This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American When Emperor Akihito stepped down from the ...

“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world,” observed philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in 1922. We might ask, accordingly, how does language shape reality, arbitrating human experience of ...

THE 7400 or so languages in use today speak to the fact that our species is primed to communicate. But while it is tempting to view language as merely a consequence of our extraordinary cognitive ...

Zagreb-born artist Nora Turato transforms everyday fragments of speech and text into a mirror of our shared unconscious The omnipresence of language, in its countless forms, is the foundation of ...

The University of California opened its doors in 1869 with just 10 faculty members and 40 students. Today, the UC system has more than 295,000 students and 265,000 faculty and staff, with 2.0 million ...

In the aftermath of the recent U.S. military strikes on Iran, one truth stands out above all: language is not just a means of communication—it is the lens through which we interpret, react to, and ...

Co-authored with Sayuri Hayakawa, Ph.D. As Japan's Emperor Akihito stepped down from the Chrysanthemum Throne in the country's first abdication in 200 years, Naruhito officially became the new Emperor ...