Linguistics

A new study shows that American Sign Language (ASL) is more linguistically complex than previously understood. In particular, research appearing in the June 2022 issue of the journal Language, authored by Tory Sampson (UC ...

Everyone has an accent. But the intelligibility of speech doesn't just depend on that accent; it also depends on the listener. Visual cues and the diversity of the listener's social network can impact their ability to understand ...

The discovery of pottery from the ancient Lapita culture by researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) has shed new light on how Papua New Guinea (PNG) served as a launching pad for the colonization of the Pacific—one ...

Two University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers are developing resources for studying the Deseret Alphabet, which was created by the Mormons and used briefly in the 19th century.

A research group from the Theory Department has explored the use of formal grammars as a new approach to discovering solid catalysts. Such grammars can encode the building rules of known materials and subsequently propose ...

The origin and early dispersal of Transeurasian languages, including, among others, Japanese, Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic, is among the most disputed issues of Asian prehistory. Although many of the commonalities ...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen an explosion of new words and phrases in English (for example, COVIDiot) and other languages Coronaspeck in German to describe lockdown weight gain) that have helped us make sense ...

Writer C.R Read cautioned in 1853 "that Englishmen going to the Australian digging should search their souls and ask themselves 'if they can stand a little colonial slang.'"

Cultural diversity—indicated by linguistic diversity—and biodiversity are linked, and their connection may be another way to preserve both natural environments and Indigenous populations in Africa and perhaps worldwide, ...

For a long time, historical linguists have been using the comparative method to reconstruct earlier states of languages that are not attested in written sources. The method consists of the detailed comparison of words in ...

A new study published in the journal Science Advances shows that Bantu-speaking communities in the Congo rainforest underwent a major population collapse from 1600 to 1400 years ago, probably due to a prolonged disease epidemic, ...

Multi-disciplinary researchers at The University of Manchester have helped develop a powerful physics-based tool to map the pace of language development and human innovation over thousands of years—even stretching into ...

On Jan. 6, the world witnessed how language can incite violence.

If you're an avid viewer of crime shows, you've probably come across cases in which an expert, often a psychologist, is called in to help solve a crime using their language analysis skills.

Insider trading comes in two main forms: arguably legal and clearly illegal.

A new study involving a scientific analysis of the prevalence of "LOL" in students' text messages demonstrates important potential applications for classroom learning. The study, "Linguistics in General Education: Expanding ...

With the continuing rise of China as a global economic and trading power, there is no barrier to prevent Chinese from becoming a global language like English, according to Flinders University academic Dr. Jeffrey Gil.

Over 6,000 languages are currently spoken worldwide, but a substantial minority—well over 5%—are in danger of dying out. It is perhaps surprising that this fraction is no higher, as most models have so far predicted that ...