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Recency Illusion
The recency illusion is the belief or impression, on the part of someone who has only recently become aware of a long-established phenomenon, that the phenomenon itself must be of recent origin. The term was coined by Arnold Zwicky, a linguist at Stanford University who is primarily interested in examples involving words, meanings, phrases, and grammatical constructions. However, use of the term is not restricted to linguistic phenomena: Zwicky has defined it simply as, "the belief that things ''you'' have noticed only recently are in fact recent". According to Zwicky, the illusion is caused by selective attention. Examples Linguistic items prone to the recency illusion include: * "Singular they": the use of "they," "them," or "their" to reference a singular antecedent without specific gender, as in "If George or Sally come by, give them the package." Although this usage is often cited as a modern invention, it is quite old, going back to the 14th century. * The phrase "between ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arnold Zwicky
Arnold Melchior Zwicky (born September 6, 1940) is an adjunct professor of linguistics at Stanford University and Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Ohio State University. The Linguistic Society of America’s Arnold Zwicky Award, given for the first time in 2021, is intended to recognize the contributions of LGBT, LGBTQ+ scholars in linguistics and is named for Zwicky, the first LGBTQ+ President of the LSA. Early life and education Zwicky was born on September 6, 1940, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He received a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics at Princeton University (1962). He was a student of Morris Halle at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and received a Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in 1965. Career Zwicky has made notable contributions to fields of phonology (half rhyme, half-rhymes), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (realizational morphology, rules of referral), syntax (clitics, construction grammar), interfaces (the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth List of governors of California, governor of and then-incumbent List of United States senators from California, United States senator representing California) and his wife, Jane Stanford, Jane, in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., Leland Jr. The university admitted its first students in 1891, opening as a Mixed-sex education, coeducational and non-denominational institution. It struggled financially after Leland died in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, university Provost (education), provost Frederick Terman inspired an entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial culture to build a self-sufficient local industry (later Silicon Valley). In 1951, Stanfor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Selective Perception
Selective perception is the tendency to not notice and more quickly forget stimuli that cause emotional discomfort and contradict prior beliefs. For example, a teacher may have a favorite student because they are biased by in-group favoritism. The teacher ignores the student's poor attainment. Conversely, they might not notice the progress of their least favorite student. It can also occur when consuming mass media, allowing people to see facts and opinions they like while ignoring those that do not fit with particular opinions, values, beliefs, or frame of reference. Psychologists believe this process occurs automatically. Selective perception has roots in cognitive psychology, where it is studied as a fundamental part of how individuals filter and process information based on biases, expectations, and past experiences. It is closely related to concepts like confirmation bias—favoring information that aligns with one’s beliefs—and cognitive dissonance, the discomfort of hold ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Singular They
Singular ''they'', along with its inflected or derivative forms, ''them'', ''their'', ''theirs'', and ''themselves'' (also ''themself'' and ''theirself''), is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun derived from plural they. It typically occurs with an indeterminate antecedent, to refer to an unknown person, or to refer to every person of some group, in sentences such as: This use of singular ''they'' had emerged by the 14th century, about a century after the plural ''they''. Singular ''they'' has been criticised since the mid-18th century by prescriptive commentators who consider it an error. Its continued use in modern standard English has become more common and formally accepted with the move toward gender-neutral language. Some early-21st-century style guides described it as colloquial and less appropriate in formal writing. However, by 2020, most style guides accepted the singular ''they'' as a personal pronoun. In the early 21st century, use of singular ''the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gender
Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other than their sex assigned at birth. Most cultures use a gender binary, in which gender is divided into two categories, and people are considered part of one or the other;Kevin L. Nadal, ''The Sage Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender'' (2017, ), p. 401: "Most cultures currently construct their societies based on the understanding of gender binary—the two gender categorizations (male and female). Such societies divide their population based on biological sex assigned to individuals at birth to begin the process of gender socialization." those who are outside these groups may fall under the umbrella term '' non-binary''. Some societies have ''third genders'' (and ''fourth genders'', etc.) such as the hijras of South Asia and two-spirit per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hypercorrection
In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is the nonstandard use of language that results from the overapplication of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a misunderstanding of such rules that the form or phrase they use is more "correct", standard, or otherwise preferable, often combined with a desire to appear formal or educated. Linguistic hypercorrection occurs when a real or imagined grammatical rule is applied in an inappropriate context, so that an attempt to be "correct" leads to an incorrect result. It does not occur when a speaker follows "a natural speech instinct", according to Otto Jespersen and Robert J. Menner. Hypercorrection can be found among speakers of less prestigious language varieties who attempt to produce forms associated with high-prestige varieties, even in situations where speakers of those varieties would not. Some commentators call such production ''hyperurba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Intensifier
In linguistics, an intensifier (abbreviated ) is a lexical category (but ''not'' a traditional part of speech) for a modifier that makes no contribution to the propositional meaning of a clause but serves to enhance and give additional emotional context to the lexical item it modifies. Intensifiers are grammatical expletives, specifically ''expletive attributives'' (or, equivalently, ''attributive expletives'' or ''attributive-only expletives''; they also qualify as ''expressive attributives''), because they function as semantically vacuous filler. Characteristically, English draws intensifiers from a class of words called ''degree modifiers'', words that quantify the idea they modify. More specifically, they derive from a group of words called ''adverbs of degree'', also known as ''degree adverbs''. When used grammatically as intensifiers, these words cease to be degree adverbs, because they no longer quantify the idea they modify; instead, they emphasize it emotionally. By co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slang
A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of particular in-groups in order to establish group identity, exclude outsiders, or both. The word itself came about in the 18th century and has been defined in multiple ways since its conception, with no single technical usage in linguistics. Etymology of the word ''slang'' In its earliest attested use (1756), the word ''slang'' referred to the vocabulary of "low" or "disreputable" people. By the early nineteenth century, it was no longer exclusively associated with disreputable people, but continued to be applied to usages below the level of standard educated speech. In Scots dialect it meant "talk, chat, gossip", as used by Aberdeen poet William Scott in 1832: "The slang gaed on aboot their war'ly care." In northern English dialect it me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the most influential intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; a Committee of Five, drafter and signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence; and the first United States Postmaster General, postmaster general. Born in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Franklin became a successful Early American publishers and printers, newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing ''The Pennsylvania Gazette'' at age 23. He became wealthy publishing this and ''Poor Richard's Almanack'', which he wrote under the pseudonym "Richard Saunders". After 1767, he was associated with the ''Pennsylvania Chronicle'', a newspaper known for it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African American English
African-American English (AAE) is the umbrella term for English dialects spoken predominantly by Black people in the United States and, less often, in Canada; most commonly, it refers to a dialect continuum ranging from African-American Vernacular English to more standard American English. Like all widely spoken language varieties, African-American English shows variation stylistically, generationally, geographically (that is, features specific to singular cities or regions only), in rural versus urban characteristics, in vernacular versus standard registers, etc. There has been a significant body of African-American literature and oral tradition for centuries. Name The broad topic of the English language, in its diverse forms, as used by Black people in North America has various names, including Black American English or simply Black English. Also common is the somewhat controversial term Ebonics and, more recently in academic linguistics, African American Language (AAL ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific '' A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' for his 10-year-old son, Lewis. He maintained a career in public service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament, having been elected as shire knight for Kent. Among Chaucer's many other works are '' The Book of the Duchess'', ''The House of Fame'', '' The Legend of Good Women'', ''Troilus and Criseyde'', and '' Parlement of Foules''. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frequency Illusion
The frequency illusion (also known as the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon) is a cognitive bias in which a person notices a specific concept, word, or product more frequently after recently becoming aware of it. The name "Baader–Meinhof phenomenon" was coined in 1994 by Terry Mullen in a letter to the '' St. Paul Pioneer Press''. The letter describes how, after mentioning the name of the German militant group Baader–Meinhof once, he kept noticing it. This led to other readers sharing their own experiences of the phenomenon, leading it to gain recognition. It was not until 2005, when Stanford linguistics professor Arnold Zwicky wrote about this effect on his blog, that the name "frequency illusion" was coined. Causes Several possible causes behind frequency illusion have been put forth. However, the consensus seems to be that the main processes behind this illusion are other cognitive biases and attention-related effects that interact with frequency illusion. Zwicky considered t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
