Words R Us

This article discusses the meaning of the word ironic and goes into detail about how the meaning has changed or lost its meaning over the years. I found it interesting, since I use the internet a lot and much of the humor I look at is described as "ironic". That ironic is not what the article described, showing how the word has lost its meaning.

Researchers have looked into how tonal languages are processed in the brain. They have found that lexical tones are processed in the right hemisphere while consonats are processed in the left hemisphere,

This article outline the bridge between the psychological and linguistic effects of swearing. I really appreciated this article because it plays both sides of the field, meaning that it addresses both the good and bad. It identifies the psychological goods to the person swearing, but also talks about the negative social connotation swearing can cause. They call it the "public-versus-science disconnect", meaning that there's a difference between the inner versus social benefits and detriments.

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.

Do genes cause a preferance for tonal or non tonal languages? Possibly. Researchers have discovered ASPM and microcephalin, two genes that are linked to brain growth, may cause a preference for tonal languages.

the micro-nuances of their speech patterns, and how voters, and viewers, hear them - can also provide a fascinating window into how we perceive authority and who occupies it. Women and men tend to have different speech patterns, linguists will tell you. Women, especially young women, tend to have more versatile intonation. They place more emphasis on certain words; they are playful with language and have shorter and thinner vocal cords, which produce a higher pitch. That isn't absolute, nor is it necessarily a bad thing - unless, of course, you are a person with a higher pitch trying to present yourself with some kind of authority. A 2012 study published in PLoS ONE found that both men and women prefer male and female leaders who have lower-pitched voices, while a 2015 report in a journal called Political Psychology determined, in a sample of U.S. adults, that Americans prefer political candidates with lower voices as well. Lower voices do carry better, so that's not entirely without basis, said the linguist Deborah Tannen.

The Apostrophe Protection Society was disbanded last year after they "failed their mission," but does it really matter? Does something as minor to the English language like an apostrophe actually important enough to deserve a protection society?

This article was really interesting because it talked about how emojis are changing the way we communicate with each other. It talked about how emojis are replacing words in a simpler form, which can decrease the effectiveness of communicating with other people.

This articles talks about how social media has affected the way college students communicate with one another. What I found interesting was the statistics they found in the college students with 39% of the people who took the survey feeling closer to their friends because of social media, and 26% saying that they have more friends because of it. It was surprising to see the positive effect that social media had on people rather than all the negative affects it has.

This article addresses the fact that social media could be making us unsocial. The author, Brian Harke, uses an example of a student who attended a professor's dinner party but was so engrossed in his cell phone, he wasn't even aware that his behavior was rude. At the end of the article, Harke provides readers with 13 pieces of advice about how to utilize technology in a way that will help you to be present.

A new study shows how certain ideas are still deeply ingrained the public's minds as masculine. For example, most of the public associates the president with a man. In fact, the study showed that when articles or people used "her" or feminine pronouns people's reading times increased because of the confusion caused in their brain. Many people don't use "she" when referring to a hypothetical president. The way that language can sometimes gender certain occupations has some important implications. That is why many states and representatives are trying to change the language to make it more inclusive. For example, Kamala Harris, when she was California's attorney general, and changed all the wording of the statutes that referred to the attorney general as a man. This is because gendering occupations can lead to an ingrained bias. However, with more women in politics, biases could change. For example, in UK, where there have been 2 female prime ministers, the study was replicated and it was found that people were comfortable using "she" or "her" when stating the next prospective prime minister.

This article frames itself from the perspective of a writer in the 23rd century. It talks about the ways that languages has evolved due to the 21st century. For example, English has returned to having two forms of 2nd person: u and you. You is now formal and u is the informal version. The article talked about acronyms like omg and rotfl have changed conversation. It also indicates that 21st century created a distinction between uncapitalized and all caps. For example, OMG and omg have slightly different connotations.

This experiment dealt with patients who have Aphasia (an impairment of language due to a stroke or brain injury) and mapped out the brain to see what areas of the brain are affected and how their brains differ.

This article talks about the parts of the brain that help you produce and process language. It goes into detail about how the neural pathways are the same for bilinguals and what your brain does to process your second language.

This is a study done by Junko Ueno on the differences between the interaction styles of Japanese men and women. This study focuses on speech patterns in Japanese talk/variety shows, interruptions, and backchannels.

This article focuses on the differences and similarities of Romance languages, and gives examples. It's pretty short and an interesting read

This article talks about how different languages have gendered neuter nouns. I found it interesting how this article talks about the Latin roots behind these languages. Most romance languages have gendered neuter nouns, and most romance languages stem from Latin so I thought that was interesting.

This article talks about the combined efforts of a team of academics in reconstructing the voice of an Ancient Egyptian priest. It's really interesting to see how linguists work to help figure out which tonal sounds Ancient Egyptian made, and how that would effect the voice of the Priest. It also brought me a question on the ethics of trying to bring someone "back to life" via their voice.

This is from assistant professor Lera Boroditsky at Stanford University. She talks about how her research can show how language can shape the way that we think about time, shapes, space, colors and obejcts. "Language is central to our experience of being human, and the languages we speak profoundly shape the way we think, the way we see the world, the way we live our lives."

which cognitive faculty would you most hate to lose? Most people would say sight or hearing, but what would your life be like if you had never learned a language? But are languages merely tools for expressing our thoughts, or do they actually shape our thoughts?

How different languages shape the way people who speak that language think. Lera Boroditsky has done studies on the Kuuk Thaayorre, an Indigenous Australian group who instead of using words like "left" or "right," they use cardinal directions (North, South, East, West). Because of how they use cardinal directions, the Kuuk Thaayorre are very oriented.

The article examines some commonly-used colloquial terms that could be construed as racist, and the reasons behind why those terms are not innocent. Author Michael Coard asserts, "Racism is not just lynching, cross-burning, redlining, employment discrimination, educational barriers, or even malicious slurs, and those who manifest the unconscious and passive form of racism are not so easily identifiable."