Can you fact-check whether North Korea is a ‘regime’?
Rachel Lee/Staff
Although copy editors can edit out blatant lies and ugly slurs in the articles we’re given, here are some things we don’t fact-check: framing and omission.
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The postmodern personalities of 6 punctuation marks
Aishwarya Jayadeep/Senior Staff
Punctuation marks are pretty objective in their purpose within the world of written (and spoken) language. But in an age dominated by the internet, memes and the universal need for speed, these marks have evolved into characters of their own.
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Giving UC Berkeley a bad name: The case against ‘UCB’
Jericho Tang/Staff
In June, a copypasta was born. A Reddit user pleaded, “Don’t say ‘UCB’ when referring to Berkeley” and faced near-instant meme backlash from students.
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Like word games? Try using the English language to crack codes
Aishwarya Jayadeep/Senior Staff
Originally used for military and personal secrets, cryptograms are puzzles that contain a short piece of text encrypted by a cipher. Here’s a short guide on how to crack them using trends in the English language.
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The regrettable opacity of toponymy
While language may seem to change rather quickly, toponyms, or place names, tend to last. People often care deeply about them, making them so entrenched in the culture of a place that they can outlive whole civilizations.
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Avoiding RAS syndrome: Common cases of redundant acronym syndrome
Acronyms make our writing more concise. But, some are now so common that they’re often used improperly, adjacent to words that make the phrase redundant.
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Music is the universal language: How musical notation and language are linked
Learning musical notation, while similar to learning how to read and write your first words, has instrumental benefits to language development and cognitive functions.
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Semantic satiation: Why repeating words lose their meaning
Semantic satiation is a linguistic oddity, and the lack of a solution makes it even more so. Let’s delve into the psychological explanation behind it.
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English: An inherently hierarchical language
It seems as though most English speakers have to speak a language they don’t know: an apt metaphor for the political and ethical situations of our lives.
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Who needs language skills anyway?
I recognize English to be my first language, but I’m not a native English speaker. Because of that, I’ve discovered how important English is to my life.
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