The students authoring these blogs were each awarded a 2022 Linguistics Undergraduate Research Award (LURA 2022) for innovative work in a linguistics course at CU Boulder. Students in introductory as well as advanced courses were considered for the award. Nominated by faculty, GPTIs, and TAs, award winners were asked to create a short blog about their research. This project was supported by the ASSETT Faculty Fellows Program.
Finnish & Estonian: A "Case" Study
Fewer people speak Finnish and Estonian combined than the population of New York City by a margin of some 2.5 million, a fact which would be easy to blame on the complexities of the two languages in comparison to… well, most other languages, especially in regard to their case marking systems. Read more
Honorific Language in Japanese and its Effects on Translator Systems
Online translators, such as Google Translate, are a convenient and fast tool to facilitate communication and understanding between speakers of different languages, especially when both parties are not mutually fluent in either language. However, the provided translations are not always accurate, and we can often find strange and unnatural uses of language provided from such translation software. Read more
Just a Dash of Farsi: Language and Identity
What's really the point of those random Farsi words and phrases in Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner"? Read more
The Wealth Gap Through Content-Based ESL Instruction
The wealth gap is a problematic trend that needs to be addressed through education in all parts of the world. Read more
Lion King’s Hierarchy of Accents and Dialects
Animated films often show sugarcoated tales of heroism and romance, however, they are laced with underlying meanings that can influence and exploit our understanding of race and ethnicity. Read more
Japanese, Ryukyuan, and the 51st State
Let’s suppose that one day we all wake up in the same alternate reality – a rather boring one where everything is the same, aside from an island not so far east of Washington. Read more
The Essentials of Figurative Language through the Whimsical Perspective of Robert Frost
For most, poetry is considered to be an unattainable pleasure, in that it’s either governed by the strictly enforced canons of the elite or by rhythmic anarchy itself and its youthful desire to shock or unsettle, but how exactly does Robert Frost utilize the same literary tools to refute these generalizations throughout his work? Read more
Interviewing Female Superheroes
Instead of asking about the roles of the female superheroes or what they thought of the movie, the actresses who play these roles were asked about their skintight suits. Read more
Linguistics and Familiar Conversation Over Text
How obscure can an inside joke become (no bone intended)? Read more
From Axolotls to Airplanes: How Ancient Aztec Word Construction Translates to the Modern World
What do chocolate, an endangered salamander, and a popular restaurant chain have in common? They all have etymological roots in Nahuatl! Read more
All, Everything, and Only: Defining The Taxonomy of Copular Clauses
How everything can help us describe copular clauses. Read more
Language and Gender Around the World
When the modern language we use to describe gender and identity can elude even native English speakers, how do we teach appropriate terminology to those who come from different language backgrounds? Read more
A Comparison of Syllable Length Between Kansai and Kanto Dialects of Japanese
Japanese is a language only spoken widely in Japan, however there are approximately 47 dialects spoken within the language, which makes for some interesting variations in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Read more
Your Words Are Music to My Ears
How does having an ear for music impact a person’s ability to recognize English vowel sounds? Read more
Polylithic Patterns of Newfoundlander English
How do other American dialects differ from the most linguistically diverse community in North America? Read more
Empowering Native Language in the English Classroom
Expanding access to English does not need to come with a loss of native languages. Read more