linguistics

UConn Linguistics will be represented at Sinn und Bedeutung 31, held at Nantes Université, France, September 1-4, by the following. Talks: Q. Wu – Let’s work and see if try is see: Varieties and composition of try in Mandarin see-as-try constructions. Y. Yagi (PhD 2025) – Selective quantification of dynamic alternatives. J. Gajewski & M. […]

Human migration and isolation appear to shape genetic and language diversity in opposite ways. The finding may seem counterintuitive at first. Regions shaped by migration and population mixing often have higher genetic diversity, so it might seem logical that their languages would be more varied too. Instead, the study finds the reverse pattern. “We were [...]

What does Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s political discourse say about the controversial US secretary of Health whose task is to make “America healthy again”?

Should language teaching describe how a language is used, or how it should be used?

In 1866, the topic became so controversial that the Société de Linguistique de Paris banned discussions about language origins altogether.

Linguists explain how a language built from musical notes could convey complex meaning and even support conversation

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Published online: 08 August 2026; doi:10.1057/s41599-026-08441-z Newspaper discourse on translation in China: a study of topics and trends in the People’s Daily (1949–2023)

_Behavioral and Brain Sciences_ 49:e296. 2026Language exemplifies Singh’s super-attractor concept while testing the explanatory limits of subjective selection, which is just one of the processes of cultural evolution. Subjective selection explains many linguistic features through speakers’ instrumental goals. However, other types of processes also shape language evolution: some, related to learni…

Handbook of IPA says: 5 Broad and narrow transcriptions A connected text represented in terms of phonemes is known as a 'phonemic transcription', or, almost equivalently, a 'broad ...