We’ve all seen style guides that tell us what to say and what not to say. Has a style guide ever asked you what you…
How did language start? What do all languages have in common? How does language really work? Many answers have been posed to these questions, but…
How do large language models (LLMs) do their thing, and it is anything like how we do our thing? What can we learn from the…
Gesture is everywhere. We wave our hands when we talk, even if we’re alone. Signed languages are, of course, full languages that use gesture. And…
It’s Eurovision season! We love to talk about what we can learn about language from this international song contest, but even we didn’t realise that…
Artificial intelligence (so-called) is typified by its boom and bust cycles, and we’re in a boom now. But as more and more money pours in…
If you repeat something twice, how many times did you do it? Can more than one dinner be “the perfect dinner”? And what does “every…
Spelling reform in English: a constant failure? Or a secret success? Waves upon waves of optimists have tried to make English spelling reflect its sound…
First words and last words get a lot of attention. But how did words get to have such a place of prominence? What would we…
Breaking news: The president of the United States intends to sign an executive order designating English the official language of the USA. Is this a…