Language

How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government

Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. Here's how it works

Michael Lind Saturday, May 18, 2013 9:30 PM UTC 111
Business Language, Entitlements

Isaac Newton’s universal language

The famed physicist and mathematician also had a passion for linguistics -- and even devised his own idiom

Arika Okrent, The Week Saturday, May 11, 2013 3:00 PM UTC 10
Life The Week, Isaac Newton, Language

The modern history of swearing: Where all the dirtiest words come from

As society evolves, so do our curse words. Here's how some of the most famous ones developed -- and a few new ones

Melissa Mohr Saturday, May 11, 2013 12:30 PM UTC 54
Life Books, Editor's Picks, Swearing

Our favorite bits of 1920s slang

Phrases like French kiss, blind date, sexpert and backseat driver were all coined in the roaring twenties VIDEO

Angela Tung, The Week Thursday, May 9, 2013 4:09 PM UTC
Life Video, The Week, Slang, !920s, 1920s

It’s OK to use incomplete sentences. Really

Forget what you learned in school. When it comes to writing sentence fragments, even Shakespeare broke the rules

James Harbeck, The Week Thursday, Apr 18, 2013 6:45 PM UTC 46
Life The Week, Language, Grammar

From baseball to beisuboru: Foreign languages steal from English too

When adopted by different cultures, English words can take on totally different sounds and meanings

James Harbeck, The Week Friday, Apr 12, 2013 3:01 PM UTC
Life The Week, Language

Inside the topsy-turvy world of contronyms

Fourteen words that, depending on their context, can mean the opposite of what you think they mean

Judith B. Herman, The Week Sunday, Apr 7, 2013 8:00 PM UTC 22
Life The Week, words, Language

Jay Leno: Call them “undocumented Democrats”

The "Tonight Show" host cribs a joke that brought the house down at CPAC to needle the AP VIDEO

Alex Seitz-Wald Wednesday, Apr 3, 2013 4:35 PM UTC 11
Politics Video, Jay Leno, Immigration

Google tells Sweden that “ungoogleable” is not a word

Sweden defines the term as anything that cannot be found on a search engine

Prachi Gupta Tuesday, Mar 26, 2013 10:20 PM UTC
Technology Google, Sweden, ungoogleable, words

Stop pretending cyberspace exists

Treating the Internet as a mythical country makes us dumber

Michael Lind Tuesday, Feb 12, 2013 8:15 PM UTC 18
Technology Cyber Warfare, Language

A fresh view of George Orwell

Honoring the reissue of several works, a reevaluation of "Politics and the English Language"

Houman Barekat, The New Inquiry Sunday, Feb 10, 2013 6:00 PM UTC 10
Entertainment The New Inquiry, literature

Mapping the emotions we don’t have language for

Ever wish you had a word for those in-between feelings? Now you do. They're just not in English

Katie Mcdonough Monday, Jan 7, 2013 8:54 PM UTC
Life Language, Emotion

Welcome to generation “fidgital”

The New York Times introduces a new word -- and pegs a new problem

Katie Mcdonough Monday, Jan 7, 2013 2:03 PM UTC
Technology tech, smartphones, addiction

Study: Language learning may begin in utero

Researchers found that infants can respond to their native language only hours after being born

Katie Mcdonough Wednesday, Jan 2, 2013 10:37 PM UTC 12
Life Science, Babies, Language, learning

What’s the secret to learning a second language?

Studies reveal it's more than just a matter of memory. A look at what the science of recall can teach us

Bonnie Tsui, Pacific Standard Saturday, Oct 27, 2012 12:30 PM UTC 31
Life Science, Education, Brain

Where does language come from?

How do we understand what words really mean? New science suggests we make meaning by creating mental simulations

Benjamin K. Bergen Saturday, Oct 20, 2012 5:00 PM UTC 18
Life Books, Science, Neuroscience

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