Language feels simple when we use it. We talk, we text, we listen, and words seem to appear naturally from thought. But the ...

Metaphor is not merely a literary device but a fundamental cognitive mechanism that shapes how individuals conceptualise and communicate their experiences. In cognitive linguistics, research into ...

Cognitive linguistics is a modern school of linguistic thought that originally began to emerge in the 1970s due to dissatisfaction with formal approaches to language. As I explain in my book, ...

Linguistics is the study of language, but what does that even mean? Language is everywhere. Linguistics is the study of language, but what does that even mean? In this episode of Crash Course ...

Last November, I ran an episode on the myth that the Inuit language has a surprisingly large number of words for “snow.” I talked about how this myth is one example of a widely debunked idea called ...

We learn about how and why languages change. Language is constantly changing. Today’s small changes could lead to entirely new dialects or languages in the future. We learn about how and why languages ...

“How am I even supposed to respond to this?” My friend shows me her phone screen, where her dad has replied to a long, complicated, logistic-filled text message with a simple “Ok 👍.” We’ve all been ...

As the parent of two teenagers, being a linguist did not adequately prepare me for the strange things that sometimes come out of their mouths. For example, "like" is omnipresent, "hecka" punctuates ...

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