Language Archives

Reliably exploring the presence of languages on the Internet

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Dr Pimienta studies the presence of languages on the Internet.

The Internet is a precious resource for linguists as it offers an easily accessible and broad space where they can observe the evolution of languages over time. Daniel Pimienta, Head of the Observatory of Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in the Internet (OBDILCI), has developed a method to measure the presence of languages on the Web, which was greatly enhanced in […]

Developing our nature: When and how human aggression and other psychological traits evolved

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Dr James Walter, Emeritus Adjunctive Professor at Loyola University Chicago, USA, and PhD student Aasma Khan summarise research conducted by Professor Richard Wrangham and peers on the evolution of human aggression and other psychological traits. Two approaches are used: comparing aggression in different species, and investigating hunter-gatherer cultures. Walter and Khan outline the relationship between aggression and language evolution and […]

Binarism grammatical lacuna: The impacts of grammar on non-binary people

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Dr Carla Carmona studied the relationship between language and binary ideology and investigated how a language’s grammar contributes to the marginalisation of non-binary people through a phenomenon she terms binarism grammatical lacuna.

Social injustices associated with gender are becoming more disruptive and attracting particular attention. In her new paper, Carla Carmona from the University of Seville in Spain looks at the relationship between language and binary ideology and how a language’s grammar can further marginalise non-binary people. She explores what she has termed ‘binarism grammatical lacuna’ (BGL), which occurs when the grammar […]

A life in literature: An interview with Professor Nicholas Royle

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Creative abstract landscape. Interview with Nicholas Royle, who is Professor of English at the University of Sussex and founding director of the Centre for Creative and Critical Thought. Since publishing his first work of criticism – Telepathy and Literature – in 1991, his creative output has been consistently varied and rewarding, blurring any firm conception of form or genre. Royle remains most widely known, perhaps, for his introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory, written with Professor Andrew Bennett. The book is a remarkably creative and ever-evolving project which appraises literature through a shifting array of lenses, prompting us to reassess what we ultimately mean by the ’literary’ as distinct from other forms of writing.

Nicholas Royle is Professor of English at the University of Sussex and founding director of the Centre for Creative and Critical Thought. Since publishing his first work of criticism – Telepathy and Literature – in 1991, his creative output has been consistently varied and rewarding, blurring any firm conception of form or genre. Royle remains most widely known, perhaps, for […]

Birds prefer sound texture over sound order

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For zebra finches, the subtle nuances in sound texture or timbre are more important than the sequence of repeated sounds.

How exactly do birds ‘talk’ to one another? And might research into how birds listen to birdsong help us understand communication both in humans and birds? Dr Robert Dooling and his team, based at the University of Maryland, USA, showed that – for zebra finches at least – the subtle nuances in sound texture or timbre are more important than […]

Homelessness and language difficulties

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Dr Graham Pluck of Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador, is a psychologist with an interest in cognitive research and neuroscience. His most recent research has focused on the relationship between homelessness and language in Quito, Ecuador. Here, we take a closer look at his findings, suggesting that homeless adults in Quito perform well below the levels that would be […]

Trans-actional autopoiesis: A relational view of human language

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Language plays an important role in shaping our existence.

Throughout history, and even now, our decisions and worldviews are continually sculpted as we share knowledge with each other by means of language. Dr Mónica Sánchez-Flores at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia argues that the nature of these exchanges is ‘trans-actional’ in the Deweyan sense and rooted in ‘autopoiesis’. Her ideas present important new questions about how we conceive […]

How context influences language processing and comprehension

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Prof Knoeferle argues that context influences language processing. Variation comes from how context is related to language and who we are as language

Words, words, words. They’re all around us, on toothpaste tubes, cell phones, cereal packets and television screens – and that’s before we leave the house! We read thousands of words every day and take our human ability to use language very much for granted. Yet language comprehension is a highly sophisticated process. Aided by technologies which track eye movement and […]

The science of singing: When speech and music combine

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Speech and music unite in the form of song. Human speech and music both use the characteristics of pitch, loudness, duration and timbre to communicate with the audience. In a series of diverse studies, Professor Jaan Ross of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and his colleagues have investigated how speech and music combine in the form of song. […]

Teaching words and how words work

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Language is such a fundamental part of our being that vocabulary acquisition can be taken for granted. But vocabulary learning is a mammoth task, not least as it’s estimated that English-speaking students will encounter around 150,000 different words during their school career. American educator and researcher Elfrieda H. Hiebert has used digital technology to analyse thousands of texts to discover more about […]