We use tag questions all the time without realising it – “you’re meeting me at the car right?” or “that was interesting, wasn’t it?” An interesting article on Boston.com explores the usage of tag questions. The slight upward inflection on the final word of the sentence gives these sentences extra meaning. Linguists see these questions(…)

Some people are more fastidious about correct spelling and grammar than others. Then there are those that take their passion for correction to a new level – like Jeff Deck and Benjamin D. Herson. Deck and Herson travelled around the perimeter of America, looking for typos and attempting to correct them. And now they’ve written(…)

A study conducted at Northumbria University, England, has shown that many native English speakers are unable to understand elements of basic grammar. The project used sample sentences and tested a wide range of adults, including some postgraduate students, asking the participants to identify the meaning of the sentences. Noam Chomsky’s theory of universal grammar assumes(…)