Who’s the Liar? Brain MRI Stands Up to Polygraph Test
Filed under: Language and the brain
Researchers from Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia used fMRI to show how specific areas of the brain light up when a person tells a lie.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
When we say the wrong thing…repairing the message
Filed under: Language and the brain
Communication scientists from Case Western Reserve University and Kent State University have studied how and why people choose certain ways to repair the damage done once hurtful words are spoken.
Read the full article at EurekAlert!
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Rangers talk; linguist listens
Filed under: Language in society
The Iron Range got two unusual visitors last winter. There was, of course, the movie crew filming “North Country.” There was also a guy from the East Coast seeking out old-timers so he could listen to them say, “To make good Virginia ham, salt the ham and let it hang from a bag sewn by hand.” That guy, a linguist named Matthew Bauer, was studying the dialect of Iron Range English.
Read the full article at Duluth News Tribune
Friday, January 27, 2006
Crafty Killer Whales Demonstrate ‘Cultural Learning’
Filed under: Animals and language
Killer whales, which lure gulls by setting traps, are now among the animal species known to demonstrate ‘cultural learning,’ a phenomenon in which animals of the same species learn from other members of their group.
Read the full article at Newswise
Talking With Your Mouth Full: The Feeding Calls of the Humpback Whale
Filed under: Animals and language
Some anthropologists have suggested that the increasing complexity of human society might have led to the complexity of human language. One might test this for a simpler case, one independent of written systems, etc., by comparing animal communications. If the same, or closely related species, might be compared under different conditions of complex versus more isolated social circumstances, one could see if there is, indeed, such a correlation of these social conditions with communication complexity. The humpback whales of Chathum Strait and Fredrick Sound could provide such a test.
Read the full article at SETI Institute
Hip hop and linguistics: you ain’t heard no research like it
Filed under: Science of linguistics
It’s rare to use the words ‘hip hop’ and ’serious academic research’ in the same sentence, but a University of Calgary linguistics professor has relied on rap music as source material for a study of African American vernacular English.
Read the full article at University of Calgary
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Evolution Study Tightens Human-Chimp Connection
Filed under: Origins of language
Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have found genetic evidence that seems to support a controversial hypothesis that humans and chimpanzees may be more closely related to each other than chimps are to the other two species of great apes - gorillas and orangutans. They also found that humans evolved at a slower rate than apes.
Read the full article at Georgia Institute of Technology
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
“New World” Film Revives Extinct Native American Tongue
Filed under: Language preservation
For his recent movie ‘The New World’, director Terrence Malick wanted to accurately recreate the sights and sounds of a 17th-century English colony, including the indigenous language of the time. There was only one problem: No one had spoken the tongue for about 200 years. Enter Blair Rudes, a linguist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. National Geographic News recently spoke with Rudes about the challenges of bringing a language back from the dead.
Read the full article at National Geographic
Saturday, January 21, 2006
‘Jiroft Inscription’, Oldest Evidence of Written Language
Filed under: Historical linguistics
Studies by five linguists from the United States, France, Russia, Denmark, and Iran on a discovered inscription in Jiroft indicate that this Elamit script is 300 years older than that of the great civilization of Susa. Archeologists believe that Jiroft was the origin of Elamit written language in which the writing system developed first and was then spread across the country and reached Susa. The discovered inscription of Jiroft is the most ancient written script found so far.
Read the full article at Persian Journal
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Bird Can Mimic Others in Context to Apparently Signal Alarm
Filed under: Animals and language
Imitation of other species is one of the most intriguing and mysterious aspects of birdsong. Often - as in the case of mockingbirds - there seems to be little connection between what the bird is imitating and what it is doing at that moment. But in the rainforests of Sri Lanka, a bird that travels in mixed-species flocks has learned to use the calls of other species in the same contexts that those species use them, to apparently signal an alarm.
Read the full article at Newswise
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Monday, January 16, 2006
Grammar acquires glamour
Filed under: Language in society
You know the language-maven type: the one with a sharp pencil in her bun who gasps in horror at misspelled words and corrects the grammar of strangers. Could it be that she is becoming cool — even, dare we say it, hip? There is evidence of a growing respect for language and a resurgence in appreciation for grammar, even grammar books.
Read the full article at The News & Observer
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Party phrase leads China’s list of top 05 buzzwords
Filed under: Lexicography
“Supergirls” made the list. So did “Shenzhou VI.” But topping the general list of buzzwords in the Chinese lexicon for 2005 was the phrase “maintaining advancement of Party members.”
Read the full article at Peoples Daily
Friday, January 13, 2006
India Acquired Language, Not Genes, From West, Study Says
Filed under: Historical linguistics
The Indian subcontinent may have acquired agricultural techniques and languages, but it absorbed few genes from the west, said Vijendra Kashyap, director of India’s National Institute of Biologicals in Noida. The finding disputes a long-held theory that a large invasion of central Asians, traveling through a northwest Indian corridor, shaped the language, culture, and gene pool of many modern Indians within the past 10,000 years.
Read the full article at National Geographic
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Language split sees Czechs, Slovaks talk in tongues
Filed under: Language in society
The Slovak and Czech languages have so much in common that Czechoslovak officials once considered them two versions of the same tongue. But 13 years after Czechoslovakia split into the independent Czech and Slovak republics, the ties that bind the two languages are fraying. Some experts believe the day will come when Czechs will barely comprehend their Slavic neighbours.
Read the full article at Yahoo! News
First demonstration of ‘teaching’ in non-human animals
Filed under: Animals and language
Certain species of ant use a technique known as ‘tandem running’ to lead another ant from the nest to a food source. Signals between the two ants control both the speed and course of the run. It is believed to be the first time a demonstration of formal teaching has been recognised in any non-human animal.
Read the full article at University of Bristol
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