Why We Love to Learn Klingon: The Art of Constructed Languages
Constructed languages like Klingon excite us because they enable us to actively participate in foreign or "alien" cultures.
Can an Emoji Ever Be a Word?
You might be forgiven for thinking that the merry band of lexicographers at Oxford Dictionaries were trolling us ...
Mele Kalikimaka! How To Say “Merry Christmas” In Hawaiian
Translating "Merry Christmas" into Hawaiian offers insight into the language's modest inventory of consonants.
Gender Disparity and Book Reviews: the VIDA Count
The organization VIDA: Women in Literary Arts was launched in 2009 to document gender disparity in book reviews.
The Re-Release of a Classic
A new American edition of Ronald Blythe's Akenfield reminds us why it became one of the founding texts of oral history.
It Turns Out Ordinary Life is Full of Poetry (Metaphorically Speaking)
The metaphor isn't just a literary device; it informs our conceptual understanding of language and the world.
The Birth of Fashion Magazines
Fashion magazines, which first emerged in the 19th century, bridged notions of femininity with an increasingly consumerist society.
When King Lear Was a Rom-Com
The King Lear people saw for almost two centuries was very different from Shakespeare's.