Last week I discussed linguist Noam Chomsky’s theory of Universal Grammar, the idea that we’re all born with some sort of “language module” that we adapt, at a very early age, to the language in which we’re being raised. Here, I’m going to go into some detail to discuss a particular and tricky bit of […]
linguistics
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Black English
“Black English … is a kind of tune-up of the English language. Some of the needless complexities are wiped away, just as happened all along the journey from Proto-Indo-European to English.” — Linguist John McWhorter Thanks to rap music, the internet, countless TV shows and movies, and just living in a mixed society, we’re all […]
Posted inNews
Stanford Project Looking For Humboldt Voices
Across the vast swaths of California, there are different tells — certain turns of phrase or inflections used in everyday conversation — that can reveal quite a bit about where a person was raised. From the, like totally, stereotypical rising lilt of Valley Girl speak (along with the gratuitous use of the word “like”) to […]