Parental concerns that Minions given as toys in McDonald’s Happy Meals have been dropping the F-bomb raises an issue: how far – if at all – should we go to prevent children from exposure to “bad” language?
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Linguistics
Displaying 321 - 340 of 363 articles
Language can subtly undermine women’s sports in a number of ways.
Within Australia, there has historically been a clear social distinction between Cultivated (British-oriented) and Broad or General, distinctly Australian ways of speaking.
Liberalism is a dirty word for the majority of South Africans. This goes back to early colonialism. Liberals opposed apartheid but not the close relationship between capitalism and apartheid.
A unique language spoken by 2,500 people in central Sweden will start being taught in preschool.
In subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways, our language reflects societal attitudes.
There’s nothing like raising an infant to help galvanise one of the greatest debates in modern linguistics.
This Anzac Day the words “lest we forget” will often be spoken. It’s a usage that we don’t otherwise hear. Why do linguistic fossils such as “lest we forget” linger – and how do they help us remember the fallen?
Don’t listen to the naysayers. New ways of communicating have created a wealth of new opportunities to harness – and study – language.
Genetics and linguistics show Aboriginal people spread iconic boab trees around north west Australia.
Are tests to prove asylum seekers come from where they say they do impossible to do fairly?
Australian interests are intimately tied with those of Indonesia – how might a greater understanding of linguistics and cultural nuance help?
Language is traditionally associated with the left side of the brain. But Mandarin speakers are using the right side.
The Macquarie Dictionary last week named “mansplain” its word of the year for 2014. The Dictionary defines mansplain as: verb (t) Colloquial (humorous) (of a man) to explain (something) to a woman, in…
Selfies were so 2013. But vaping’s in: Oxford Dictionaries have announced vape as its international Word of the Year 2014. The runners up are bae, budtender, contactless, indyref, normcore and slacktivism…
Writer Will Self grabbed headlines earlier this week by referring to George Orwell as the “Supreme Mediocrity”. He wrote: The curious thing is that while during the post-war period we’ve had many political…
Some years back, award-winning British journalist Robert Fisk wrote an article in which he stated the apparent tautology that “murder is murder”. Fisk was writing on Israel’s policy of “targeted killing…
The rate at which children learn language varies substantially from child to child. Some children show rapid vocabulary growth before they go to school, while others learn so slowly that they can end up…
Making sense of what is happening in our own time requires sharp thinking. Today, however, catch-phrases and clichés abound. More specifically we rely on cliches about generations. Journalists, bestselling…
As you may have seen, the Daily Telegraph blogger Tim Blair ran a much-tweeted-about poll yesterday asking: “Who is Australia’s craziest left-wing frightbat?”. Leaving aside the backlash, which was considerable…
Top contributors
-
Kate Burridge is a Friend of The Conversation.Professor of Linguistics, Monash University
-
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Monash University
-
Associate Dean and Professor of Psychology, University of Memphis
-
Associate Professor in Linguistics, Macquarie University
-
Professor of Linguistics, University of York
-
Lecturer in Department of Language and Linguistics, University of Essex
-
Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford
-
Research fellow in Linguistics, Monash University
-
Professor of Psychology, Cornell University
-
Reader in Discourse Studies, Lancaster University
-
Course coordinator, The University of Queensland
-
Professor, Charles Darwin University
-
Professor of Linguistics and English, Florida International University
-
Professor of Linguistics
-
Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, University of Essex
