Saul Kripke, Philosopher Who Found Truths in Semantics, Dies at 81
He published a landmark work at 32. Known for lecturing extemporaneously for hours without notes, he dazzled colleagues with the breadth of his ruminations.
14 Ways to Learn Vocabulary and Explore Language With The New York Times
Another lens through which to look at language? The Times’s Upshot team used data analysis to create the interactive “The Words Men and Women Use When They Write About Love,” pictured above. It mines the language of four years of Modern Love essays. What questions does it raise for you?You can see graphs the team…
R. Allen Gardner, 91, Dies; Taught Sign Language to a Chimp Named Washoe
Washoe was 10 months old when her foster parents began teaching her to talk, and five months later they were already trumpeting her success. Not only had she learned words; she could also string them together, creating expressions like “water birds” when she saw a pair of swans and “open flower” to gain admittance to…
Expectations of ‘Perfect’ English Are Elitist and Unrealistic
This essay, by Megan Luong, age 17, from Notre Dame High School in San Jose, Calif., is one of the Top 11 winners of The Learning Network’s 10th Annual Student Editorial Contest, for which we received 12,592 entries.We are publishing the work of all the winners and runners-up over the next week, and you can…
Learn 60 New Vocabulary Words With These Imaginative Student Videos
Over the past eight years of our Vocabulary Video Contest, students have produced thousands of lively, original videos in which they define a Word of the Day in under 15 seconds.Sixty of the winning videos, organized into three compilations by part of speech, are rounded up in this post. We hope that this repository of…
Lesson of the Day: ‘How Language Classes Are Moving Past the Gender Binary’
Lesson OverviewFeatured Article: “How Language Classes Are Moving Past the Gender Binary” by Molly LipsonMany languages, including Hebrew, French, Spanish, Italian and Arabic, use binary pronouns, such as he/she and male/female, which means that other gender identities are not formally acknowledged in those languages.In this lesson, you will learn about teachers who are finding ways…
February Vocabulary Challenge: Invent a Word
“Of all the factors that transform how we communicate, none are so powerful as young people, who have always steered language,” writes book critic Parul Sehgal.Our February Vocabulary Challenge invites middle and high school students to suggest a new word of their own. In the comments, tell us what your word means and why you…
