Words R Us

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 explains some of the many harmful effects AI and voice replication are having on the growing misinformation crisis. Some cases paint certain political figures in a negative light by creating audio clips of them saying damaging things. Between political influence and scams, several problems arise from the cheep price and accessibility of sophisticated AI programs.

This paper discusses how scientists attempted to teach children with autism to understand sarcasm. Sarcasm is a prominent force in everyday social interactions, and thus enabling kids with ASD to pink up on these subtleties benefits their relationships. The experiment, though it had a small sample size, was successful, using rules and other forms of training to give autistic children guidelines to follow.

This article discusses how baby talk can impact child development and explains how baby talk can aid babies/infants in emotional bonding. It talks about the belief that talking in simplified sentences and exaggerated tones helps babies grasp speech patterns and emotions.

This report touches on a bunch of different aspects on how language defines us. It shows us through short summaries and linked sources how language can tell us behavioral patterns, inform our knowledge about other languages, and predict perceived stereotypes.

This article talks about the impact language has on shaping people and culture. It dives into how language influences perception, behavior, and understanding, affecting everything from personal identity to social norms. It also discusses how language can be a tool for empowerment and change but can also perpetuate stereotypes and inequalities.

This article describes the debate between prescriptivists and descriptivists in terms of language use and change. Prescriptivists believe in traditional grammar and vocabulary while descriptivists analyze how language evolves over time. The article goes on to talk about how language changes naturally but remains cohesive due to its systematic nature.

This article explored who has control over language. It touches upon how certain words eventually get used in contexts that it was not originally intended to be. It concludes that language is too complex for anyone to attempt to manage. Language is a genius self-regulating system.

This article shares how the perceptions people have that teen slang and texting shortcuts are "ruining" the English language may not be true. It discusses a study that indicates language changes over the course of a lifetime rather than just during teenage years. Language evolves to fit the needs of each generation.

This book chapter discusses two research projects that examine how teachers/instructors view slang terms and how those views affect young people. It explains how young people have their own vernacular and how older generations who don't understand it may see "youth speak" as a threat to "standard" English.

Slag is created and mainly used in a small group of people and it can develop a bond. Slang can be created from clipping(shortening a word), blending(combining words), and coinage(giving a word a new meaning). Usually it takes 30+ years for slang words to be added to the dictionary in 1950s, now it takes less than 10 years.

The relationship between language and cognition is examined in this article. Specifically, it looks at how language affects our behavior, perception, and mental processes. Overall, it addresses the affects that language as on society and how it influences our behaviors.

This article examines current hypotheses and research on the development of human language. It covers subjects like genetic and cultural evolution as well as the origins of language. Overall, it depicts how language has evolved over time.

This article discusses if/how language affects the way we think and the way we see through a scientific perspective.

This article reminded me of the TedTalk we watched with Lindsay Morcom because it talked about how in Russian, they describe different shades of blue in different words just like how in Indigenous language, they do the same. The article talks about how languages can change your perception of the world.

This article is about how our native language affects what we notice in our surroundings. It features the "Russian blues" theory that Russians, since they have two separate words for blue, can define blues quicker and with more accuracy than native english speakers.

This article writes about how there is a trend for towns to drop apostrophes from street signs because of database lookup issues. Many people were against it because they felt like it was a loss of culture or teaching kids bad grammar. Some do not mind the change because people still understand what it is trying to say.

This article talks about second language acquisition, and a higher efficacy rate in those who are fully immersed in the language they're learning. The study concluded that those in bilingual immersion programs or study-abroads exhibit higher levels of motivation to learn the language due to a desire to assimilate.

This article outlines the differences between an adult and child brain that allows children to pick up languages more efficiently. It also highlights the large effect of the environment on children, as researchers found that children tend to learn unconciously, while adults acquire language through conscious thought processes.

This article talks about linguistic advancements of AI. In this study, over 50% of participants could not recognize when they interacted with AI. The researchers concluded that this was due to the advance level of human linguistics that AI are not able to achieve.

This study examines the effect of texting style/etiquette on the perceived relationships between two individuals. It takes into account text voice, message length, and frequency of communication.

The U.S Department of Defense is cutting funding for 13/31 language flagship programs at 23 universities including Brigham Young, UH Manoa, and University of Washington. This comes as a surprise for the linguistic community as this will cut nearly half of of Chinese, Korean, Arabic, and Russian groups alike. The overall concern is this will be detrimental to national security, and global diplomacy raising conerns about the future of language education, and the U.S's ability to engage with other cultures.

The article explores the idea of whether changing one's accent for professional gain is comparable to dressing for success. It examines instances where public figures like Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, and George Osborne altered their accents for various reasons. It highlights studies showing how accents can influence perceptions of traits like trustworthiness and intelligence.

This article discusses a new "Hidden Words" feature on dating apps. This new feature allows people to filter out words, phrases, or emojis that are off-putting or considered an "ick." Some examples include pineapple on pizza, using the wrong your and you're, and there, their, and they're. The idea behind this concept is to filter out people who use such phrases in an attempt to avoid burnout from what is considered irritating language.