Linguistics

Mapping words to color

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

TikTok talk

Largely characterized as a Gen Z phenomenon, TikTok is a video-sharing app with more than 100 million active users in the U.S. alone—and it’s changing the way that we speak, says sociolinguist Nicole Holliday.

Kristina García

The intonation Black/biracial men use to speak about race

In a study of college-educated biracial men, ages 18 to 32, sociolinguist Nicole Holliday found that, when asked about race, this group frequently brought up law enforcement unprompted and discussed the subject using vocal tone more generally associated with white speakers.

Michele W. Berger

The influence and importance of language

Labels for what happened Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol were very different from those used to describe the Black Lives Matter movement or the 2020 election results. How much weight do individual words actually have? It depends on the context.

Michele W. Berger



In the News


The Conversation

Presidential pauses? What those ‘ums’ and ‘uhs’ really tell us about candidates for the White House

Mark Liberman of the School of Arts & Sciences says that Barack Obama used hesitation markers like “uh” and “um” roughly every 19 words during one interview. By comparison, he says, Donald Trump seldom uses those markers.

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AP News

Online, ‘unalive’ means death or suicide. Experts say it might help kids discuss those things

Andrea Beltrama of the School of Arts & Sciences explains language has always evolved, new words have always popped up, and these shifts are known as a “lexical innovation.”

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Philadelphia Inquirer

Philadelphia accent turns water to wooder. Researchers try to explain why

William Labov of the School of Arts & Sciences co-authored a 2013 paper that examined Northern influences on the Philadelphia dialect.

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Al Día

Being bilingual and Latinx in higher education

Nelson Flores of the Graduate School of Education explores the challenges faced by bilingual Latinx students in the United States.

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The Guardian

Are you a busybody, a hunter, or a dancer? A new book about curiosity reveals all

Dani S. Bassett of the School of Arts & Sciences speaks on their new book, “Curious Minds: The Power of Connection,” co-authored with identical twin Perry Zurn, which investigates the foundations of curiosity.

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Voice of America

The ‘rez accent’: Native Americans are making English their own

William Labov of the School of Arts & Sciences notes that while some Native American accents are fading, others are growing stronger.

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