to learn to accept this new way of writing.

Our social media activity can give extraordinary - and often unintentional - insights into our mental wellbeing. Little wonder that professionals whose job it is to look after our emotional health are now exploring how they can use these signals to take the 'emotional pulse' of individuals, communities, nations and even the entire species. Apparently, the words that're said are less important than the category or the frequency of posts in re: painting user profiles.

One of the tricks our mind plays is to highlight evidence which confirms what we already believe: a phenomenon known as confirmation bias. A research study by Princeton University suggests a possible solution. If people are asked to "consider the opposite"--analyse a study's methodology and imagine the results pointed the opposite way--they strengthen their reasoning, and consequently, are less likely to elevate the ratings of studies which they agree with or become extreme in their views.