For all intents and purposes, linguistics cannot be separated from history. In fact, language cannot be understood to any true resolve without considering the history surrounding it. As linguist and Father of the “linguistic relativity” concept Benjamin Whorf (1897–1941) said a century ago, “studying language and studying culture is the same thing.” @FiorenzaMella

A great quote that leads to the contestual nature of language an its beautiful complexity. @FiorenzaMella

Sound-alike words can cause problems in written text; don’t fall pray—umm, prey, that is—to these troublesome terms. @FiorenzaMella

Workers who feel they have autonomy - that they are free to make choices in the workplace and be accountable for them - are happier and more productive according to an extensive research literature review. Yet there's no universal cross-cultural definition of autonomy. What people from one culture perceive as workplace freedom, those from another may view as simple disorganization. This is one of the conclusions of a chapter featured in a new book on workplace autonomy, Human Autonomy in Cross-Cultural Context: Perspectives on the Psychology of Agency, Freedom, and Well-Being (Springer), that's coauthored by professors Marylène Gagné and Devasheesh Bhave from Concordia's John Molson School of Business. "Autonomy is important in every culture," says Gagné, about her chapter entitled, Autonomy in the Workplace: An Essential Ingredient to Employee Engagement and Well-Being in Every Culture? Sylvain-Jacques Desjardins @FiorenzaMella

Congratulazioni a Gabriella Sannino per essere riuscita a promuovere questo Workshop che nasce dal desiderio di diffondere la conoscenza di tutti gli aspetti legati alla SEO. Interessanti anche i suoi commenti che fotografano il malessere di molti Italiani che lasciano il Paese disconoscendo un potenziale nascosto che risiede nell'uso appropriato e professionale di internet. Il percorso verso nuove conoscenze mira ad offrire nuovi punti di vista, a professionalizzare la conoscenza ed infine a rendere manifesto il potenziale latente. @FiorenzaMella

For a long time, the idea that language might shape thought was considered at best untestable and more often simply wrong. Research in my labs at Stanford University and at MIT has helped reopen this question. We have collected data around the world: from China, Greece, Chile, Indonesia, Russia, and Aboriginal Australia. What we have learned is that people who speak different languages do indeed think differently and that even flukes of grammar can profoundly affect how we see the world. Language is a uniquely human gift, central to our experience of being human. Appreciating its role in constructing our mental lives brings us one step closer to understanding the very nature of humanity. @FiorenzaMella

ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2011) — We know that people tend to be attracted to, date, and marry other people who resemble themselves in terms of personality, values, and physical appearance. However, these features only skim the surface of what makes a relationship work. The ways that people talk are also important. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that people who speak in similar styles are more compatible. @FiorenzaMella

Entanglement, that most counterintuitive quantum phenomenon by which particles share an unseen link that aligns their properties, is looking more mundane all the time. Just last week two groups of researchers reported entangling a photon with a crystal-based device, potentially paving the way for solid-state memories that can store and then release entangled particles as needed. @FiorenzaMella

Bonus Tip: Avoid “Contact Us,” - Create Stronger Offers As far as I'm concerned “Contact Us” does not count as a landing page. If this is the only "offer" on your site, you’re just going to attract spam and sales people. Diversify and create more offers. Specifically, create one early-stage and one late-stage offer. For example, an early-stage offer could be a guide, a kit, or a white paper. A late stage offer can be a free consultation, an estimate / price quote or a free trial. @FiorenzaMella

“What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who only has eyes if he’s a painter, ears if he’s a musician, or a lyre in every chamber of his heart if he’s a poet? Quite the contrary, he is at the same time a political being constantly alert to the horrifying, passionate or pleasing events in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. How is it possible to be uninterested in other men and by virtue of what cold nonchalance can you detach yourself from the life that they supply so copiously? No, painting is not made to decorate apartments. It’s an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy.” — Pablo Picasso @FiorenzaMella

The dynamics behind signal transmission in the brain are extremely chaotic. This conclusion has been reached by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization at the University of Göttingen and the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Göttingen. In addition, the Göttingen-based researchers calculated, for the first time, how quickly information stored in the activity patterns of the cerebral cortex neurons is discarded. At one bit per active neuron per second, the speed at which this information is forgotten is surprisingly high. @FiorenzaMella

Manning argues for acceptance of variable systems of language, and for searching for structure in these systems using probabilistic methods. Manning applies quantitative techniques to sentence structure, digging for the frequency, probability and likelihood that people will use specific turns of phrase in certain real-world contexts. Looking at distributions in the ways people express ideas in a language “can give a much richer description of how language is used.” Indeed, Manning finds that certain typical constraints on sentence structure in one language “show up as softer constraints and preferences in other languages.” @FiorenzaMella

Andre Heller: "Lüge ist wahrer als die Wahrheit - weil die Wahrheit so verlogen ist." "Lies are truer than truth - because truth is such a lie." Is everything an illusion then?

Anglicisation, machinisation et mondialisation sont ici trois arguments qui font dire à l’auteur qu’Internet est loin d’être neutre et nous oblige implicitement ou explicitement à adopter certaines valeurs, avec toutes les conséquences que cela implique[1]. Peut-être ne serez-vous pas d’accord ? Peut-être estimerez-vous que l’on enfonce des portes ouvertes ? Peut-être ajouterez-vous d’autres éléments à la liste ? Les commentaires vous attendent, même si il est vrai que le débat s’est lui aussi déplacé, des forums et des blogs vers les Facebook et Twitter (et en se déplaçant il a changé de nature également). @FiorenzaMella

Most companies have it all wrong. They don't have to motivate their employees. They have to stop demotivating them. The great majority of employees are quite enthusiastic when they start a new job. But in about 85 percent of companies, our research finds, employees' morale sharply declines after their first six months—and continues to deteriorate for years afterward. That finding is based on surveys of about 1.2 million employees at 52 primarily Fortune 1000 companies from 2001 through 2004, conducted by Sirota Survey Intelligence (Purchase, New York). The fault lies squarely at the feet of management—both the policies and procedures companies employ in managing their workforces and in the relationships that individual managers establish with their direct reports. Our research shows how individual managers' behaviors and styles are contributing to the problem (see sidebar "How Management Demotivates")—and what they can do to turn this around. @FiorenzaMe...

Night: from time immemorial, it has been a human fascination. From ancient moon worship to art, music and literature references throughout the ages. From historical celestial calendaring and mathematics, to men walking on the moon, there are innumerable interesting things that are associated with the night @FiorenzaMella

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@FiorenzaMella

The English language is in a constant state of flux. New words are formed and old ones fall into disuse. But no trend has been more obtrusive in recent years than the changing of nouns into verbs. “Trend” itself (now used as a verb meaning “change or develop in a general direction”, as in “unemployment has been trending upwards”) is further evidence of—sorry, evidences—this phenomenon. @FiorenzaMella

Ever wonder how musicians manage to play in unison? Credit their brain waves: they synchronize before and while musicians play a composition, according to new research. @FiorenzaMella

Enchanted! @FiorenzaMella

Brilliant set of interactive vocabulary games. Digital Dialects. @FiorenzaMella

Avec un savoir-faire hors du commun, cet artiste plasticien a réussi à recréer des mots en 3D qui sortent littéralement des pages d'un livre. @FiorenzaMella

A list of suggestions to think about.. @FiorenzaMella

Amzing, original, intense @FiorenzaMella

A way to get some visual and emotional rest @FiorenzaMella

He can grasp profound moments of intense beauty. Life epiphanies. @FiorenzaMella

When Bauty is not ashamed

What I like best as an artist is this never ending freedom and urge to surprise myself. To not rely on things I already know but to keep searching, trying, failing and wondering. To me, painting is the best way to communicate with the world around me. Communicating with my surroundings is essential to me. I’ve tried it with words, either spoken or written, in several jobs over the last 25 years. As a teacher, a consultant, a manager. To me, the meaning or intention of a certain message was always clear. But, as is normal in language, it turned out the receiver just remembered a small or insignificant part of that message, or interpreted it completely different, or even disagreed! This frustrated me immensely every now and again. It led to miscommunication and loss of energy. @FiorenzaMella

"La guerre et l'amour sont les dernières choses que l'on fait sans permis" Jean Dutourd @FiorenzaMella

"When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you." - Lao Tsu

Even if the planet doubled the amount of solar and wind power available tomorrow, there would still be a shortage of clean electricity. We need to grab energy from wherever we can find it, which is why piezoelectricity—the charge that gathers in solid materials like crystal and ceramic in response to strain—has recently begun to pique the interest of entrepreneurs and scientists alike.

Great video including inspiring quotes of the Irish artist. @FiorenzaMella

There's a "lie" in believe, "over" in lover, "end" in friend, "us" in trust, & an "if" in life. @FiorenzaMella

This is truly one of the most phenomenal videos that I have ever seen on YouTube or anywhere else @FiorenzaMella

Multilingual Brains: literacy skills do not transfer automatically from one language to another..

"Our biggest fear is not that we are inadequate our biggest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure we ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? actually, who are you not to be? your playing small doesn't serve the world we are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same." - Nelson Mandela @FiorenzaMella

La mise à jour de l'application Google Traduction pour Android apporte une nouvelle fonction au programme : le mode conversation. Une option pour l'instant limitée à l'anglais et l'espagnol. @FiorenzaMella

The true origins of ghoti go back to 1855, before Shaw was even born. In December of that year, the publisher Charles Ollier sent a letter to his good friend Leigh Hunt, a noted poet and literary critic. “My son William has hit upon a new method of spelling ‘Fish,’ ” Ollier wrote. You guessed it: good old ghoti. Little is known about William Ollier, who was 31 at the time his father wrote the letter. According to Charles E. Robinson, a professor of English at the University of Delaware who came across the ghoti letter during research on the Ollier family about 30 years ago, William was a journalist whose correspondence reveals a fascination with English etymology. @FiorenzaMella

Il(re)connait la beauté en toute son essence et il la partage.. @FiorenzaMella

A valuable post. However please note that some items need to be interpreted differently within a multilingual context. Fiorenza @FiorenzaMella

Fiorenza @FiorenzaMella

L'importance du potentiel et d'y croire

Inspiring quote..

Three stands for that which is solid, real, substantial, complete, and entire...The equivalent of Happiness (?)