(Born December 9, 1906, in New York City; died January 1, 1992, in Arlington, Virginia) Long before she wore a Navy uniform herself, Grace Hopper looked up to her great-grandfather, Admiral Alexander Russell, and she kept him as her role model for the rest of her life. With a family that encouraged her early curiosity about science and mathematics, [...]
Does largo mean large? Actualmente means actually, right? And librería? Must be library. If you speak Spanish, or have studied it long enough, you know none of those are right. Largo means long, actualmente can mean currently, and a librería is a bookstore. None of these words set out to fool you. Still, if they were people, you'd call [...]
Around the world, languages have unique words for topics that are often highly specific. In Russian, for instance, goluboy and siniy aren't shades of one color: they're two separate colors, light blue and dark blue, where an English speaker just says "blue." What happens when we apply the same minute differences to feelings? The words we use shape how we [...]
Born in Philadelphia in 1928, Noam Chomsky is one of the most influential figures in linguistics and a renowned intellectual. Considered the father of modern generative linguistics, Chomsky has contributed to fields ranging from generative grammar and the theory of universal grammar to the cognitive revolution based on the study of mental processes. His work has had an enormous [...]
Have you ever ordered naan bread with your tikka masala or chai tea to go? If so, you’ve been repeating yourself more than you likely realize. Chai tea means tea tea, naan bread means bread bread, and the Sahara Desert means desert desert. Why do English speakers do this? The answer comes down to the moments in history when English [...]
If you’ve ever heard someone speaking in a language other than your own, it might have sounded like they were talking five times faster than you ever have. Or perhaps their language was slow and deliberate, maybe even poetic. Does that mean that “speedy” language speakers are more efficient at communicating more information in less time? Not necessarily. In [...]
The Bee Gees might once have suggested in one of their songs that words alone are enough to sway another person. But as it turns out, human beings use much more than just words to communicate in conversation. Rhythm is an equally important facet of conversation—the rate at which participants speak, how often they interrupt each other, and how much [...]
Have you ever overheard two people begin a sentence in English, slide into another language partway through, and then shift back again? If so, you've encountered code-switching. While some people assume that “needing” to switch back and forth between two languages indicates a person’s incomplete language proficiency, code-switching actually requires a high level of fluency. Code-switching is used to navigate [...]
For new language learners, one experience is common: dreaming in the language you are currently studying. Many people assume that dreaming in a new language is a mark of true fluency, but then you wake up to discover you're not nearly as skilled as you remember. Why does this happen? It can feel like a different version of you [...]
You probably know words like “tick-tock” and “wishy-washy,” but have you ever tried to use “tock-tick” or “washy-wishy” instead? Your brain instinctively knows that these aren’t right, and the reason why comes down to an unwritten rule about the English language called ablaut reduplication. You didn’t need to be taught this principle; rather, you absorbed it as part of your [...]
