Semantics

the study of meaning in a language

In the News

In the News . . .

• You Graded My Grammar Essay. I Think I Got a B-Minus -- The New York Times (24 August 2022)
  
  
• The language that doesn't use 'no' -- BBCFuture (09 August 2022)
  
  
• The harmful ableist language you unknowingly use -- BBCworklife (05 April 2021)
  
  
• Is this phrase the Swiss Army knife of Japanese? -- BBCcapital (22 August 2018)
  
  
• The Power of Categories, Invisibilia--NPR, The Scout Report, Volume 23, Number 25, 23 June 2017
  
  
• A brief history of food emoji: Why you won't find hummus on your phone -- NPRNews (28 December 2016)
  
  
• Why 'nude', 'exotic', and 'tribal' are controversial -- BBCculture (14 November 2016)
  
  
• Native Entlish speakers are the world's worst communicators -- BBCNews (31 October 2016)
  
  
• An ex-FBI interrogator's tips on handling debate lies -- BBCNews (06 October 2016)
  
  
• Semantics — What does data science reveal about Clinton and Trump ? -- Maixent Chenebaux, Reputation Squad (05 October 2016)
  
  
• Eleven of the world’s quirkiest phrases -- BBCculture (29 September 2016)
  
  
• Mexicans have 300 different ways of referring to corruption -- QUARTZ (28 September 2016)
  
  
• Do you know the meaning of the dictionary's newest words? -- BBCculture (12 September 2016)
  
  
• Dictionary fans might squee: OED adds new words, because YOLO -- MPRNews (12 September 2016)
  
  
• The people who study the meaning of nonsense -- BBCfuture (07 September 2016)
  
  
• Beware the bad big wolf: why you need to put your adjectives in the right order -- Conversation (06 September 2016)
  
  
• Dogs understand both words and intonation of human speech -- Guardian (30 August 2016)
  
  
• Their Masters' Voices: Dogs Understand Tone And Meaning Of Words -- NPR (30 August 2016)
  
  
• Video: Your dog understands more than you think -- Science (30 August 2016)
  
  
• You Say Tomato… Why Some Fruits Are Forever Doomed to Be Called Veggies -- Conversation (30 August 2016)
  
  
• Most adults know more than 42,000 words -- ScienceDaily (16 August 2016)
  
  
• This Is Your Brain on Sentences -- ScienceDaily (15 August 2016)
  
  
• Words Stripped of Meaning: A Guide to Linguistic Spam -- Conversation (09 August 2016)
  
  
• The Magic of "Untranslatable" Words -- Scientific American (12 July 2016)
  
  
• A Language Where Space Has No Directions -- ScienceDaily (11 July 2016)
  
  
• The ultimate 21st-Century word? -- BBCculture (23 June 2016)
  
  
• The secret symbols politicians use -- BBCculture (12 April 2016)
  
  
• In With the in Crowd: Secret Languages Can Confuse, Exclude or Empower -- Guardian (08 April 2016)
  
  
• Lethologica: When a word’s on the tip of your tongue -- BBCFutrue (09 February 2016)
  
  
• Ancient Roman Brooch Contains 'Lovely' Palindrome -- LiveScience (10 February 2016)
  
  
• Semantically Speaking: Does Meaning Structure Unite Languages? -- ScienceDaily (01 February 2016)
  
  
• Beyond 'he' and 'she': The rise of non-binary pronouns -- BBCNews (07 December 2015)
  
  
• What the [beep]? Infants Link New Communicative Signals to Meaning -- ScienceDaily (02 November 2015)
  
  
• In a Turkish Village, a Conversation With Whistles, Not Words -- NPR (26 September 2015)
  
  
• The Art Behind the Perfect Pause -- ScienceNordic (25 September 2015)
  
  
• Scots 'have 421 words' for snow -- BBC News (23 September 2015)
  
  
• Finding Iconicity in Spoken Languages -- ScienceDaily (09 September 2015)
  
  
• Explore This Map of 13 Centuries Worth of English Metaphors -- Smithsonian (15 July 2015)
  
  
• 'Yes' And 'No' Are Common to Every Language, But They Mean Different Things -- Science 2.0 (22 June 2015)
  
  
• The mathematics behind Internet virality ["go viral"] -- Davide Castelvecchi, Nature (05 March 2015)
  
  
• Quality of Words, Not Quantity, Is Crucial to Language Skills, Study Finds -- New York Times (17 October2014)
  
  
• Mental Imagery Gives Language Meaning -- New Scientist (30 October 2012)
  
  
• Language Use Is Simpler Than Previously Thought, Finds Cornell Study -- EurekAlert (25 September 2012)
  
  
• Mash-Up Aids Translation of Obscure Languages -- NewScientist (28 March 2012)

• is the most difficult aspect to investigate
  
  
  • psycholinguistics
    
    
• meanings are not as fixed as syntax and morphemes
  • “head” of state
  • “head” of person
  • “head” of a nail
  • “head” of a street
  • “head” of a class
  • “head” of a glass of beer
  • “let’s ‘head’ out of here”
  • “head” for sailors
  • “Let’s ‘head’ north.”
  • “Head” strong
  • “’Heads’ up the boss is arriving!”
  • “Headway”
  • Newspaper “Heading” and “Headline”
  • “Heading” south by southeast
  • “Head” of the family
  • “Head” start
  • “’Head’ ‘em out.”
  • “Headwind”
  • “’Head’ ‘em off at the pass!”
  • “Heading”
  • “Head” a committee
  • “Tiger Woods is “ahead”
  • “Headlight”
  • “The pimple came to a ‘head.’”
  • “Headquarters”
  • A “doubleheader
  • “Headlong”
  • “Headliner” (show biz)
  • “Headhunter” (a job)
  • “Head” hunter (does a job)
  • Getting “ahead”
    
    
• meanings change over time

• A Way With Words -- Martha Barnette and Grant Barrett
  
  
• Cracking the code of machine translation -- NewScientist (20 June 2011)
  
  
• How words get the message across -- NatureNews (25 January 2011)
  
  
• Robots develop language to 'talk' to each other -- BBC News (24 May 2011)