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News Stories relating to "words"

Internet Catches Criminals With Words

Friday, January 11, 2013
Covert agencies--as well as corporations--are searching email files for words and phrases that may reveal incipient (or ongoing) criminal activity. The 911 terrorists knew this, which is why they emailed one another in code.
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Why We Like to Brag

Thursday, August 9, 2012
We may not want to admit it (even to ourselves), but talking about ourselves gives us a "high." About 40% of everyday speech is devoted to telling others about what we feel or think, because it triggers the same parts of the brain as food and money. This is one of the secrets of being popular: Ask other people questions about themselves...
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Bilinguals are Smarter

Thursday, April 19, 2012
If you speak two or more languages, it's not just handy for traveling, it actually makes you smarter.

In the March 18th edition of the New York Times, Yudhijit Battacharjee writes: "There is ample evidence that in a...
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What the FIRST Language Sounded Like

Monday, November 28, 2011
Where do languages come from? Many linguists think that all human languages came from a single one that was spoken in East Africa around 50,000 years ago. But how would it have sounded--would it...
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Your Language Gives You Away

Friday, November 4, 2011
Using computerized text analysis, scientists are able to help police identify psychopathic murderers by analyzing the word choices they use when talking about their crimes. Researcher Jeff Hancock found that "the words of these criminals match their...
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You Can't Hide: The Words You Choose Reveal the Truth

Thursday, October 20, 2011
The words people use are like fingerprints that can reveal their relationships, honesty, or their status in a group. Scientists are using linguistic software to analyze pronouns, articles, prepositions and a handful of other small...
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Words

Wednesday, January 26, 2011
We've talked about the kind of language your computer uses, but what about the words that humans use? Google has created a huge database, consisting of 500 billion words, using over five million digitized books that are available to the public for free downloads,...
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What Do Words Really Mean?

Monday, February 1, 2010

After Obama's State of the Union speech, in which he emphasized jobs, it's interesting to reflect on how the choice of words affects politics. It turns out that the various terms used to describe the very same proposals and policies can influence whether or not voters support them in the future. But some wordless emotional expressions are the...

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Word Power

Friday, May 15, 2009

We recently wrote that verbs are the parts of speech that become extinct the most quickly. Now we've learned that if you want to perform at your peak, at school or on the job, you should carefully consider how you discuss your past actions. Also, why are some words considered attractive while their synonyms are thought of as repugnant? And...

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What's in a Name?

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

We've talked about the power of words. Now we want to tell you about the power of names?why people with some names succeed, while people with other names fail.

In LiveScience.com, Andrea Thompson quotes researcher Joseph Simmons as saying, "People tend to gravitate toward life outcomes that resemble their names. So for example, we know...

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Bad Monogram? No, You're Not Destined to Die Young

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Newswise - When you read your initials from left to right, do they form a word? If they do, is it a unattractive word like PIG or ZIT? Or is it an attractive word, like ACE, WOW or JOY? Scientists have seriously researched nominative determinism (and discovered that, for instance, people with the last name of "Doctor" actually...

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New Words, Much Needed

Wednesday, January 15, 2003

The Washington Post publishes a yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply new meanings for old words and create new ones. Some of these ought to become part of our vocabularies for 2003! Keep reading to find out this year's winning entries.

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