"Joke exchanges are carried on in deadly earnest, like a verbal duel-mouth-to-mouth combat. Bang, bang: you’re (lingui…"

"I believe that any form of writing exercise is good for you. I also believe that any form of tuition which helps deve…"

"The story of the English writing system is so intriguing, and the histories behind individual words so fascinating, t…"

"The question “Why do we use language?” seems hardly to require an answer. But, as is often the way with linguistic qu…"

"Language may not determine the way we think, but it does influence the way we perceive and remember, and it affects t…"

"The subject matter ranges from subtle forms of intellectual sarcasm and humor to the crudest possible attacks on a pe…"

"The aim of linguistics is to go beyond the study of individual languages to determine what the universal properties o…"

"Pragmatics studies the factors that govern our choice of language in social interaction and the effects of our choice…"

"The structural properties of the language are many and complex, but at least they are finite and fairly easy to ident…"

"There is little scientific data on the point, but evidently people do speak to themselves."