#childrens-word-of-the-year

#childrens-word-of-the-year

The word is very much an American invention. It seems to have been part of a fad in the 19th century for inventing rather fancy, grand and rather humorous-sounding words.

Learning a new language not only makes you look cool, it also allows you to familiarize yourself with another culture, connect with new people and enjoy a wider variety of art and media.

The assumption that difficulty with reading or writing signals lower intelligence or diminished leadership ability is not supported by evidence. Decades of research show little to no correlation between dyslexia and lower general intelligence.

Computational linguistics is a two-way street: You're either using a computer to do things with human language or communicate or translate or teach a foreign language, or you're using computational techniques to learn something about human languages. Her work documenting and preserving endangered languages uses a little bit of both.

'We absolutely should challenge stereotypes about ageing. Children do build their understanding of the world from these tiny repeated narratives. If old always equals useless or confused then that's going to shape their perception.'

Research has shown there is a reading for pleasure crisis among children in the UK, where enjoyment of books has fallen to its lowest level in two decades. Not so here at Christ Church primary, a tiny Church of England school tucked behind the maze of HS2 construction works in Camden, north London, where children fizz with excitement about books.

Under an oak-beamed ceiling on the top floor of one of Washington, D.C.'s coolest museums, Planet Word, more than 90 kids gathered last April to vie for $5,000 and youth Scrabble bragging rights. The North American School Scrabble Championship is serious business. The No. 1 high-school seed was ranked in the top 150 of all players in the U.S. and Canada.

Parents often hear the warning: "If your child doesn't learn a second language early, they'll never be fluent." Adults, meanwhile, are told: "It's just too late for you to learn now." These claims are familiar and tidy, but misleading. Are they actually true? Is it better to learn a second language as a child or as an adult? The short answer is that it depends on what we mean by "better."

1. Tongue in cheek 2. Old wives' tales 3. Statute of limitations 4. To be specific 5. Nipped in the bud 6. Get down to brass tacks 7. Deep-seated hatred 8. All intents and purposes 9. Wheelbarrow 10. Champing at the bit 11. Jury-rigged 12. Ulterior motive 13. Bald-faced lie 14. Dog eat dog world 15. Chump change 16. Dime a dozen 17. Duct tape 18. Can't see the forest for the trees 19. Quote unquote 20. Could have 21. Chalk it up 22. Iced tea 23. Take for granted 24. Blessing in disguise 25. Bated breath

For the first time, speech has been decoupled from consequence. We now live alongside AI systems that converse knowledgeably and persuasively-deploying claims about the world, explanations, advice, encouragement, apologies, and promises-while bearing no vulnerability for what they say. Millions of people already rely on chatbots powered by large language models, and have integrated these synthetic interlocutors into their personal and professional lives. An LLM's words shape our beliefs, decisions, and actions, yet no speaker stands behind them.

The term "conspiracy theory" calls to mind a variety of dubious claims and controversies, like rumors about Area 51, claims that the Earth is flat, and the movement known as QAnon. At first blush, these phenomena would seem to have little in common with bogus word origins. But there are a variety of false etymologies that spread virally and refuse to go away, in much the same way that stories about chemtrails, black helicopters, and UFOs refuse to die.

The Merriam-Webster editor Peter Sokolowski introduced the crowd of assembled nerds to the idea that a dictionary is not a static document but a living object, constantly updated and remade in response to how people write and speak. In a talk titled "The Dictionary as Data," Sokolowski emphasized that the editors at Merriam-Webster look to how the general public uses language to guide their work.