Clik here to view.
Gay Talk
According to the online British and World English Oxford Dictionaries, the word gayhas four different meanings assigned to it. Two of those meanings, the use of gay to mean ‘light-hearted and carefree’...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Accommodating across social borders
How do people on either side of the border accommodate to each other?It’s easy to see that language changes, but how do the changes happen? One key way is when we’re talking face to face with someone...
View ArticleClik here to view.
☺ Am I just emotional? ☹
The term ‘emoticon’ is a mixture of the words “emotion” and “icon” and refers to the graphic signs, such as the smiley face, which often accompany textual computer-mediated communication (CMC)....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clean teef or clean teeth?
Pronouncing words like tooth as toof or three as free is a well-known and long-established feature of Cockney English, but people all over Britain are now beginning to use ‘f’ for ‘th’, especially...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Language and gender on the internet
Millions of people around the world take part in large-scale group discussions on the internet. These discussions have been likened to very large-scale conversations. We might wonder, therefore,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Naughty?
tut tut? tsk tsk?We’re probably all used to hearing alveolar or dental clicks, when the tip of the tongue briefly meets the ridge just behind the top teeth. Usually this sound is thought to express...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Children acquiring verbs and gestures
do children use gestures before words to convey actions?Research has shown that young children use gesture to communicate before they produce their first words. Typically, children from around the age...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Jenny Cheshire Lecture in Sociolinguistics 2013
Professor Jennifer Coates: "The discursive production of everyday heterosexualities"Friday 7th June 2013, 6.30pm, Arts Two Lecture Theatre, Arts Two Building, Mile End Campus, Queen Mary, University of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I don't know
What does I don't know mean?The most frequent three-word phrase in both British and American spoken English turns out to be I don’t know, according to corpus research.Lynn E...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Switching languages = switching personalities?
Multilinguals often report feeling different depending on which language they are speaking. Learning to operate in a second or foreign language seems to have the ability to affect the behaviour of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Do men show their emotions?
There is a pervasive gender stereotype that men don’t – or can’t – express their feelings. To what extent does the stereotype reflect reality, though?Jonathan Charteris-Black and Clive Seale’s research...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What’s new, pussycat?
such a byootimis littlol kitteh! These few words are in Lolspeak, the language created by users of the website...
View ArticleClik here to view.
him/her, he/she, Ms/Miss…What do we use?
At times, the wealth of terms we have at our disposal to refer to someone can become confusing. For example, should we be saying chairman, chairperson, chairwoman or just chair? Which is correct and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘What did you see? I didn’t quite hair you...’
even toddlers can understand a foreign accent We all know how difficult it can be to understand somebody who is speaking in a different...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Quoting then and now
I was like “they’re coming at eleven o’clock “I said “they’re coming at eleven o’clock” Do you use BE LIKE to report what someone said? Thirty years ago few people had heard be like used this way. For...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Revisiting New York department stores
- excuse me, where are ladies's shoes?- fourth floor!Patrick-André Mather has recently replicated one of the all-time best known studies in sociolinguistics: William Labov’s classic New York City...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How far does language use reflect identity?
In an increasingly globalised and mobile world, migration is now just a way of life for many people. This has naturally led to more and more diverse settings for language contact and multilingualism....
View ArticleClik here to view.
To Split or to Not Split?: The Split Infinitive Past and Present
To be or not to be?ORTo be or to not be?There are so many opinions about how to ‘properly’ use language (just think of the debate that the word sconecan incite!). One grammatical structure that has...
View ArticlePlease help us to improve!
Teachers/lecturers, do you use the Linguistics Research Digest for teaching? Students, do you use the Linguistics Research Digest for learning about current research or for your coursework? Or maybe...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Do children hearing two languages acquire language at a slower rate?
It is often assumed that children who are exposed to two languages from birth will acquire language at a slower rate compared to children who only hear one language. But is there any evidence to...
View Article