Messages hidden behind the lips
What happens in our mind when we hear ambiguous words? Research in psycholinguistics shed light on the rhetorical devices used in poetry and alchemy.
Reverse speaking? C’est ouf!
Slang is an important way for social groups to stress their cultural identity. Also, some slangs can be used to convey secret information within a community, without outsiders understanding what they are talking about. How does this work? Here, we look at an example from French and try to understand how slang words are learned and used.
COVID-ification of language: Why people say rona instead of coronavirus
The coronavirus pandemic has changed our lives immensely. But it also transformed the way we speak. It brought to life new creative words like covidiot (someone who is foolishly reckless with respect to avoiding contracting or spreading COVID-19) and quarancation (a home-based substitute to a vacation abroad). But there are also more subtle innovations, which are no less fascinating.