Glenn Hadikin is a trustee of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL). Words are often seen as the building blocks of languages. But as children we don’t learn lists of words like we ...

Humans are storytelling beings. As far as we know, no other species has the capacity for language and ability to use it in endlessly creative ways. From our earliest days, we name and describe things.

If you have spent time with an infant, you might recognize the scene: A child is wailing, inconsolable, and you, the parent, have to go to the bathroom. Or eat. Or attend to a pot that’s boiling over.

This type of language can be either objective or subjective. Objective language includes making verifiable statements. Some examples include: “Yesterday was Monday,” “Today it is raining,” or “My car ...