Tag Archives: science of language

Steven Pinker on Language and Thought

Posted on July 17, 2010 by Heather

Well, it’s pretty busy in Word Blog land, which is why I haven’t been quite so diligent about posting new entries. I’m taking courses in digital publishing and scholarly publishing these days, and showing up for work, too, so there … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged linguistics, Ryerson Publishing Program, science of language, Steven Pinker, the blog itself, usage, videos | 2 Comments

Proust and the Squid

Posted on April 25, 2010 by Heather

Recommended Read Wolf, Maryanne. Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. [ISBN-13: 978-0-06-093384-5] The argument that grounds Proust and the Squid is that the human mind isn’t hardwired for reading the … Continue reading →

Posted in Recommended Reads | Tagged alphabets, dyslexia, language development, language evolution, literacy, logograms, logographs, Maryanne Wolf, reading, reading disabilities, science of language, syllabaries, writing systems | Leave a comment

The Materiality of Digital Words

Posted on March 8, 2010 by Heather

Guest Post This post was contributed by Martin French. Ever since William Gibson described cyberspace as a “consensual hallucination,” a “graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system,” it has been possible to … Continue reading →

Posted in Guest Posts | Tagged cyberspace, digital publishing, digital words, internet, nonfiction, science of language, search engines, search terms, words about words | 2 Comments

Empire of the Word

Posted on January 8, 2010 by Heather

My awesome parents, knowing all about my obsession with words, recorded the Empire of the Word documentary series that aired on TVO last month for me. It was developed and narrated by the very impressive Alberto Manguel, author of A … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Alberto Manguel, books, censorship, History of the Book, literacy, moveable type, reading, science of language, television, the future of words, TVO, videos | 2 Comments

The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language

Posted on October 17, 2009 by Heather

Recommended Read Kenneally, Christine. The First Word. Toronto: Viking, 2007. [ISBN-13: 978-0-670-03490-1] Who spoke the first word of human language? When was that first word uttered? What did that speaker say and why? Linguists outlawed these questions in 1866 when … Continue reading →

Posted in Recommended Reads | Tagged anthropology, biology, Christine Kenneally, genetics, linguistics, origin of language, science of language | 1 Comment