Slowed speech may indicate cognitive decline more accurately than forgetting words: tomertu/Shutterstock Can you pass me the whatchamacallit? It’s right over there next to the thingamajig. Many of us will experience “lethologica”, or difficulty finding words, in everyday life. And it usually becomes more prominent with age. Frequent difficulty finding the right word can signal …
How linguists are unlocking the meanings of Shakespeare’s words using numbers: Rose Marinelli/Shutterstock Today it would seem odd to describe a flower with the word “bastard” – why apply a term of personal abuse to a flower? But in Shakespeare’s time, “bastard” was a technical term describing certain plants. Similarly, associating the word “bad” with …
Grenfell: in the words of survivors – new play is an angry demand for accountability: The National Theatre’s new play, Grenfell: in the words of survivors, written by Gillian Slovo and directed by Phyllida Lloyd and Anthony Simpson-Pike, aims to offer a voice to survivors of the fire. This is a “verbatim play”. Often focused …
Tackling sexual misconduct in the NHS will require education and empowerment – not just words: M_Agency/Shutterstock Many were shocked by the recent revelation that more than 35,000 incidents of sexual misconduct, ranging from abusive remarks to rape, occurred in the NHS over the five years to 2022. Nearly 21,000 incidents involved patients abusing staff, almost …
Explosive revelations about South Africa’s power utility: why new electricity minister should heed the words of former Eskom CEO: The entrance to South Africa's coal-fired Tutuka power plant operated by Eskom. Marco LongarI/AFP via Getty Images A month ago South Africans heard some hard truths about the state of the power utility, Eskom, from the …
Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons play – how silence and body language can communicate as much as words: When we talk to each other, there’s what we say out loud, what we wish we could say, and what we’re saying without saying anything at all. The words we use and how we use them were …
Swear words: we studied speakers of languages from Hindi to Hungarian to find out why they sound the way they do: SpeedKingz/Shutterstock “Skalk,” I cursed in Kelvak. It’s my favourite language to curse in – there is nothing as satisfying as the harsh consonants and default imperatives of the primary Kelvaki language. This quote is …
The power of swearing: how obscene words influence your mind, body and relationships: Fida Olga/Shutterstock Swearing was long dismissed as a topic of serious research because it was assumed to be simply a sign of aggression, weak language proficiency or even low intelligence. We now have quite a lot of evidence that challenges this view, …
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Rail strikes: words used to describe unions misrepresent the truth about how they work: The UK could be facing a summer of strikes, but inaccurate language affects public understanding of how unions work. Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock Public discussion of pickets, politics and even profile pictures, have been a daily occurrence this week for Mick Lynch, the general …
Inside a reintegration camp for Colombia’s ex-guerrilla fighters: ‘Words of reconciliation are our only weapons now’: Olmedo Vega spent 35 years as a FARC guerrilla commander before moving to the Agua Bonita demobilisation camp. Photograph: Juan Pablo Valderrama, Author provided The election of Iván Duque four years ago was a threat for us. But we …
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Six English words borrowed from the Romany language: Tavarius/Shutterstock Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities have been part of the UK’s regional populations for centuries. Roma communities are documented to have migrated to the UK during the early 15th century and evidence is found among a variety of official legal documentation and formal correspondence. As part …
Ukraine recap: why words are important – and truth must triumph over propaganda: It’s eight weeks since the Russian military rolled across the border into Ukraine, telling the world that this was just a “special military operation” aiming to free an oppressed people from what Vladimir Putin called a “gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis”. …
Why people hate or love the sound of certain words: funbutterfly/Shutterstock During the pandemic, many of us have felt our stress levels rise every time we hear the word “virus”. But few people realise that just the sound of the word virus alone is likely to raise the blood pressure — and would have done …
Words about mental health need to align with people’s understanding of well being: Flourishing as a concept involves what it means to live a good life. Sunshine Seeds/Shutterstock In South Africa, English is only the sixth most common language spoken within households. But it’s dominant outside the home, including health and medical contexts. Communicating information …
Haemorrhaging: why some words are so easy to mispronounce (and why that could be a good thing): In Prime Minister’s Questions on January 19 the SNP leader, Ian Blackford, mispronounced the word haemorrhaging as “hae-ma-ge-ring” instead of “hae-ma-re-ging”. To be fair to Blackford, this is actually a surprisingly common slip of the tongue and his …
Five life-affirming words we should bring back into use: The Oxford English Dictionary tries to include all words in English (particularly British and American English) from 1200 onwards. dollar gill | unsplash, FAL Lexicographer and TV personality Susie Dent recently embarked on a curious, self-appointed mission. She is determined to bring the word “respair”, last …