Sales and marketing predates recorded history by hundreds (if not thousands) of years. But perhaps even more fascinating is the close relationship between marketing and language, which has seemed to develop side by side since the beginning of time. Since the earliest forms of production and barter systems, the methods humans have employed to pitch, promote, and persuade reflect [...]
When we think of intelligent life in the animal kingdom, dolphins often swim straight to the top of the list. With their playful behavior, social complexity, and knack for cooperation, dolphins seem to blur the line between instinct and intelligence. But it’s not just their brains that make them special. It’s also their voices. Dolphins are incredibly vocal creatures. While [...]
The language you choose matters less than simply choosing it and sticking to it, so don’t be afraid to try anything from French to Fulani! Let’s explore the benefits of learning a language late in life, from staving off dementia to improving memory and neuroplasticity. The Benefits of Multilingualism Languages are diverse, and many people choose to learn more [...]
Honeybees might not seem very chatty, but these nectar-seeking marvels of the natural world have an astonishingly complex communication system. They don’t rely on vocalizations or written symbols like humans do, yet they convey detailed information about food sources, threats, and hive coordination with remarkable precision. Their most famous method? The waggle dance, a sophisticated movement that functions as [...]
How Illiteracy Shaped Seafaring Language Anyone who has enjoyed literature and films portraying life at sea may have quickly noticed that the ship environment is alive with unfamiliar jargon. Words such as “bosun” and “stays’l” might fill the air, but upon looking in a dictionary, no such words seem to exist! The reason for many of the warped pronunciations [...]
One of the often overlooked features of language is that it’s constantly evolving and adapting. A fascinating aspect of this evolution is the incorporation of "untranslatable" words from various languages into English. These loanwords fill lexical gaps, offering nuanced expressions previously lacking in English. There’s an important reason for these additions. At any given time, a language can adequately [...]
Controlled Natural Languages Seaspeak was created in 1985 to standardize how sailors and others on naval vessels communicated with each other. When a ship from an English-speaking location such as the United States would like to ask for assistance from a passing ship from, for instance, Brazil, the language barrier can quickly become a problem. Seaspeak allows these ships [...]
Cliches are the lynchpin of one particular linguistic maneuver that works in subtle but impactful ways. Thought termination, also called the thought-terminating cliche, can end conversations instantly and even keep people beholden to an ideology. How do these innocent phrases carry such an effect? It all comes down to how people relate to each other. What Is Thought Termination? [...]
The psychology of marketing has been a fascinating area of study for over a century. One crucial aspect of marketing psychology (particularly when looking at luxury brands) is the use of language. Detecting the unique vocabulary choices and tone of a luxury advertising campaign or sales pitch can be meticulous if you’re unfamiliar with these techniques. However, once you’ve been [...]
What Is Jargon? Jargon is a type of language microcosm; its own linguistic choices are tied directly to a particular group. Jargon does not need to reference complex issues (although it can). It must only encapsulate niche-specific ideas in words that most people outside this niche do not understand. The medical field, for instance, is ripe with jargon. Have [...]
