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When We Listen, Nouns Get a Head Start
Listening feels effortless. A flow of words comes at us, & somehow our brain takes it all in without breaking stride. Which begs the question: does the brain do anything to prepare for the next word that’s coming its way? A recent study, published in Scientific Reports, set out to investigate this pre‑word space. So…
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Brain‑to‑Speech Tech: The Sound of Silence
For all of human history, we’ve only had three ways to know what a person is thinking: the spoken word, the written word & gesture. Well now, researchers are edging towards a fourth. A team from ShanghaiTech University & UCSF has published a study in eLife showing that it’s possible to turn patterns of brain…
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Does Creativity Think in L1?
What are the big assumptions people make about bilinguals? Somewhere near the top of the list is the idea that switching between languages somehow makes you “smarter” or “more creative”. A recent (open access) study by Gyulten Hyusein & Tilbe Göksun at Koç University, published in Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, takes a closer look at…
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Linguists’ Evolving Stance on Stance
What do we call it when linguists look closely at how we show doubt, enthusiasm, distance or alignment in our words? When they trace the tiny cues that reveal what we think or how strongly we feel — the things that, in linguistics, fall under the broad idea of stance? The field now known as…
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The War of Words and the Grammar of Manipulation
Though hardly a new phenomenon, misinformation only really took hold in the public consciousness when the term fake news went mainstream around a decade ago. Since then, the term has shifted from a fringe concept to a global force shaping elections, public discourse & even how conflicts are understood. You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s…
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How our mood leaves a linguistic footprint
I’m sure you’d agree that language reflects how we feel. We make use of this fact every day: a single sentence from a friend can tell us they’re not themselves, or a small shift in tone can hint at a stranger’s emotions. Our intuition treats language as a window into emotion, yet formal assessment rarely…
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