Linguistics

The acceptable use of a singular “they” pronoun made official a linguistic trend already in use for centuries. People who are not represented by binary pronouns say it’s a helpful step, but a small one.

Tina Rodia ・March 22, 2023

Linguist Gareth Roberts of the School of Arts & Sciences uses “alien” languages and interactive games to show how social pressures shape our communication.

Marilyn Perkins ・January 18, 2023

By analyzing Facebook posts, Penn researchers found that words associated with depression are often tied to emotions, whereas those associated with loneliness are linked to cognition.

Marilyn Perkins ・October 26, 2022

This summer, rising second-years Audrey Keener and Nicholas Eiffert worked in the lab of Penn linguist Jianjing Kuang studying vowel articulation in song, running an in-person experiment and built a corpus of classical recordings by famous singers.

Michele W. Berger ・August 19, 2022

The GSE master’s student from Uganda taught the first ever course on this language in the spring of 2022. This fall the program continues with another intro class, followed by an advanced class next spring.

Michele W. Berger ・August 17, 2022

The open-access, online-only Glossa Psycholinguistics recently published its inaugural issue after more than two years of effort from Penn linguist Florian Schwarz and colleagues around the world.

Michele W. Berger ・May 12, 2022

Research from postdoc Lacey Wade confirmed this idea, what she calls expectation-driven convergence, in a controlled experiment for the first time. The work reveals just how much the subconscious factors into the way people speak.

Michele W. Berger ・April 5, 2022

Since the 1980s, linguist Eugene Buckley has studied this Native American language, now spoken by just a dozen or so people in northern California. In collaboration with members and descendants of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians, he’s built a database of Kashaya words, sounds, and stories.

Michele W. Berger ・November 5, 2021

Season three of the School of Arts & Sciences podcast explores scientific ideas that get big reactions.

From OMNIA ・November 1, 2021

Researchers led by postdoc Colin Twomey and professor Joshua Plotkin developed an algorithm that can infer the communicative needs different linguistic communities place on colors.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・September 23, 2021