#language

#language

I remember the first time I remembered a smell. This was remembering to the extent that it stopped me in my tracks, taking me back to a specific moment, a specific place and a specific feeling. The smell was that of a bike shop. Mainly rubber, with notes of oil and plastic and a strong hint of sheer excitement. In that instant I was about 10 years old, in Bache Brothers Cycles at Lye Cross, near Stourbridge, in the West Midlands.

We define slop as 'digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence,' said Merriam Webster, the leading US producer of language reference works. Among the examples of AI slop given by the publisher were: 'absurd' videos 'off-kilter' advertising images 'cheesy' propaganda 'junky' AI-written books fake news 'that looks pretty real' lots of talking cats 'People found it annoying, and people ate it up,' Merriam Webster said.

To be honest, people are saying "honestly" all the time. According to the Corpus of Historical American English, a database that measures word usage over time, the use of "honestly" has skyrocketed over the last 25 years. Not just in casual conversation: It's a signifier of online authenticity. "Honestly" is the name of the podcast by CBS News' new editor Bari Weiss, the title of a 2022 studio album by Drake, the name of a new AI journaling app and appended to a number of popular TikTok and Instagram accounts.

1 Which media giant began in 1997 as a DVD rental service? 2 Which Hindu god is often depicted holding a bowl of sweets? 3 #BalanceTonPorc was the French counterpart of which movement? 4 Which fruit frequently contains a dead wasp? 5 In what Asian language does one, two sound like itchy knee? 6 Slugworth, Prodnose and Fickelgruber were whose commercial rivals? 7 What competition does Alaska's Katmai national park hold each autumn? 8 Cornwall in 1337 was the first English creation of what?

English, strictly speaking, is not my first language by the way, Claire-Louise Bennett wrote in her first book, 2015's Pond, a series of essayistic stories by an autofictional narrator. What was her first language, then? She doesn't know, and she's still in search of it. I haven't yet discovered what my first language is so for the time being I use English words in order to say things.

A few weeks ago, Jason came back from a reporting trip to Barbados and made a comment about how some Bajans thought he was from the Caribbean, because his accent changed when he was there. This was fascinating to me. The ensuing discussion made me realise that all of us had shifted our accents at various times, which got me thinking about all the unconscious ways in which we code switch, alternating between different identities.

A diagnosis can be helpful—it can give a name to your suffering, open access to treatment, and create a sense of shared experience. But it can also trap you.

Language is a living thing. It never resides in a fixed state, but is shaped and remolded by each of us as individuals, as societies, as communities.

"Y'all has won," says Paul E. Reed, a linguist at the University of Alabama who studies Southern American English and Appalachian English.

Liberalism hinges on the belief that language can transparently describe reality, facilitating rational debate on diverse visions for a better society.

Language is thought of primarily as a tool for communication, but it also helps structure our thoughts, create nuanced concepts, and augment our imagination and creativity.

March 14 and July 22 are celebrated as Pi Day and a day related to Pi, respectively, highlighting the mathematical significance of this number in mathematics.

Eclaircie can denote a sunny spell between rain, signify a favorable change in conflict situations, or refer to thinning out in forestry. Its general meaning is a form of clearing.

My Shanghainese father met my Mexican mother near Los Angeles in the 1970s, and I grew up speaking English and Spanish. I even chose Spanish as my minor in college.

In Germany, freimütig conjures an image of selfless, disinterested heroism, while 'frank' in English suggests a breach of social etiquette that requires prior encouragement.

In Germany, "Wie geht es dir?" is more than just a greeting; it often leads to lengthy discussions about personal issues, making small talk challenging.

Men often refer to women as 'females,' which many women find cringeworthy due to its impersonal and overly scientific nature, causing discomfort in gender context.

H - Hindi is spoken by millions in India and other countries, functioning as an official language along with English in several regions. A - Arabic, a Semitic language, serves as the liturgical language of Islam and is widely spoken in the Arab world. N - Nepali, the official language of Nepal, belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch and is spoken by millions, primarily in South Asia. D - Dutch is a West Germanic language spoken in the Netherlands and parts of Belgium; it has deep historical ties to maritime trade. Y - Yoruba is a language of the Yoruba people in West Africa, notable for its rich cultural heritage and linguistic influence.

Language is a collection of symbols that conveys meaning; some words reference tangible objects while others evoke profound emotions or abstract concepts.

A thesaurus is a treasure trove of words to help writers compose the best phrase to express their ideas and thoughts.

"You could probably spend the next few hours compiling a list of words that could be counted on to slot legibly into a sentence that begins, 'If you closed your eyes and...'."},{

Perfect your 'Berliner Schnauze' by adopting unique accent shifts that reflect the outspoken nature of Berliners—like changing 'ich' to 'ick' and 'gut' to 'joot'.

"I envy words for doing what we can never do - how they can tell all of themselves simply by standing still, simply by being."

In The Body in Pain, Elaine Scarry articulates that pain’s resistance to language not only makes sharing experiences of suffering difficult but also actively destroys the very language we use to convey them.

The distinction between denotation and connotation is critical; a word's literal meaning differs significantly from its emotional impact, affecting perception and understanding.

One obvious problem, as noted by John Locke, is that "people can apply sounds to what ideas he thinks fit, and change them as they please." This leads to confusion.

"Italians will help you when you try to speak Italian, because they're so grateful when anyone tries to learn their crazy language."

A fish has fins, providing crucial propulsion and stability in water, just as both 'fish' and 'fins' share the same initial letters.