"There even are places where English completely disappears. In America, they haven't used it for years!" So goes the lyric. But English is adaptable for special purposes.  Continue reading...

A funny thing about the word funny is how frequently we use it to fill out the context of what we're about to say.  Continue reading...

Joseph Stalin came to power 100 years ago this month. His modern heir, Vladimir Putin, is every bit as adept as his ideological mentor at weaponizing language.  Continue reading...

What's your go-to metaphor? Examination of corpora reveals that dreams have always been a basis of comparison but modern life gives us many more choices.  Continue reading...

We fit our speech to the circumstances we're in. Is there a basis for judgment when someone's preferred way of speaking is different from yours?  Continue reading...

What are the describable features of voices? How do we distinguish them, and more importantly, what language do we have for characterizing voices in a way that is meaningful to others?  Continue reading...