language

Some of this topic has been covered elsewhere, so forgive me if I’m repetitive, but I feel the need to explain my love for grammar. If my fellow moderators want to merge this anywhere, please feel free. It’s not that I find grammar useful, although I do, but that I actually love the subject...

Here's a fun and useful link that one of my children sent me. Test your own language skills, in English that is. I made 45, briefly. http://www.freerice.com/faq.html

Has anyone done any serious research into what exactly cats are saying? I swear my cat is trying to have a serious discussion with me, but the language barrier is getting in the way.:D

Where I live, they've been struggling mightily in the major cities to figure out why it is the public schools here are such disasters. They've done studies, called in outside "experts," gone to the parents, and every governor and city mayor for at least the past decade and a half has called...

Anyone tried these programs for learning languages? Are they as effective as advertised? From what I read they don't go into grammars, so I suppose I would need supplement from elsewhere if I want to advance to a higher level. Could those programs offer at least a head start in learning a new...

I have not been a member of this forum for long, but have noticed that many threads quickly resort to focusing on the definition or meaning of a word or term posted, often to the detriment of the original intent of the OP. I realize that in many cases clear definition is necessary, as the...

The changes to Rule 8 have introduced a new root word which will automatically be censored. This word is not a swear word as commonly defined, but a word denoting a fairly mild, legal and consensual sexual act. It's not de-facto offensive, it can't be used as an insult or curse. Obviously, I...

I think,I may be wrong though,this forum is the place to post this question.Can any of my friends give me informations on the origin of the following English words-'Cat' & 'Moon'? Regards to all.

Just found this article on primates understanding spoken English.

I'm an athiest. I don't believe there's a god. However, I have often used religious language. For example: "I can only pray he gets better" pray=hope "god only knows" nobody really knows "god damn it" simple swear I suppose I've used this language because I grew up in a society that uses...

...but why not teach people here in the USA to USE the language they speak? Go talk to someone who teaches English at a Uni or college about the writing skills of the freshmen. Have some tea ready to help calm their nerves when they get done shuddering, perhaps with a healthy splash of brandy...

be a word that, if not vulgar, should be? Nothing political, just the word itself. Like a plural version of a male body part. Just thinking...

Any speech / language pathologists or child development people out there? I'm poking around on one of my foibles - language acquisition (currently doing some thinking about cultural interpretations of books, in particular two versions of the same children's book - one American English, the...

For those of you who don’t know me (hello) I work in Italy teaching English as a foreign language and now that I’m good enough at the basics that I can play with the form a bit, I’ve started introducing skeptical themes into my lessons. Sometimes the material demands it, for example...

Thinking about padding the ol resume a little but not sure how to proceed......Java? ASP? .NET? VB/Javascript? What would you suggest for someone who used to be a programmer a zillion years ago but also hasn't done any "real" programming in a long time and prefers to avoid the more "hard...

If you look back in time far enough, you will find people speaking the same language and living not far from each other, but using different systems of weights and measures. Given the need to measure things, it would not have been practical to wait until a broadly accepted standard was agreed...

I had a separate issue with this column, and one that is neither completely the fault of Randi nor Mary, the reader reporting this incident, but illustrates a couple of important misperceptions about psychiatric care and trying to make armchair diagnoses without having the full picture. It was...

I realized as I was doing my Japanese homework that it wasn't too hard. This was interesting as when I try to speak, I constantly find myself tripped up, off on a tangent, or my brain moving faster than my mouth, causing me to appear to have completely shifted gears, but my writing doesn't...

I really want to hear from the German skeptics here....what do you think of the controversy over the "new rules" instituted a few years back eliminating the B (double s) and wreaking all sorts of havoc with tried and true grammar and spelling? Now that the deadline is coming up and it's time to...

The "one common form of the word" thread made me reflect on a topic I used to have great fun with. We all know that priests get defrocked and lawyers get disbarred. What happens in other professions when they get kicked out? A few suggestions. Feel free to add. Secretaries get defiled. Math...

Warning: This is a language wankers' thread. If you're the sort person who can't stand seeing people tiredly whinge about how the English language is being "raped", you'll hate this thread. Here are some minor language abuses that really hack me off. If you're really bored, you can search my...

I am quite seriously attempting to revive the middle english pronoun thou. After all it is quite usefull. It allows you to quite specifically refer to a single person in the second person, instead of the plural you. It fell out of use as it came to become a derogatory term. The forms are...

I need some help with this: Wittgenstein wrote, "individual words are to refer to what can only be known to the person speaking; to his immediate sensations" (Philo. Invest.-- Sec. 243). Does Wittgenstein think a private language exists, that is it is a language that cannot be understood by...