The Syntax of Your File System
Did you know that every time you save a file, you're using a form of language? Your computer's folder structure is a surprisingly complex grammatical system, complete with its own…
Syntax
The Inuktitut “Word-Sentences”
Imagine a language where "I don't hear very well" isn't a sentence, but a single, perfectly grammatical word. Welcome to the fascinating world of Inuktitut, a polysynthetic language that challenges…
The Sentence That Never Ends
Have you ever heard the nursery rhyme about the house that Jack built, where each line adds a new layer to the story? This fascinating, never-ending quality of language has…
The Sentence That Never Ends
Have you ever heard the nursery rhyme about the house that Jack built, where each line adds a new layer to the story? This fascinating, never-ending quality of language has…
The Un-Passive Voice: The Antipassive Construction
You know the passive voice, but have you ever heard of its bizarre mirror image? The antipassive construction, found in many of the world's ergative languages, flips grammar on its…
The Fossilized Question: Grammaticalization of Verbs
When you ask, "Do you speak English?", what is the word 'do' really doing? This seemingly simple word is actually a linguistic fossil, the ghost of a once-mighty action verb.…
The A-Not-A Question Structure
Many languages, like Mandarin Chinese, form yes-no questions without words for "yes" or "no." Instead, they use the ingenious "A-not-A" structure, which poses a question by presenting both the positive…
AI’s Language Puzzle: Who Has the Telescope?
Consider the classic riddle: "I saw a man on a hill with a telescope." This simple sentence, which can mean two very different things, perfectly illustrates syntactic ambiguity. It's a…
A Grammar of Whalesong: The Humpback’s Dialect
Beyond the familiar sounds of the ocean lies a complex world of communication, where humpback whales sing in distinct, evolving dialects. Discover the incredible story of how a single "hit…
The Final Word: Verb Chaining in Papuan Languages
Imagine a sentence that lists a dozen actions before revealing the main verb at the very end. This is the world of verb chaining, a fascinating feature of Papuan languages…
The Amazon’s Verbal Art: The World of Hixkaryana
Journey to the Amazon basin to explore Hixkaryana, one of the few confirmed languages with a default Object-Verb-Subject (OVS) word order. This "Yoda-like" grammar, where "The jaguar ate the man"…
The Sentence as a River: What is Information Structure?
This isn't just about grammar; it's about information structure, the art of packaging 'old' and 'new' information to guide your reader. By understanding how word order and stress create a…
The Sentence That Attacks Itself: Center-Embedding
The sentence "The rat the cat the dog chased ate died" is perfectly grammatical, yet it feels like a cognitive car crash. This baffling construction is an example of center-embedding,…
More Than a Suffix: The World of Clitics
What do 'll in "we'll" and 's in "cat's" have in common? They are cliticsβphonologically weak words that can't stand alone and must attach to a host. This post explores…
The Double Negatives of Afrikaans
Ever heard an Afrikaans speaker say "Ek praat nie Afrikaans nie" and wondered about that extra "nie"? This seemingly redundant word is actually a grammatical cornerstone known as the double…
The Case of the Missing ‘Is’ in Russian
In Russian, "My brother is a doctor" becomes "ΠΠΎΠΉ Π±ΡΠ°Ρ β Π²ΡΠ°Ρ" (My brother β doctor). This isn't a mistake or slang; it's a fundamental feature of the language rooted…
Forgetting the Subject: The Case of Pro-Drop in Italian
Ever wonder why an Italian speaker says "Vado al cinema" instead of "Io vado al cinema"? This linguistic magic trick is called "pro-drop", a feature where rich verb endings allow…
Why Do Some Languages Use Postpositions?
Ever wondered why Japanese speakers say "box in" instead of "in the box"? This seemingly small difference is no accident; it reveals a deep and consistent pattern in a language's…
Who Did What? Case vs. Word Order
Ever wonder why you can't scramble an English sentence, but you can in languages like Latin or Russian? This analysis dives into the two core strategies languages use to convey…
Building Sentences Backwards: The Verb-Final World
Ever felt like you're waiting for the punchline of a sentence? In languages like Japanese, German, and Hindi, that's the daily reality. We explore the fascinating world of Subject-Object-Verb (SOV)…