First, we establish that brain responses to words are modulated by ubiquitous predictions. Next, we disentangle model-based predictions into distinct dimensions, revealing dissociable neural signatures of predictions about syntactic category (parts of speech), phonemes, and semantics. Finally, we show that high-level (word) predictions inform low-level (phoneme) predictions, supporting hierarchical predictive processing. Together, these results underscore the ubiquity of prediction in language processing, showing that the brain spontaneously predicts upcoming language at multiple levels of abstraction.

Using language model-based word sense induction methods, we identify different senses of each word, and then model the prevalence of each of these word senses as a function of time and speaker age. We find that most words show a small but statistically significant effect of speaker age; across almost 140 y of Congress, older speakers typically take longer than younger speakers to follow changes in word usage, but nevertheless do so within a few years.

Old people do adopt new terminology.

With the emergence of literacy as part of human cultural evolution, new kinds of relations and activities formed that have created structures of participation in larger and more distant organizations, relying on accumulating knowledge and mediated through genre-shaped texts. It is for these activity contexts that individuals must produce texts, mobilizing the resources of language, and it is within these contexts that the texts will have their effect.

This second, companion volume to A Rhetoric of Literate Action supplies the theoretical understanding of what written language is and does which underlies that volume’s practical advice. But far from being a mere appendix, this survey of psycho-social theories of media and culture serves well as a compelling introduction to the theory of language in general and its place in society.

Although Jeantel, a close friend of Trayvon Martin, was an ear-witness (by cell phone) to all but the final minutes of Zimmerman’s interaction with Trayvon, and testified for nearly six hours about it, her testimony was disregarded in jury deliberations. Through a linguistic analysis of Jeantel’s speech, comments from a juror, and a broader contextualization of stigmatized speech forms and linguistic styles, we argue that the lack of acknowledgment of dialectal variation has harmful social and legal consequences for speakers of stigmatized dialects.

we found both positive and negative cultural biases as well as a general preference for languages perceived as familiar, confirming the crucial role of sociolinguistic factors and the exposure effect. Beyond that, however, there was little agreement between listeners about what languages or phonetic features they found attractive.

But there did appear to be some agreement that Chechen is the ugliest language.

individuals’ facial appearance develops over time to resemble the social stereotypes associated with given names.

We found that Russian speakers were faster to discriminate two colors when they fell into different linguistic categories in Russian than when they were from the same linguistic category. Moreover, this category advantage was eliminated by a verbal, but not a spatial, dual task.

These results demonstrate that (i) categories in language affect performance on simple perceptual color tasks and (ii) the effect of language is online (and can be disrupted by verbal interference).

Whenever I say “mental content” in English, the Arabic word is maʿnā, and whenever I say “accurate,” “accuracy,” or “accurately” in English, the Arabic word is ḥaqīqah.

An exploration of medieval, Arabic philosophy of language and in particular their attempts to explain the “miracle” of poetry.

First, a primary form of intersubjectivity was necessary for language to have begun evolving in our species in the first place. Second, language then transformed the nature of our intersubjectivity, through its defining properties of inferentially articulated description, self-reflexivity, and productive grammatical flexibility. Social accountability—the bedrock of society—is grounded in this linguistically transformed and enhanced kind of intersubjectivity.

For an important task of the Zen philosopher is to police the border between the factual and the non-factual, between the sayable and the non-sayable, between the contingent and the necessary. But this task cannot be reduced to just policing. The Zen master must somehow point the disciple to the realm of the non-sayable while at the same time keeping him or her firmly anchored in the sayable.

Looking at Wittgenstein’s Tractatus logico-philosophicus and Philosophical Investigations, this article compares the philosopher’s analysis of language to that of Zen Buddhism, particularly “koan Zen.” The author begins by highlighting the seeming resemblance between Wittgenstein’s idea of only saying “what can be said” and Zen’s attempts to use words to point to what is beyond words. Much of the remaining article compares Wittenstein’s methodology with Zen’s usage of koans.

The same Indo-European metaphor for abusing paternal property is traceable in the Middle Iranian and Indic tradition, ranging from Vedic to (Buddhist) Sanskrit dāyāda-.

This article focuses on the philology of the Sanskrit term dāyāda and its relation to the Buddhist story of Ajātaśatru. Dāyāda is a Sanskrit and Pāli term usually translated as ‘heir’. For example, “kamma-dāyādo” is to be the heir of one’s actions.

This article argues there is a second interpretation of the term as eating (√ad) what is given (dāya), i.e., one eats the fruits of one’s karma. The study here focuses on how Indo-European metaphors inform this translation and understanding of the term, using various related languages, especially West Tocharian. 

Despite the Buddha’s teachings on the arbitrary nature of language, the commentarial and grammatical traditions developed a sophisticated theoretical framework to analyse, explicate and reinforce some of the key Buddhist doctrinal terms. Also, an elaborate classification system of different types of names was developed to show that the language of the Buddha was firmly grounded in the highest truth and that some terms were spontaneously arisen, even though such a concept—that words by themselves could arise spontaneously and directly embody ultimate truth—was quite foreign to their Founder.

But by fully understanding what is expressed
One does not misconceive the speaker.

Four translations of this sutta from John Ireland, Ajahn Geoff, SuttaFriends, and Bhante Sujato respectively showing how Pāḷi poetry can often be translated in various ways.

Ah poetry,
god of molting turkeys, save
my brother from the truck

thinkers developed the notion of a ‘concept’ in order to explain how it is that words are capable of applying to real objects, and how concepts can be used to capture elements of word meaning extending beyond reference to real objects. In particular, I will focus on the developments made by Phywa pa Chos kyi seṅ ge in the middle of the twelfth century, as well as on reactions to those developments by Sa skya Paṇḍita

abíní hoolzish
the low-moon horizon turquoise serenes pink-lit…

What over the gable end and high up under tangled cloud
that the raven might be saying to its tumble-soaring mate…

Embossed tattoos like small notes on sheet music.
Dots and lines, strands and strings

Millions of years of evolution has led to an incredibly complex communication system.

What it’s like to be a linguistic animal.

We need to turn towards the Earth rather than think so much about abstract, higher worlds. This is the world that has made us, and it’s a creative world. It’s truly an extraordinary place, and we haven’t given it enough credit I think, or appreciation.

… the trick that has helped me squint at the bleakness and see them more clearly is to admit, with every breath, that you have no idea what you are looking at.

Half a history of, and accessible meditation on the philosophy of, science and half memoir of the author’s grappling with depression, this pleasantly easy read captures something of “emptiness.” It shows how Buddhism still has much to add in the West’s ongoing struggle to reconcile its extremes of naive, Christian eternalism and cynical, “scientific” nihilism.

… the most truthful way of regarding illness — and the healthiest way of being ill — is one most purified of, most resistant to, metaphoric thinking

A classic and much-cited essay on the (mis)use of metaphors to describe disease.

Available online from the original publisher: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Years later, Sontag also wrote in the NYRB, this time on the metaphors of AIDS in a compelling post-script later published alongside the original essay.

After reading, consider these discussion questions about the essay.

The song goes on forever then it stops. Its basic idea is that time can be defeated for an hour if everyone breathes together, but songs are not made out of ideas

For a deeper historical look at this phenomenon, see Levman, 2017.

Yeah, we’re locked up in ideas
We like to label everything
Well, I’m just gonna do here
What I gotta do here
‘Cause I gotta keep myself free

A fun anthem on ignoring the haters, and on not taking words too seriously.