Kyle Mahowald, The University of Texas at Austin and Anna A. Ivanova, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Fluent expression is not always evidence of a mind at work, but the human brain is primed to believe so. A pair of cognitive linguistics experts explain why language is not a good test of sentience.
Even supervillains need the odd day off.
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It’s common for people to live near others who speak a different – but similar – language. But generally, they handle their differences without violence.
When you imitate the speech of others, there’s a thin line between whether it’s a social asset or faux pas.
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We often imitate styles of speech we hear – what’s known as ‘linguistic convergence.’ But a researcher wanted to see if we alter our speech based on the mere expectation of how someone will sound.
From the playground to the workplace, people from immigrant communities in the UK say accent-based racism impacts their daily lives.
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There’s a long history of communities speaking Romany in the UK, so it’s hardly surprising that some of its words have found their way into everyday English.
Whether someone’s speech is a language or a dialect is a matter of both linguistics and politics.
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Metaphors, analogies and comparisons abound when talking about the war in Ukraine, but are they helpful? An expert in peace and conflict resolution explains.
When teachers validate children’s ways of speaking, this can have a profound effect on the way they learn.
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Linguicism sees people penalised for speaking in non-standard forms of English.
A woman holds a placard with the words ‘language is a weapon’ written in Ukrainian during a 2020 protest of a bill that sought to widen the use of Russian in Ukrainian public education.
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To Russian nationalists, if the Ukrainian language is classified as a derivative of the Russian language, the invasion looks less like an act of aggression and more like reintegration.
A protest sign reads “Glory to Ukraine” in Ukrainian.
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Wordle has become an obsession online, with over 3 million daily players around the world. But the game has more in common with code-breaking than it does with crosswords.
The Oxford English Dictionary tries to include all words in English (particularly British and American English) from 1200 onwards.
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