Articles tagged with Linguistics
A study from MIT found that Tsimane' speakers who learned Spanish as a second language began to use separate words for blue and green, which are not typically used in their native language. The researchers also found that the bilingual group became more precise in describing colors such as yellow and red.
Researchers found that all tested languages make the same spatial distinctions using words like 'this' or 'that', based on reachability. This suggests a universal action constraint underlying demonstrative language across cultures.
A new study by NYU Steinhardt researchers challenges the longstanding practice of segregating students with limited English proficiency. Despite controlled analysis for socioeconomic and academic factors, the study found no association between high EL concentrations and reading growth.
A linguistic phenomenon reveals specific rules governing sentence construction, shedding light on universal features of human language. The researchers found that 'whom of which' obeys strict rules, contributing to a larger discussion about syntax and the existence of pied piping.
A study analyzed millions of tweets by Republican and Democratic US politicians over a decade, finding that Republicans were more likely to share untrustworthy information. The researchers identified linguistic signals associated with low-quality information and suggested potential solutions for the public to recognize these signals
A new study by Chalmers University of Technology and KTH Royal Institute of Technology found that Swedish students performing in English-language programming courses obtained significantly worse results and dropped out prematurely compared to their peers studying in Swedish. The researchers measured student performance based on test qu...
Researchers found that white English speakers' accents have shifted away from traditional Southern pronunciation since Generation X. The study, published in Language Variation and Change, used archived and new recordings to analyze vowel patterns, finding distinct changes between baby boomers and Gen X.
Researchers expand simple view of reading framework using meta-analytic structural equation modeling, validating its effectiveness for SFL learners. Decoding skills and language comprehension skills are identified as primary components for effective SFL reading instruction.
Researchers found that languages with larger populations of non-native speakers do not simplify their grammars. Instead, variations in complexity accumulate too slowly to adapt to the environment. This challenges long-held theories on the relationship between language complexity and social factors.
Researchers used machine learning algorithms to analyze ChatGPT-generated and human-written Japanese texts, finding that the AI's style could be distinguished with high accuracy. The study suggests a new method for detecting AI-generated content in academic papers written in Japanese.
Researchers combined linguistics and genetics to propose a new origin theory for the Indo-European languages, suggesting an ultimate homeland south of the Caucasus. The study estimated the family to be approximately 8100 years old, with five main branches split off by around 7000 years ago.
A study by University of Toronto researchers found that child language development and language evolution share a common cognitive foundation, based on a core knowledge base. The team built a computational model that predicts word meaning extension patterns across languages and time scales, highlighting the role of visual, associative,...
Research reveals non-native English speakers need up to twice as much time to read and write papers, with 2.5 times higher rejection rates for papers written in English. This disproportionately affects early career stage researchers from lower income countries.
A new international study reconstructs the legacy of Chile's largest indigenous community, the Mapuche, through genetics and linguistics. The research reveals distinct Mapuche lineages originated locally and have remained in relative isolation, punctuated by episodes of contact with other South American populations.
A new MIT study shows that lawyers prefer plain English contracts, which they find easier to understand and more appealing than traditional legal documents. The researchers found that while lawyers excel at reading and writing complex legalese, the style can be a barrier for non-lawyers.
Translation of Swahili language and knowledge during colonial and postcolonial periods in Tanganyika/Tanzania is complex, influenced by power dynamics and linguistic flexibility. The article highlights the role of European academics, missionaries, and students in shaping Swahili through translation, creating a 'developed' language that...
A recent study investigated social media posts of emergency medicine physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing key thematic shifts in language related to anxiety, anger, depression, and loneliness. Social media was found to provide a real-time landscape for evaluating emotional well-being among healthcare workers.
Researchers studied systematic variation in AAE speech production, including final consonant reduction, to prevent misdiagnosis of speech disorders. The study highlights the importance of accepting variation in human language without penalizing users.
Researchers found that people produce louder and slower speech with less pitch variation when communicating with AI systems, while clearer speech improves comprehension. The study aims to improve AI's ability to understand human speech and investigate language changes as technology advances.
A study by Bocconi University researchers found that terrorist attacks and perceived threats from ethnic minorities shifted German Twitter users' language towards the far-right AfD party. Voters rewarded the party at the 2017 election, with no traditional explanatory variable playing a role in the effect.
Research finds that using unconventional spellings can lead to decreased consumer trust and loyalty, but may have positive effects in contexts where consumers seek a memorable experience. The study suggests caution for firms launching new brands with unusual spellings.
Bilingual individuals from cultures where mental health is stigmatized may be more open to treatment when presented with information in their second language. Studies found participants recommended therapy more strongly in English compared to Chinese, suggesting a potential counteractive effect of cultural norms.
The Grambank database provides an unprecedented level of detail on language structure, showcasing the diversity of human languages. Researchers found that languages exhibit greater similarity to their common ancestors than those they are in contact with, highlighting the importance of genealogical constraints on linguistic diversity.
A new study reveals that the English language is biased towards addition when it comes to improvement, leading people to overcomplicate things. This linguistic bias is found at multiple levels of language structure and use, influencing decisions and behavior.
Researchers found that syntactic surprise, a measure of unexpected word arrangement, significantly improves marketing message efficacy. The optimal level of syntactic surprise falls within the middle range, with messages being most effective at a medium level.
Researchers found previously unknown interactions among people in southern Africa between the 5th and 20th centuries, revealing a complex network of cultural exchange. The study used geochemical analyses on copper objects to reconstruct connectivity across the region, providing new insights into the history of the area.
A new study explores how language shapes attention and engagement, finding that easier-to-process language and emotional triggers like anxiety, excitement, and hope encourage readers to persist. Language, meanwhile, can discourage readers from continuing to read.
A Dartmouth study found that COVID-19 can cause 'prosopagnosia,' or face blindness, and impairments in navigational abilities. Researchers worked with a patient who experienced difficulty recognizing faces and navigating, leading to dissociation between face recognition and cognitive map representation.
Researchers at the Complexity Science Hub have developed an algorithm that can be applied to different languages and expand word lists significantly better than others. The new method, called LEXpander, outperforms previous algorithms in German and English, especially in sentiment analysis tasks.
British and American English speakers use the word “right” in distinct ways. In everyday conversations, Brits use “right” to signal that what they hear is informative and relevant. This linguistic difference might contribute to the stereotype that British people are smarter due to their sophisticated accent.
Researchers found broad similarities in how deaf homesigners and hearing adults describe tool-related events, suggesting universal aspects of human thinking. The study suggests that these similarities reflect the extent to which a tool shapes the object it is being used on.
Researchers seek to reduce medical errors among patients with limited English proficiency by implementing three different translation approaches. The goal is to compare the effectiveness of telephone interpreter-based and in-person interpreter-assisted communication in reducing errors.
A 17th-century satire on marriage employs fragments from Elio Antonio de Nebrija's Latin grammar to justify arguments. The study highlights Nebrija's significant role as a Latinist over his Spanish grammar.
Assistant Professor Stephen Hopkins received a year-long, $60,000 NEH fellowship to finish his book, The Infernal Laboratory: Vernacular Theology and Hell in the Medieval North Sea. The study explores how medieval writers developed their conception of hell as an experimental space for cultural and theological belonging.
Research suggests a universal pattern in profanity across different languages, with the lack of approximants being a common feature when perceiving swear words. Participants rated pseudo-words with and without approximants differently, indicating that approximant-free words were more likely to be considered swear words.
Researchers at Stockholm University developed a fully automatic method to categorize English smell words into offensive, malodorous, fragrant, and edible smells. The study's findings have great potential for standardizing vocabularies in the food and perfume industries.
Researchers from McGill University and MIT developed an AI system that can learn the rules and patterns of human languages on its own. The model automatically generates higher-level language patterns that can be applied to different languages, achieving better results.
A study by University of Missouri researchers found that storytelling can help college students make sense of the pandemic and reduce stress. The study involved first-year college students who used stories to express personal growth during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting less stress and more confidence in their schoo...
The ECNU Review of Education special issue examines the benefits and challenges of collaborative education, shedding light on issues like racism, neoliberalism's impact on education, and effective teaching strategies.
Researchers found that infants differentiate sounds based on neighboring sounds and vowel durations. Their study suggests that babies can learn the speech contrasts of their language through naturalistic speech data.
A study published in Early Education and Development journal found that preschoolers with stronger vocabulary skills at the start of the year display more positive engagement with teachers and peers. The researchers also discovered that inhibitory control is crucial for classroom engagement and learning.
Research by University of Cambridge academics found that children as old as five or six struggle to reconcile inference and perspective, leading to difficulties in conversations. Combining these skills is crucial for understanding 'implicatures' - inferences made in conversation when people mean more than they say.
The study found that the use of comics for humour, visual-verbal interplay, informality, simple narrative plots, and exaggerated personalities contributed to the campaign's enduring success. The researchers argue that humour is a powerful discursive strategy to educate the public, making content relatable while addressing taboo topics.
An interdisciplinary team has created a large public database of standardized wordlists for over 2000 language varieties, providing insights into the structure of human languages. The data reveals patterns of independent parallel evolution in linguistic diversity, with many languages using similar words for related concepts.
A new framework for classifying content and trigger warnings has been developed based on analysis of 32 countries and 10 different sectors. The framework categorizes warnings by theme (e.g. violence, language) and media type.
A study by Tokyo University of Science researchers used WCNs with increasing n values to find features of language that cannot be analyzed using existing WCNs. They found important features in networks with more than three co-occurrences, independent of text data.
Researchers observed that English accounted for 61% of time, while Spanish had 39%, indicating a greater proportion of corrections were made when speaking in English. This study highlights the need for balanced tasks that consider these differences to benefit both students learning English and Spanish.
A new study by researchers at New York University found that people tend to prioritize men when referring to individuals in general. The study analyzed over 630 billion words from internet web pages using artificial intelligence tools to measure word meanings.
The Volkswagen Foundation has awarded €1 million to support the development of Sorbian Studies, a small discipline. The project aims to strengthen this field through digitalization and interdisciplinary collaboration, resulting in enhanced language courses, study materials, and digital resources.
Research suggests that using language to label innovations as 'new and different' is a key strategy for software companies. Category innovation was found to be associated with firms' likelihood of initial public offerings (IPO), suggesting it's part of successful firm strategies.
New research at MU shows that women's use of humor is perceived differently than men's, with factors like status and target influencing judgments. Women who use humor directed towards a man are seen as positive, but those targeting a lower-status woman are viewed negatively.
A new study by Thomas Pepinsky challenges the idea that language shapes thought and behavior, finding no evidence that linguistic differences affect social and economic outcomes. The study reveals that statistical methodologies used in previous research are prone to producing false positives.
A new study found that people's pronunciation of certain words changes after hearing a southern-accented talker, even if they didn't hear the actual sound. Participants who had never lived in the U.S. south still converged on a southern-like pronunciation, suggesting that expectations about accents shape our speech.
A new MIT study found that lawyers' frequent use of long definitions in sentences makes legal texts difficult for non-lawyers to understand. Center-embedding, a common feature of legal writing, was the biggest contributor to comprehension difficulty. The researchers suggest reducing center-embedding and simplifying jargon to improve ac...
A study from MIT and UC Berkeley found a relationship between Tsimane' individuals' counting ability and their success in matching tasks up to 25. The researchers suggest that representing exact quantities larger than four requires words for those numbers.
Researchers compared preprints to their final publications and found that over 83% of COVID-19 and 93% of non-COVID related life sciences articles do not change from their preprint to final published versions. A machine learning tool also recommends potential journals for linguistically similar articles.
The HTRC will create a framework for researchers to build and implement their own tools to access the HathiTrust data more directly. The project aims to enable users to interact with the rich data extracted from the HathiTrust Digital Library's collection of over 17.5 million digitized volumes.
A new study found that nearly four times as many words describing rough surfaces contain the trilled /r/ sound compared to smooth ones. This pattern is prevalent across sensory words in 38 Indo-European languages and has likely existed for over six millennia.
Researchers studied evacuees from Finland during WWII and found that cultural similarities, such as language and social networks, were crucial for successful migrations. Being younger, male, educated, and linguistically similar to the host population also increased the likelihood of staying in a new home.
A recent study found that gender bias in linguistics textbooks has not changed since 1997, with male protagonists appearing twice as often as female ones and being associated with more prominent roles. The study suggests that implicit biases against women are perpetuated in language education.