Accent matters more than looks when it comes to identifying a person’s ethnicity, according to a study published in the November Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Researchers at Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in Germany asked students to identify Italian- and German-looking men who spoke German with or without an Italian accent. The students were more likely to confuse two people who spoke with the same accent than two who looked liked they belonged to the same ethnic group, meaning accent was more of a distinguishing feature than appearance. The authors say their results emphasize the importance of language in how we judge those whom we meet. . @FiorenzaMella

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Jerry's words can draw. His drawings can talk. @FiorenzaMella

ScienceDaily (Mar. 23, 2011) — A team of researchers has found that pursuing carefully planned goals and engaging in more automatic habits shows overlapping neurological mechanisms. Because the findings, which appear in the latest issue of the journal Neuron, show a neurological linkage between goal-directed and habitual, and perhaps damaging, behaviors, they may offer a pathway for beginning to address addiction and similar maladies. @FiorenzaMella

ScienceDaily (Mar. 23, 2011) — The way in which teachers and textbooks use language and different metaphors in mathematics education determines how pupils develop their number sense, according to a recent thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. @FiorenzaMella

Interesting study confirming the theory @FiorenzaMella

The answer is affirmative. This post is truly inspiring. @FiorenzaMella

The one that dominates the Internet, the ones we learn in the womb, and the ones that are whistles by Dean Christopher @FiorenzaMella

So many pregnant words... March 22nd, 2011 by Mark Nepo It is ancient but not old. The Taoist master Chuang Tzu first spoke of it in the 3rd century BC as the Great Ridgepole that holds the Unseeable Tent of the Universe open. Around which we dance. Trying to leave it. Always coming back. Within a hundred years it was known as Tai Chi. In the Tang Dynasty an unknown poet spoke of life as swinging on the Great Ridgepole. Hundreds of years later, a Spanish poet said that meeting another in mid-swing is the wonder of love. After living through monsoons, a Hindu master said that we move until we tire into stillness. Then we are still till we grow impatient to move. One blossoms into the other. In that blossoming we become wakeful. In such moments we are the bubbles carried by water, the blue within the heart of every flame, the aliveness sleeping inside every ache. It is ancient but not old. Meet me at the Ridgepole. We can take our turn swinging around eternity....

1. Studies have shown that being bilingual actually structurally changes the brain and increases intellect, especially for people who have been bilingual from an early age. Therefore bilingual people are more likely to have a rounded intelligence than monolinguals. 2. Language is not just about semantics. Having access to a language means having access to another culture and coming to truly understand it. This is great for business as different cultures have different ways of doing things and makes you more desirable to potential employers! 3. Knowing a second language increases your knowledge of the English language. Many non-native English speakers are sticklers for grammar – the same goes for language students. Learning a language from scratch makes you more aware of your native language’s grammatical structures. 4. Language skills get you into university. Some UK universities are now rejecting applicants without at least a GCSE in another language. Deg...

Mamihlapinatapai (sometimes spelled mamihlapinatapei) is a word from the Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego, listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the "most succinct word", and is considered one of the hardest words to translate.[1] It refers to "a look shared by two people, each wishing that the other would initiate something that they both desire but which neither wants to begin." It is described in Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life, by Len Fisher (p76), when describing the Volunteer's dilemma. It is also mentioned in Defining the World[2] in a discussion of the difficulties facing Samuel Johnson in trying to arrive at succinct, yet accurate, definitions of words. The word consists of the reflexive/passive prefix ma- (mam- before a vowel), the root ihlapi (pronounced [iɬapi]), which means to be at a loss as what to do next, the stative suffix -n, an achievement suffix -ata, and the dual suffix -apai, which in composition with...

Is it a robot? @FiorenzaMella

Even the most vocal detractor of language lessons knows the difference between a noun and a pronoun. But it takes a special kind of grammar aficionado to pick up on the intricacies between the various verbs and plethora of pronouns. As with every passion, linguistics comes with its own unique vocabulary challenging fans to memorize them all. Hundreds more exist beyond these 33, but they certainly make for an amusing start! Especially that "eggcorn…" @FiorenzaMella

The words we hear and read have an impact on the way we think. This often happens at a subconscious level, so while the power of the word goes apparently unnoticed by the listener, it is taking root alongside all that other information stored in the brain. If you allow the words I hate you! to take root in your brain, ask yourself what message you are conveying to your self. What will inevitably grow from that root? Something hateful? This is why it is important to listen to and read information consciously rather than unconsciously. Om Namah Shivaya Sticks and Stones is a chant which, when said with absolute conviction, must hold true. Its power is contained not only in the words themselves, but also in the faith of the person uttering the words. Put another way, you have to believe in your words if they are to have true power. All language is a form of vibration, as is everything in this Universe. Think ‘resonance’ (with the Universe itself) when you think ‘vibration’ and...

Some immigrant novelists neglect their mother tongue to write in the language of their adopted home. Forming distinctive styles, they have won over locals and even given rise to new literary techniques. @FiorenzaMella

Hundreds of filmmakers came to Austin, Texas, to attend the SXSW Film Festival this past weekend. Their films ranged from narrative features to short documentaries to music videos. Almost all of them had at least one thing in common: a soundtrack. But the work of deaf filmmaker, designer and animator Robyn Girard stood out from the rest of the pack. Girard, a visual storyteller who works to bridge the gap between deaf and hearing audiences through film and animation, spoke at the SXSW Film Conference and Festival about the portrayal of deaf people in film, how popular films often perpetuate stereotypes and how the deaf community can counteract those perceptions. "It's our job," says Girard, "to prove that deaf people are not silent." In other words, not being able to hear doesn't mean they can't make some noise in the culture. @FiorenzaMella

ScienceDaily (Mar. 14, 2011) — Learning a foreign language literally changes the way we see the world, according to new research. Panos Athanasopoulos, of Newcastle University, has found that bilingual speakers think differently to those who only use one language. @FiorenzaMella

I'm not particularly confused about the facts at hand, but how to think about them can be confusing. In Latin, datum is a singular noun that pluralises as data. We imported "data" and use it frequently in English; we use "datum" much less often. Since some people think of data as a mass, not as the plural of a thing you can count, they mentally file it with singular mass nouns like "water" and "oatmeal". Doing so is hardly mouth-breathing stupidity, but it does violate the Latin rule. But then again, who says we have to import foreign morphology into English when we import a word? The answer clearly isn't "always". The Economist, for example, pluralises "consortia", "data", "media", "spectra" and "strata" thus, but prescribes "conundrums", "forums", "moratoriums", "referendums" and "stadiums". (The rest here.) The rule is feel ...

People tend to underestimate the importance of the Latin language because it isn't a spoken language, but that doesn't mean there aren't considerable other benefits that can be derived from the study of Latin. The derivation of many words in many languages, including most Romance languages and English is often Latin and many English words have Latin prefixes or suffixes. The study of Latin often makes it possible to dissect a word and figure out its meaning by going to the Latin roots. You can also learn how to find similar words that can be used in place of a more frequently used word. @FiorenzaMella

British Library's Map Your Voice scheme records 10,000 English speakers and finds 'Americanisation' of speech may be a myth @FiorenzaMella

A great TED video about an interesting experiment. @FiorenzaMella

In the March issue of Scientific American Carl Schoonover, author of Portraits of the Mind: Visualizing the Brain from Antiquity to the 21st Century, describes a new computer-modeling technique that allows researchers to zoom in on the smallest components of the active brain in 3-D. To accompany the story, we've collected images from his recent book, which describes the tools that scientists have used to observe the nervous system from the second century to the present. During the past 20 years, breakthroughs in these technologies have fueled unprecedented advances in neuroscience. @FiorenzaMella

A beautiful example of videopoetry. A nice story about a team effort gathering different resources to accomplish a project. A great example of the inspiring power of art. @FiorenzaMella

Comparing 1997 and 2010, group was found in both years with rights, small, ethnic, pressure, rebel, support, armed and environmental. However, in 1997 it was also found with Islamic, paramilitary, action, working and separatist, while in 2010 it collocated with conservation, crisis and Islamist. There is a parallel small change between 1997 and 2010 in the collocates of nation and nations. In both years the words are linked with: African, Asian, developed, developing, European, industrial, industrialised, United and western. However, in 1997, nation also collocated with donor, favoured, foreign and poorer, terms that do not occur in the top 50 collocates of 2010. There has also been a change in the way people are reported. While 1997 and 2010 have shared uses, including: black, British, elderly, indigenous, local and ordinary, in 1997, people also collocated strongly with: disabled and HIV-positive, but in 2010 the emphasis had shifted to fat, gay, older and rich. @FiorenzaMella

The process of language forgetting begins when the domains of use of a language are considerably reduced, if not simply absent. It will extend over many years in adults and is marked by hesitant language production as the speaker searches for appropriate words or expressions. There will also be frequent intermingling of languages as he or she calls on the dominant language for help; pronunciation is marked increasingly by the other language or languages; "odd" syntactic structures or expressions are borrowed from the stronger language, and so on. Language comprehension is less affected, although the person may not know new words and new colloquialisms in the language that is being forgotten. People who are in an extended process of forgetting a language avoid using it because they no longer feel sure about it and they do not want to make too many mistakes. If they do have to use it, they may cut short a conversation so as not to have to show openly how far the attrition h...

An increasing number of psychological studies reveal strong associations between personality traits and aesthetic tastes. According to these investigations, the jazz aficionado—who prefers challenging books and abstract art—is more likely to be an extrovert and open to new experiences. The top-40 fan, on the other hand, probably shies away from novelty. Based on his fondness for Impressionist art, though, he is likely to be agreeable and conscientious. @FiorenzaMella

"Story forms have evolved continually since the days of the shaman. Literary genres from epic poetry to drama to the novel use stories as political or social calls to action. Technological breakthroughs — movable type, movies, radio, television, the internet — have provided new ways of recording, presenting, and disseminating stories. But it isn’t special effects or the 0’s and 1’s of the digital revolution that matter most — it’s the oohs and aahs that the storyteller evokes from an audience. State-of-the-art technology is a great tool for capturing and transmitting words, images, and ideas, but the power of storytelling resides most fundamentally in 'state-of-the-heart' technology. At the end of the day, words and ideas presented in a way that engages listeners’ emotions are what carry stories. It is this oral tradition that lies at the center of our ability to motivate, sell, inspire, engage, and lead." — Peter Guber @FiorenzaMella

Scientists have found out the basic mechanisms used by the brain to combine elementary pieces of language in order to construct complex ideas. The study was conducted by Douglas Bemis, a graduate student in NYU’s Department of Psychology, and Liina Pylkkänen, an associate professor in NYU’s Department of Psychology and Department of Linguistics. @FiorenzaMella

A great example of how virtual connection can lead to amazing team results. The leader's vision, the team goal, the communication made it possible. Connection turned into true engagement. Eric Whitacre told the story of his deeply inspirational virtual choir, which brought together nearly 200 talented singers from around the world in a spellbinding collaborative performance of “Lux Aurumque” via YouTube Read more: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/03/01/ted-2011-highlights-day-1/#ixzz1FQkQlRqX @FiorenzaMella

One of the most fascinating windows scientists have into the human mind comes from watching babies learn to interact with the world around them. Janet Werker is a psychologist at Vancouver's University of British Columbia who studies how babies learn languages. Some of her recent work was aimed at investigating the claim that growing up bilingual can confuse a baby and make learning to speak more difficult. In fact, Werker and her colleagues found the opposite: Rather than causing any difficulties, learning two languages at once may confer cognitive advantages to babies, including not just special auditory sensitivity, but enhanced visual sensitivity as well. LiveScience spoke to Werker at the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., about what bilingual children can teach us about how the mind works. Why can babies learn second languages without "foreign" accents, but adults rarely can? I would not take this s...

If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, I will answer you: I am here to live out loud.’Emile Zola @FiorenzaMella

Dispelling longstanding misconceptions that the underlying causes of stuttering are language problems or psychological problems like anxiety or trauma, researchers say stuttering is really a speech-production problem: a snag in the cascade of steps that our brains and bodies undertake to move the proper muscles to produce words. “People who stutter have motor difficulties in producing fluent speech,” said Luc De Nil, a speech-language pathologist at the University of Toronto. “They don’t have difficulty developing words or syntax, although they may process language differently. They have difficulty with efficient coordination of motor movements, and speech is such a high-demand fine-motor skill that requires extremely fast sequencing and timing.” Speaking involves brain areas responsible not only for language, but for hearing, planning, emotion, breathing and movement of the jaw, lips, tongue and neck. Anne Smith, a stuttering expert at Purdue University, said that in stutterers, “...

THE history of a language is invariably linked to the history of its people. With the rise and fall of power, the fortune of the language too changes. But as records prove, some languages survive the decline of the people, the culture in which it is spoken and the land where it was born. The German language can definitely boast of this standing. According to a recent book German: Biography of a language, it is thousands of years old and has evolved over the millennia. Author Ruth H Sanders takes us through the tumultuous course of German, citing anthropological, historical and linguistic research. Sanders is Professor of German at Miami University of Ohio. German is the "linguistic daughter of the Proto-Indo-European language once spoken throughout vast stretches of Eurasia." According to Sanders, six events were defining moments in the development of German. They include: the pre-historic breakaway of pre-Germanic language from Indo-European mother tongue, the decisive v...

Nature can surprise us with its beauty. @FiorenzaMella