Nearly every product that reaches our hands these days has already been on an impressive journey around the world. 97% of our clothes are produced abroad, typically in garment factories like those of H&M in Asia or Nike in Brazil. The automobiles made by American companies like Tesla or GM all have parts that originated in countries like China, [...]
The linguistic history of enslaved Africans in the United States is a testament to the oppressed people's rich cultural heritage and the resilience of African traditions in the face of the cruelest and most barbaric of conditions. Despite all odds, slaves were able to not only maintain the culture of a wide variety of countries and locales from Eastern, Central, [...]
Sometimes there is just the perfect word or phrase for a situation. The wittiest of us seem to effortlessly come up with these in real life. Authors and screenwriters are in constant pursuit of them. But when just the right thing is said at the right time, audiences simply know it, and ultimately remember and cherish those words. Such [...]
The Remarkable Reality of Awake Brain Surgery Imagine answering questions in one of the five languages you are fluent in or playing your guitar while undergoing brain surgery. As you provide the Armenian word for “puppy” or strum out the tune to a well known pop song, a team of surgeons is meticulously mapping out your brain functions. No, [...]
The debate over what is a language and what is a dialect may seem like a linguistic issue best suited for the halls of academia, but the distinction actually has far-reaching real-world implications that can affect the welfare of millions of people worldwide. Anything as fluid and nebulous as language is difficult to classify, and linguists, researchers, and politicians [...]
When someone mentions Paris, you likely envision fashionable art museums, sidewalk cafes by the Eiffel Tower, maybe romance. Similarly, the name "New York City" probably conjures images of crowded subways, the bright lights of Times Square, and bustling city streets. But would we feel the same way about these places if they still went by their old names? Would [...]
Language is one of our world’s most powerful tools, and throughout history, governments and large organizations have used different forms of language planning as a way to control that power. In a broad sense, language planning is an organized effort by a major entity to change a society’s language. These efforts can be, and usually are, done for the [...]
Flashback to ten years ago and imagine hearing someone say, “She had to ghost him because his side hustle in the metaverse was sus.” You would think this was either utter gibberish or perhaps there had been a murder of some sort - “She turned him into a ghost?” In the present day and age, however, not only is [...]
Slogans are powerful. They accompany nearly every part of our daily lives and we ingest them unconsciously. We often think of them as being attached to products or services which are being sold. For example, most people from the U.S. need to simply hear the words “Just Do It” or “Have It Your Way”, to tell you the phrases belong [...]
Forensic linguistics is the use of applied linguistics in legal settings. That definition is extremely broad, but so is the field of study itself. Perhaps it is easier to look at the two words separately. Forensics is when science is used to resolve a legal issue. Linguistics is the scientific study of written and spoken language. Forensic linguistics then, is [...]
