Semantics

Measuring Meaning: The Osgood Semantic Differential

Can you rate a concept like "freedom" on a scale from strong to weak? The Osgood Semantic Differential is a…

4 months ago

The Most Beautiful Word in Portuguese (It’s Not Love)

While 'amor' (love) is a beautiful word, the true soul of the Portuguese language is captured by the untranslatable concept…

4 months ago

The Limits of Truth: What Are Vague Predicates?

When does a 'heap' of sand stop being a heap after you remove one grain at a time? This is…

5 months ago

The Shape of a Word: Intro to Word Embeddings

How does a computer understand that "king" is to "queen" as "man" is to "woman"? We dive into the magic…

5 months ago

What Are Semantic Primes?

Have you ever tried to define a simple word like 'want' without using a synonym? The theory of Semantic Primes…

5 months ago

The Grammar of Certainty: Mood vs. Modality

What's the real difference between "He might be late" and "He could be late"? The answer lies in two parallel…

5 months ago

From Insult to Honor: The Journey of Amelioration

While many words degrade, some do the opposite in a process called amelioration. This post explores the linguistic glow-up of…

5 months ago

The Flavor Lexicon: Why Taste Is So Hard to Describe

Ever struggled to describe a complex flavor, resorting to 'it's kind of... earthy'? This isn't a personal failing, but a…

5 months ago

How to Own Without ‘Have’: The Be-Languages

In languages like English, you 'have' a book. But in Russian, Irish, or Turkish, you would say "to me there…

5 months ago

The Universal Groan: Anatomy of a Dad Joke

The dad joke is a unique linguistic phenomenon where the intended reaction is not a laugh, but a groan. We'll…

5 months ago

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