by Christine Kenneally BH | Jun 4, 2010 | Brain, Consciousness, First human..., Languages
Is a "wine-dark sea" incredibly poetic or just odd? Did the ancients see in black and white? New Scientist.
by Christine Kenneally BH | Oct 14, 2008 | Languages
In the first nine pages of Henry Hitchings' The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English, words can see. (They are "witnesses.") They are containers (with fossils in them). Language is a combination of earth and artifact. (It allows us to do...
by Christine Kenneally BH | Apr 12, 2008 | Birds, Bonobos, Brain, Crows, Dogs, Languages, The First Word
Ever since Galileo argued that the sun was the center of the solar system, the idea of Earth as the universal hub has been the classic example of scientific arrogance. It’s certainly a foolproof example of the way humans consider themselves the rule by which...
by Christine Kenneally BH | Mar 1, 2008 | Languages
The first and most intimate affiliations we have are the genetic ties we share with our family and the language we speak. In the first case, the links are pretty straightforward. Without exception, everyone is created by two parents, who each had two parents, who...
by Christine Kenneally BH | Jul 19, 2007 | Bilinguals, Languages
Scientist argue about whether speaking in a second language unconsciously invokes the first. Now UK researchers have shown that reading or hearing words in a second language creates the same brain activity for bilinguals that reading the word in their native languages...
by Christine Kenneally BH | Jul 16, 2007 | Accents, Infants, Languages
The tendency to favor your own social group over others emerges before you’ve learned anything about current disputes or historical conflict, before you’ve even learned how to talk. Children show strong early preferences for people speaking their native...
