Skip to content← All paths- 1.L&C-11Which One Is Bouba?Language & Communication~20 minWhy do people across totally different languages agree that a spiky shape is called kiki and a round one bouba? A rare real case where sound matches meaning.
- 2.L&C-10One Wug, Two ___Language & Communication~25 minHow does a two-year-old correctly pluralize a word they've never heard before? By extracting a grammar rule from real language, not memorizing whole words.
- 3.L&C-8Who Did What to WhomLanguage & Communication~24 minWhy does swapping two words in English flip an entire sentence? Because word order does the job that endings do in other languages, like Latin.
- 4.L&C-14The Rules No One Taught YouLanguage & Communication~26 minWhere does a toddler's grammar actually come from? Two real, competing answers, built-in or learned through pattern-finding, and nobody has settled which is right.
- 5.L&C-9Slender, Skinny, ScrawnyLanguage & Communication~22 minWhy does skinny sting and slender doesn't, even though they mean the same thing? Connotation, the feeling a word carries that has nothing to do with what it describes.
- 6.L&C-12The Words That Hide ThingsLanguage & Communication~22 minWhat does collateral damage actually mean? Dead civilians, dressed in a phrase built to soften the blow without technically lying.