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9 votes
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The island that never stops apologising
7 votes -
The elusive foolproof theory of the origin of language
2 votes -
What is the best age to learn a language?
13 votes -
Time Traveller by Merriam-Webster—Find out when a word was first used in print
9 votes -
The Bosnians who speak medieval Spanish
7 votes -
Code hidden in Stone Age art may be the root of human writing
5 votes -
Who speaks Indonesian, ‘the envy of multilingual world’?
5 votes -
Learning English from the ground up
There was a recent thread on ~talk about which linguistics habits people find annoying, and much to my horror, I have most of those which were mentioned. After thinking about it a little more, I...
There was a recent thread on ~talk about which linguistics habits people find annoying, and much to my horror, I have most of those which were mentioned. After thinking about it a little more, I realized that a lot of these habits were picked up from the media I consume and the people I interact with. I also feel that this problem is exacerbated by my poor knowledge of English grammar.
While I was taught grammar at an elementary level in school, I didn't quite grok it back then, and mostly relied on my instinct, as to what "sounded" right. I have since forgotten most of what I had learnt, and my instinct is failing me - my grammar is atrocious, my punctuation is terrible and I only have auto-correct to thank for my spelling.
I understand that English, like other languages, is constantly evolving. What is wrong now might be right tomorrow. However, I believe that this is no excuse for my shortcomings as there is merit speaking and writing in accordance with what is considered correct in the present day.
I would like to learn English from "first principles", and would greatly appreciate if some users could suggest some books/resources which could help me (bonus points for resources pertaining to British English). Any other suggestions would also be great.
Thanks, and have a nice day.
24 votes -
The politicisation of English language proficiency, not poor English itself, creates barriers.
7 votes -
A very brief history of the Manx language
7 votes -
How the English failed to stamp out the Scots language
7 votes -
Yiddish Language was Invented by Slavo-Iranian Jewish Merchants, Scientists Say
8 votes -
Do you use gender-neutral pronouns? Which one do you prefer?
A series of gender neutral alternatives for the third person singular pronouns (he/she/it) have been proposed throughout the recent years (and maybe decades). I wonder the preferences of fellow...
A series of gender neutral alternatives for the third person singular pronouns (he/she/it) have been proposed throughout the recent years (and maybe decades). I wonder the preferences of fellow users here in that regard. So I'd be glad if you could answer the questions in the title, and maybe elaborate a bit on the reasons of your preference. I'm both interested in this generally, and it could be useful as a means to help me practice quantitative linguistic variation (obviously this would hardly be scientifically usable source of data for actual real research so I'm not asking this for that purposes). I'll add my preference as a comment.
31 votes -
The say of the land. Is language produced by the mind? Romantic theory has it otherwise: words emerge from the cosmos, expressing its soul
4 votes -
‘Cwtch’: What the most famous Welsh-English word reveals about global dialects
5 votes -
The epic rise and fall of the name Heather
9 votes -
Everyday Dialogues -- Learn Romanian with Nico
7 votes -
Why West Africa’s pidgins deserve full recognition as official languages
7 votes -
Why is Canadian English unique?
19 votes -
Occitan, the language the French forbade
10 votes -
The mysterious origins of punctuation
15 votes -
How the English language became such a mess
11 votes -
The mystery of people who speak dozens of languages
15 votes -
Human language may have evolved to help our ancestors make tools
3 votes -
Do colorless ideas sleep furiously?
13 votes -
How did Americans lose their British accents
24 votes -
Red, yellow, pink and green: How the world’s languages name the rainbow
8 votes -
It’s hard to have an unusual name in China
12 votes -
Barracking, sheilas and shouts: How the Irish influenced Australian English
3 votes -
Punctuation that failed to make its mark
18 votes -
China's rebel generation and the rise of 'hot words'
8 votes -
A debate over the word for ‘grandmother’ in China exposes a linguistic and political rift
8 votes -
What is the future of English in the US?
8 votes -
We use sports terms all the time. But where do they come from?
7 votes -
Slice of PIE: A linguistic common ancestor
3 votes -
Since the 1960s, dictionaries have cataloged how people actually use language, not how they should. That might be changing.
9 votes -
Unrelated languages often use same sounds for common objects and ideas, research finds
16 votes -
How does language change our perception of reality? Does it reflect fundamental limitations of human understanding?
After seeing some interest in philosophical discussion threads in this group last night, here's one for all of you. Ever since I watched the movie Arrival and saw this quote, I've had this set of...
After seeing some interest in philosophical discussion threads in this group last night, here's one for all of you.
Ever since I watched the movie Arrival and saw this quote, I've had this set of questions about humans and how our minds and our perception of reality is influenced by language. I'm going to throw some of those questions out below as a discussion starter and see where we end up. Sorry they're a bit general, feel free to restate any of them to be more specific or more interesting to you.
How does language limit us? Is our inability to really understand and explain concepts such as quantum reality, existence past an event horizon, or a scenario without spacetime (e.g. prior to the big bang) a product of the limitations of language or is it a fundamental limitation of humanity? Can language evolve to be able to capture such concepts? If language does evolve, how will it affect our perception of reality?
13 votes -
How deaf children in Nicaragua created a new language
8 votes -
Scientists say ‘not face’ is universal part of language
5 votes -
Color or fruit? On the unlikely etymology of "orange"
8 votes -
Behemoth, bully, thief: How the English language is taking over the planet
8 votes -
The origins of Pama-Nyungan, Australia’s largest family of Aboriginal languages
2 votes -
Earliest version of our alphabet possibly discovered
6 votes -
Language at the End of the World
11 votes -
Language at the end of the world
7 votes -
A Bayesian phylogenetic study of the Dravidian language family
4 votes -
Investigating the potential for miscommunication using emoji
5 votes -
Koko, the beloved gorilla that learned to communicate using sign language, has died
15 votes