30 Times Linguists Were Disappointed In People’s Knowledge Of Linguistics, As Shared In This Dedicated Online Group
As the famous Wu-Tang Clan once said: “Words rule everything around me.” Wait, I’ve got that wrong, what was it now… Oh, right, it was “cash". How could I forget!
But the same could definitely be applied to words. They’re the best tools we have to convey complex thoughts. And with language being as important as it is, it’s no surprise that sometimes it is wildly misunderstood or intentionally misused.
When it gets so bad that it’s funny, that’s when the Reddit community /r/badlinguistics comes in to collect.
More info: Reddit
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Ye Old Slang
“Please Stop Using It”
Am I seeing things? Am I certain this person is an idiot? Am I bold enough to make such an assertation? Yes. Yes, I am.
Apparently, English Is The Only Language In The World That Evolves Or Uses Loan Words
My bachelor thesis was on this topic, so I know a thing or two about it 😅
Wittgenstein, an Austrian philosopher, considered by some as the greatest philosopher of the 20th century, once argued that reality is shaped by the words we use. He argued this with a simple drawing of a triangle. The triangle could be considered as a hole, a solid shape, a mountain, wedge, and so many more things.
When we think of all these various things the triangle represents, these concepts summarized by words, it gives meaning to what we see.
The same rule applies to everything around us. Our Bored Panda interview guest for today, Lauren Gawne, a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at La Trobe University, and co-host of Lingthusiasm (an engaging podcast about linguistics!), said that what excites her about linguistics most is that "it allows you to make sense of language, which is all around you.”
English = Bad French
We took your countries and we took your words... like the British Mueseum, if it ain't nailed down, we takin' it! If it is nailed down, we takin' that too...
One Of The Stranger Covid Etymologies I've Seen (Xpost Insanepeoplefacebook)
Actual Page On Conservapedia
What in the heavens? Then again, conservatives are full of shite anyways.
Linguistics is the science of analyzing the meaning, discourse, and many more aspects of language, from everyday to hyperspecific.
For example, some of the questions that linguistics may help you answer are why you talk differently (code switch) with different groups of people - your friends, your parents, your colleagues, the police, etc.
Another thing is something you’ve definitely experienced firsthand - you and another person speak the exact same language, but you sound very different to each other (spoiler: it’s because you each speak in a slightly different accent).
Linguists notice these things in their daily conversations and interactions with the world. Lauren mentions that even people who haven’t studied linguistics pick up on these interesting features of language all the time, but actually studying it gives people the framework and terminology to make sense of what these interesting features are.
Only Certain Pronouns Are "Backed By Science" I Guess
Well, turns out the words 'I', 'me', 'you', 'they', 'them', 'us', and 'we' aren't real because they're not backed by science /s
School vs. The North East!
Baby Talk Will Stunt Your Child’s Acquisition
Yes. Greetings and salutations, Baby. I find you quite adorable. Do you concur with my assessment? I assure you, it is correct.
Thank you parents, I find your evaluation of my personhood to be quite satisfactory. Furthermore, it comforts me quite superbly.
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For anyone curious: science now suggests that baby talk is genetically ingrained in our behavior with babies because it does help them learn language faster. They pick up on the basic sounds of language and can imitate these more quickly and thus get to talking and building on these skills much sooner than trying to teach them multisyllabic words right out of the womb.
I also wonder if a necessary sense of security doesn't get conveyed with only adult speak. And play is important as well, but it must be awkward to engage in with only complete adult sentences.
Load More Replies... "father, I do believe that as a result of my previous gustatory indulgences, I have become unable to withhold the contents of my bowels and have quite embarrassingly and with an unprecedented level of regret, defecated in my pantaloons. To summate with the parlance of my contemporaries: I pooped myself."
I think this is the tweet where he goes on to reveal that the children are actually cats
I used baby talk with my kids as they grew up (they're now 28 and 39 and I still do!) And they turned out just fine. The best thing I did for them was make them feel safe in asking me what a word meant. THAT'S what helped their vocabulary. They never feared asking me questions because they knew I wouldn't ridicule them or make them feel less than for not knowing something. I also led by example by looking up words I didn't know as I read stuff.
I didn't do a lot of baby talking to my kids, but I do with the dogs. Maybe if I hadn't, the dog would speak in complete sentences by now!
My niece is 1 and can hold conversations. We baby talk her, but she hears more than that.😂 It's not stunting her.
If this does does successfully raise children to be precociously well-spoken, I find it to be an admirable approach to parenting. Apologies if this invokes controversy with those who find incompetence endearing.
Uh huh. And no doublt they make up poopy toilet jokes, just like every other little kid.
I neither avoided baby talk nor spoke down to them, and I remember my son, age 2, running to me crying "I trip on a air molecule"
I actually agree with this one. We didn't use high level words, we talked to her like a child. But we used the correct words. Blanket not "blanky". Horse not horsey and so on. And yes, at age 2 she was very articulate and yes, people often commented on how well spoken she was.. Little kids are knowledge sponges. Teach it correctly the first time and you don't have to re-teach it later.
They're taking it to the extreme, but they have the right idea. Talk to little ones normally and avoid baby talk, they'll learn speech quicker and there will be fewer bad speech habits to break later.
People in Korea would be looking at you like you were bananas.
The poster cut off the best part: "Which is impressive, bc they're both cats." Honestly, much more funny with the ending.
I actually think he's right. It doesn't matter if they don't initially pronounce them correctly. The issue is understanding the right word to convey your actual and real meaning.
But today, we aren’t speaking about the good examples, quite the opposite. One horrible notion that people still hold is that accents are bad and you know what I mean when I say this.
“The way we speak is perfect and pure, but these other people are mangling our beautiful language.”
Although an extreme example, this is a very real example of linguistic racism, which is based on accent, dialect, or patterns of speech.
A person who can understand these variations of speech is a better communicator (and also a better person who doesn’t gatekeep language).
English Hardest Language
Not true of course. That entirely depends on where you are from. There was research on that. Results on most difficult languages in general : 1. Mandarin 2. Arabic 3. Telugu 4. Japanese 5. Polish 6. Turkish 7. Russian 8. Vietnamese 9. Finnish 10. Korean
It Is Impossible To Learn Swedish Because Of One Sound Which No Non-Native Swedish Person Can Actually Say
I’m Bri-Ish
Dialing it back a little, some other examples of “bad” linguistics are misnomers - names that are used incorrectly.
For example, blackboards aren’t usually black anymore, they’re green, red, or even white! Chalk sticks are also likely not chalk, but gypsum, what a scam, huh?
Also, peanuts are not really nuts, but rather legumes. Same goes for coconuts, which aren’t nuts. They’re drupes or stone fruit.
Also, a funny bone isn’t a bone at all, it’s your ulnar nerve. It’s uncertain why it’s called that way, but it may be because of the upper arm bone, called a humerus, which is pretty close to humorous, and soon we’ve got the good ole’ funny bone.
The “How Do We Make This Fantasy Race Sound Evil/Threatening?” Starterpack
Ahh Yes, My Favourite Language Family, The POC Languages
I... don't understand how learning Hindu or Swahili would be EASIER if you already know Mandarin vs. already knowing English XD The language families for Hindu, Swahili, and Mandarin are all drastically different.
Today's SMBC Comic Fits Right At Home In This Subreddit!
Apparently ‘My’ Can Only Literally Mean Possession
For more than 10 years now, the bad linguistics community on Reddit has been collecting these examples, analyzing them, and calling out awful examples of bad “science” wherever they can. Make sure to visit the community for more funnies. And if you’re feeling scientific, the father of bad linguistics is waiting for you - the 4 years senior /r/linguistics Reddit community.
Finally, if you’re in a “I wanna roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty in this whole ‘linguistics’ thing” kind of mood, then Lauren Gawne came through for us.
You may find something good by looking up “lingcomm” - the goal of which is communicating linguistics to broader audiences or by watching Crash Course Linguistics, co-authored by Lauren.
She’s also written for many YouTube channels, pop linguistics blogs and books and social media, so don’t forget to tune in to Lingthusiasm!
Three Different Comments, From Three Different People, All Commenting On The Same TikTok
Someone please help, it's 4:10am and my brain is not home. Spanish from Spain and Spanish from Mexico are THE SAME LANGUAGE, right? (Other than regional differences.) It's just called español in Mexico and castellano in Spain. I'm adopted, but my family is Mexican, and I learned Spanish as a child. We've had exchange students from Spain and I was able to understand them perfectly and converse with them just fine. These three people are just idiots, right?!
A Speed Of 1 Language Per Week
Chinese Characters Are Proof That We Need Jesus
Bruh... from 22+ years of dating my Chinese boyfriend, I've learned a LOT about the written Chinese language. A lot of it is pictographic in origin, so yes, certain characters will "resemble" the word they represent (like the words for net, fire, farm/field, person, meat.) But this is due to literal THOUSANDS of years of language development and has zero to do with a fictional white man who wore a robe and sandals. They are correct above with the depiction for the character for "rest" in that it contains the character for "person"... but it DOES NOT have a Christian "cross" in it. Written Chinese existed long before people invented Jesus and the Christian cross.
Spanish Was Spoken In Portugal Until They Stole Portuguese From Brazilian Natives
They're describing how they "stole" the language as if it was a heist.
Found This Gem
The 63 million people in the world who speak Italian as a first language would like a word (and some gestures) with whomever posted this.
Khmer Is Indo-European
Interesting Take On English Word Etymologies
Those first three are the stupidest descriptions I've ever seen, and I've seen a racist description of what the word "Covid-19" means.
A Response To A Merriam-Webster's Twitter Thread About Words Changing Their Meaning
lol, my Chinese boyfriend would like a word with whomever posted this.
“English Is Actually A Chinese Dialect” And Much More
I Haven't Seen A Meme On This Sub In While So I Made One
"Is Korean Indo-European?"
It MUST be true, because English has the word "park" and there's a Korean last name that's spelled "Park"!!! PROOF!!!! /s
English Is A Tonal Language Because It Has Intonation
No. A tonal language means if you get the tone wrong, you might be saying, "Your wife is a big hippo," instead of what you wanted to say, which was, "Highly enjoyable."
From A Video About A Monolingual Irish Speaker
Yeah, you know, those Ancient Greeks that are totally immortal and still living in Italy... we had some movies about these immortals, it's a series of films called "Highlander"...
Someone Must Have Murdered Cases In English
That is sort of true, at least for spelling. There wasn't a single way to spell most words so it was pretty much a free for all. In the 17th and 18th centuries a few academics started writing dictionaries and decided on what should be standardized English.
Note: this post originally had 40 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
These entries gave me a fit of the vapors. I was an English major with a degree in English/Creative Writing and a great love for actual, TRUE word origins and etymology XD
Yeah. It hurt. I think a may have sprained my Broca’s area. Potentially my Wernicke’s area too.
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Do people actually believe these things? Notice, if you will, how many people claim that their native language is that from which all other languages derive. I am a published author, back when there were publishing houses, publishing actual books. Some of these comments made my skin crawl.
As an anthropology major, they make my skin crawl, too.
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The one thing I keep trying to remind people is that language only works if we all use it the same way. I am freelance. My dad doesn't think I have a business because I don't have a brick and mortar place and I don't sell products (I sell services). Sorry b***h - that's what it means in English. The rest of us are going to use it that way.
As an interpreter stuff like this makes me laugh. I've been told by people who think they know that ASL isn't a real language because it doesn't have the verb "to be". Yeah it's because it's a zero copula language. Mandarin doesn't either and it has the most speakers on Earth.
These entries gave me a fit of the vapors. I was an English major with a degree in English/Creative Writing and a great love for actual, TRUE word origins and etymology XD
Yeah. It hurt. I think a may have sprained my Broca’s area. Potentially my Wernicke’s area too.
Load More Replies... Do people actually believe these things? Notice, if you will, how many people claim that their native language is that from which all other languages derive. I am a published author, back when there were publishing houses, publishing actual books. Some of these comments made my skin crawl.
As an anthropology major, they make my skin crawl, too.
Load More Replies... The one thing I keep trying to remind people is that language only works if we all use it the same way. I am freelance. My dad doesn't think I have a business because I don't have a brick and mortar place and I don't sell products (I sell services). Sorry b***h - that's what it means in English. The rest of us are going to use it that way.
As an interpreter stuff like this makes me laugh. I've been told by people who think they know that ASL isn't a real language because it doesn't have the verb "to be". Yeah it's because it's a zero copula language. Mandarin doesn't either and it has the most speakers on Earth.
