When anthropologist Renato Rosaldo went to live with a Philippine tribe that was known for beheading people, he couldn't grasp the emotion that fueled this violence. Then his wife suddenly died.
For a new word to enter the dictionary, it must meet three criteria: widespread use, sustained use and meaningful use. Merriam-Webster lexicographer Kory Stamper explains the process in Word by Word.
Wielding his handy "apostrophiser," this "Banksy of punctuation" stalks the streets of Bristol at night, reclaiming the British city's street signs for good — one corrected apostrophe at a time.
An appeals court dispute between a Maine dairy company and its delivery drivers came down to a single punctuation mark — or rather, the lack of it. Count it a win for the controversial comma.
What are those dog ears doing on my heart? Ancient anatomists named body parts after things they resembled in real life. So you've got a rooster comb in your skull and a flute in your leg.
Despite skepticism of Trump — and losing the popular vote — his supporters say it's time to move on and trust the president-elect to figure things out. They're willing to give him a very long leash.
Donald Trump isn't the first politician to use coarse language, but linguist Geoff Nunberg says the 2005 Access Hollywood tape of him discussing women's genitalia wasn't like other live-mic incidents.
Being surrounded by noisy conversations, radio or TV can make it harder for toddlers to learn new words, researchers say. Quieter conversations didn't affect the learning process.
Brain maps constructed by MRI show that language meaning is distributed throughout the brain's outer layer. And it turns out that different people organize language in similar ways.
The premise of #NPRreads is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers from our newsroom share the pieces that have kept them reading and each weekend, we highlight some of the best stories.
Fans and foes want the news media to label the armed individuals who are occupying part of a national wildlife refuge. NPR is trying to describe, rather than characterize. Here's our thinking.
Your online habits leave a constant digital trail. What does it say about the real you? I gave the world's most famous computer keys to my online life to see what it could tell me, about me.
For years, it's been NPR's style to say that Myanmar is "also known as Burma" at the start of reports about that nation. We don't think that's necessary anymore.
People speak very differently depending on where they live, and the climate and environment might have something to do with that. Crisp English consonants don't carry well in the rain forest.
One-third of farmworkers in California speak indigenous languages from southern Mexico. Many don't speak Spanish or English, a situation that poses challenges for health care providers.
Does it grate on your ears if you're offered a "free gift?" Would you have a "sudden impulse" to correct that grammar? Pleonasms have unnecessary, superfluous words. Tell us about the ones you hear.
Along with the words and phrases that still ring out 239 years later are less noticed turns of phrase. They say a lot about the messages Thomas Jefferson and the other founding fathers wanted to send.
A hundred years ago, a Polish physician created a language that anyone could learn easily. The hope was to bring the world closer together. Today Esperanto speakers say it's helpful during travel.
Several thousand people sent NPR examples of their favorite eggcorns — words or phrases that are mistakenly used but still make some sense. We read them all and picked some of the best.
An eggcorn is a word or phrase that isn't right, but makes some sense. It's among more than 1,700 words Merriam-Webster just added to its dictionary. What are your favorite eggcorns?
It can be hard to decipher what a non-native speaker is saying. But that might not always be a bad thing when it comes to understanding or remembering, scientists say.
