Pragmatics

Echolalia: The Function of Repetition

Echolalia, the involuntary repetition of another person's words, has long been misunderstood as a barrier to communication. However, through the…

5 days ago

Paralipsis: The Rhetoric of Mentioning by Ignoring

Paralipsis is the ancient rhetorical art of emphasizing a subject by significantly pretending to pass over it—exemplified by phrases like,…

5 days ago

Tag Questions: The Grammar of Uncertainty

Explore the hidden complexity of tag questions, those little end-of-sentence checks like "isn't it?" or "don't you?" This article dives…

5 days ago

Paralinguistics: Meaning Beyond Words

Words provide the data, but paralinguistics provide the manual on how to interpret them. This article explores how volume, pitch,…

6 days ago

Bridge Bidding: A Syntactic Card Game

Contract Bridge is more than a game of strategy; it is a complex linguistic exercise involving a rigid syntax and…

6 days ago

Phatic Communion: The Art of Meaningless Talk

Why do we ask "How are you?" when we rarely expect an honest answer? This blog post explores Bronisław Malinowski's…

1 week ago

Dysphemism: The Weaponization of Language

While euphemisms sugarcoat reality, dysphemisms are the linguistic weaponization of language, designed to downgrade, insult, or shock. From calling a…

1 week ago

Autohyponymy: The Word Inside

Can a word be a specific type of itself? This article introduces autohyponymy, a fascinating linguistic quirk where words like…

2 months ago

High vs. Low-Context Cultures

Ever felt your directness was seen as rudeness, or that someone's polite "maybe" was actually a firm "no"? This communication…

2 months ago

The Grammar of a Bluff: Linguistics at the Poker Table

Beyond the cards and chips, the poker table is a battlefield of language where every action is a speech act.…

3 months ago

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