“People don’t know why they get so upset about language,” David Crystal told me recently, over Skype from his home in Wales. “ ‘Potato’s,’ with an apostrophe ‘S,’ ” he offered, as an example of the ...

Several writers and inventors in the last century tried to introduce new marks of punctuation into the English language – but they all failed. Keith Houston tells their story. In the 1930s and ’40s, ...

Eurie Dahn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their ...

To younger people, putting a period at the end of a casually written thought could mean that you’re raring for a fight. By Max Harrison-Caldwell You’re out with a few friends after a long day at the ...

Lauren Collister is a member of the Linguistics Society of America. Of course, language does change when it’s used to text or write messages on the internet. It’s even become the focus of the field of ...

The debate about ChatGPT’s use of the em dash signifies a shift in not only how we write, but what writing is for. By Nitsuh Abebe There are countless signals you might look for to determine whether a ...