The Words We Use and The Worlds We Build

We Can Build the Future

Rethinking language: how probabilities shape the words we use.

I f you think about the classes you expect to take when studying linguistics in graduate school, probability theory is unlikely to be on the list. However, recent work in linguistics and cognitive science has begun to show that probability theory, combined with the methods of computer science and statistics, is surprisingly effective in explaining aspects of how people produce and interpret sen...

Reflection for the undergraduate on writing in the portfolio: where are we now and where are we going?

Introduction: The portfolio can be seen as a tool for assessmentof a variety of learning activities that differ in content, usage, andassessment. The portfolio not only meets the learner’s educationalneeds but also the political and public reassurance demand thatthe health professional has achieved the required competency ofthe curriculum that allows him or her to practice safely with orwithout...

efl students gender and socioeconomic status: the use of politeness strategies in the first and second languages

within the components of communicative competence, a special emphasis is put on the “rules of politeness,” specifically the politeness strategies (brown and levinson, 1978) that speakers deploy when performing the request speech act. this is because the degree of imposition that making a request places upon one’s interlocutor(s) has been seen to be influenced by several factors among which, as ...

Acute stroke: we have the treatments and we have the evidence – we need to use them

Despite huge global burden, stroke disease has traditionally received little attention in the general medical press. We review a series of four acute stroke research articles published in a themed issue of the Lancet. Claiborne-Johnston and coworkers presented a scoring system to stratify risk of stroke following transient ischaemic attack. Chalela and colleagues demonstrated that magnetic reso...