Language Readings

Evidence Rebuts Chomsky’s Theory of Language LearningMuch of Noam Chomsky’s revolution in linguistics—including its account of the way we learn languages—is being overturned

What did Sapir mean when he said "all grammars leak"?Answer (1 of 3): I wrote this: I’m pretty sure Sapir meant by “grammar” a set of rules concocted by linguists to describe a natural language. And what he meant by the statement is that we never get it exactly right. But then I went and looked up where he said it. It’s in a 1921 paper titled “An...

"All grammars leak": How modern use and misuse are changing the English languageAnthropologist Edward Sapir once wrote, “Unfortunately, or luckily, no language is tyrannically consistent. All grammars leak.” Sapir was talking about the irregularities of language. For me, this leakiness is especially evident in what I think of as doppelgrammar words.

Interactive: Listen to the best sayings in 25 different languagesWe asked people from around the world to share popular expressions in their mother tongue.

How philosophy’s obsession with language unravelled | Aeon EssaysAnalytic and continental philosophers were once united in their obsession with language. But now new questions have arisen

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