The UK’s most popular expletive has changed after a 27% drop in cursing over 20 yearsSo it’s farewell to bloody Nora. The f-word has become Britain’s most popular swearword, overtaking “bloody”, as the nation’s use of expletives has dropped over the pa…
Emojis aren’t debasing language – they’re enriching it | Benjamin Weissman
With a new set about to be released, it’s time to consider how these little symbols enhance the way we communicateThroughout history, writing systems have reflected available technologies. Ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform featured triangles and lines bec…
Words don’t fail Patti Smith. That’s why she is still my superstar | Rebecca Nicholson
The singer outshone her modern rivals in a survey of the vocabulary of lyricsA recent study by the online search tool Wordtips assessed the number of unique words used in the lyrics of 100 music “legends” and 100 modern pop stars. (Rappers were exclude…
high-dimensional vector space: the verbal frontier
Oh, you’re a big fan of semantic dissociation, huh? Then name ten unrelated nouns.
“English spelling is ridiculous”
These norms in the literacy of English speakers today are so well entrenched that simple adjustments are very jarring. If ai trai tu repreezent mai akshuel pronownseeayshun in raiteeng, yu kan reed it, but its difikelt and disterbeeng tu du soh. It jus…
BoldVoice wants to help nonnative English speakers find (and flaunt) their voices
When Anada Lakra and Ilya Usorov first moved to the United States, they struggled to find their voices. They both knew and understood English, but when it came time to speak up, their accents became a hurdle. Usorov, for example, watched his Russian-born parents struggle to advocate for themselves, which limited work opportunities. While Lakra, […]
AIは動物の“言葉”をどこまで翻訳できるのか？ 鍵となる世界認識と語彙の違い
人工知能（AI）による“動物語”の解読が始まっている。まるでGoogle翻訳のように機械学習によって動物を“翻訳”する試みは、霊長類やイルカからタコのような頭足類まで、そもそも動物が人間にとって理解可能な世界観や語彙をもっているという前提に立っている。だがこの技術が進めば、人間は自らが知らない世界への畏敬の念を深め、自身の先入観や偏見から解放されるかもしれない。
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