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This article talks about why it is impossible to study a sentence and look at the physical structure of the letters without reading or comprehending the sentence meaning. It references the Stroop Effect, which is a cognitive interference where there is a delay in the reaction time of a certain task occurs due to a stimuli conflicting. So when people are told to read a set of words such as "orange, purple, green, blue, yellow", but the color of these words are not that of what they read, people usually stumble as they read. It was interesting because when we are children, it was the opposite, but once we learn the skill to read, it becomes irreversible.

I like this article because it also has a statistics at the bottom representing the influence of texts on primary school kids

From 'Odsbodikins' to 'belly,' the banned words of our ancestors look as bizarre today as tribal rituals At street level and in popular culture, Americans are freer with profanity now than ever before-or so it might seem to judge by how often people throw around the "F-bomb" or use a certain S-word of scatological meaning as a synonym for "stuff."

Analyzes the purposes of using profanity and the effectiveness of using profanity in a communication situation.

Profanity is a staple of modern life, but how did it come to be? Researchers put the starting date of swearing somewhere in the early 19th century, but they say that its popularity surged in 70's. The researchers go on to explain that profanity would not exist without people who are against it, because then profanity wouldn't have the negative connotation that it currently has.

This was a fascinating article that focused on one dying language in particular - Icelandic. The article details of how Icelandic is weakening to the point that some of Iceland's youngest children speak English without an Icelandic accent, and when speaking Icelandic, their syntax is unfortunately influenced by English. Further, the article detailed of how the Icelandic government aims to secure a future for this language, spoken by less than 400,000 people, through preserving it in a digital medium on an online database.

Learning the intricacies of human languages is hard even for human children and non-native speakers - but it's particularly difficult for AI. Scientists have already taught computers how to do simple tasks, like translating one language to another or searching for keywords. Artificial intelligence has gotten better at solving these narrow problems. But now scientists are tackling harder problems, like how to build AI algorithms that can piece together bits of information to give a coherent answer for more complicated, nuanced questions. "Language is the ultimate frontier of AI research because you can express any thought or idea in language," states Stanford computer science professor Yoav Shoham. "It's as rich as human thinking." For Shoham, the excitement about artificial intelligence lies not only in what it can do - but also in what it can't. "It's not just mimicking the human brain in silicon, but asking what traits are so innately human that we don't think we can emulate them on a computer," Shoham said. "Our creativity, fairness, emotions, all the stuff we take for granted - machines can't even come close."

This article describes a recent study in which scientists were able to use CT scans to generate 3-D models of Neanderthal ear structures. In the past, attempts to determine whether Neanderthals used language hinged on the hyoid bone, a single piece of the Neanderthal vocal tract. However, these scientists took a different approach by looking at the ears of Neanderthals to give clues about Neanderthal language. By running the ear models through computer programs, scientists were able to determine that the Neanderthal ear's "sweet spot" included higher frequencies characteristic of consonant production, and therefore human language. This is exciting because it gives scientists another piece in the puzzle of early human language development.

Article discusses the importance of preserving endangered indigenous languages: it's not only the languages at risk but also the world views they express - tens of thousands of years of accumulated ecological, biological and cultural knowledge. "Every last word means another lost world," is how the Living Tongue Institute for Endangered Languages puts it.

This article from the LA Times talks about how the Corona Virus has changed our language during this time. It also includes the slang people are using and developing.

This article explores how words change over time, and explains the difficulty that results. It also discusses how quickly language is changing due to technology, which can be difficult to keep track of, especially for older generations.

This is about how telehealth is being used during this pandemic, and the complications with expressing people's thoughts over video chat

Ever used an emoji before? Most people have used an emoji in a text or message if they have a phone or laptop. The majority of emoji users are pretty harmless with the meaning behind the use of words. However not all have used it so positively. In fact, more and more law systems are bringing in linguist (emoji) experts as a witness to testify the meaning behind emojis given the context. Which is even more interesting is that some defendants have been convicted partially based on the meaning behind an emoji. For example there is one man who was convicted because of his use of a gun emoji which the expert witness testified the sinical, threatening meaning of the emoji. This article might make you think before you send your next emoji...

This article by Psychology Today is about phrases people say that may signifiy deceit. However, there are no verbal cues that can accurately predict that someone is lying. Some phrases that were mentioned in the article are "why would I do that", "that's about it", and " are you accusing me".

This article discusses English's complicated rules for naming groups of animals. One fun example is "an exaltation of larks." The article details the history and madness behind these fun names. It also discusses whether or not these terms of venery deserve entry into the dictionary if they aren't regularly used. What do you think?

This New York Times article was very interesting. It talked about the effect that the corona virus has on our language, and how the stay at home order is causing a plateau in the English dictionary.

Talks about why texting is important and how integral it is in our modern day relationships.

This article ultimately explains that texting is simply the next form of communication. It isn't something to be bashed, but rather celebrated. While it has a loose etiquette, texting can help a myriad of people (as this article elaborates on).

Children who are bilingual take longer to learn language because they are learning two languages at once. This article basically focused on how bilingual children acquire two languages, and described the ideal environment for this to take place.

Babies only hours old are able to differentiate between sounds from their native language and a foreign language, scientists have discovered. The study indicates that babies begin absorbing language while still in the womb, earlier than previously thought.

The more parents exaggerate vowels and raise the pitch of their voices when talking to babies, the more the babies babble, new research shows. Common advice to new parents is that the more words babies hear, the faster their vocabulary grows.