Here is a sentence from a scientific report on the evolution of language: “A challenge for evolutionary biology, therefore, is to provide a detailed mathematical account of how natural selection can enable the emergence of human language from animal communication.”
Articles with Language
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Instinctive speech diminishes us not
Is language something we are born with, or is it something we learn in the first few years of life?
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Did language drive society or vice versa?
“A challenge for evolutionary biology, therefore, is to provide a detailed mathematical account of how natural selection can enable the emergence of human language from animal communication.”
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Losing it in the translation
Can machines translate human languages?
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Language diversity is languishing
In prehistoric times there were 10,000 languages spoken in the world. No kidding. Ten thousand. Maybe more.
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Life among the whatchamacallits
What is a fluglebinder? OK, it’s a trick question. There is no way you could know the answer unless you happened to see a Tom Cruise movie called “Cocktail.”
The Oxford English Dictionary • Photo by Dan (CC BY 2.0)
Whence the nerd?
When the 3rd revised edition of Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary appeared back in 1961 we saw in the new words a mirror of ourselves. Breezeway. Split-level. Fringe benefit. Airlift. Beatnik. Zen. Den mother. No-show. Astronaut.
Strawberry begonia, neither a strawberry nor a begonia • Photo by Alpsdake (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Poetry it’s not
In his Field Guide to the Birds, Roger Tory Peterson gives this characterization of the purple finch: “Male: About the size of a House Sparrow, rosy-red, brightest on head and rump.” Then he adds a traditional description — “a sparrow dipped in raspberry juice.”