Word: vernacular
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...class Framingham. Only a few weeks into school, she drummed up the courage to ask a question in a packed lecture hall. The professor responded by mockingly mimicking her accent. Humiliated by this degrading experience, she self-consciously introduced the letter “r” into her vernacular...
Luxury hotels can deliver beautiful surroundings, great service and fabulous food, but they often fail to capture the vernacular of the country they're in. The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, a melting pot of ethnicities, has no shortage of five-star accommodation, but the Oberoi is one that manages to embrace its rich local heritage. Striking Indonesian stone sculptures nestle in subtropical gardens alongside African artifacts and sugarcane thatched-roof pavilions. And its Touching Senses program introduces guests to the island's art, nature and diverse culture. Lessons range from oceanside painting with local artists and aromatherapy using...
...very different thing from a vanguard leading the workers forward into a new world. A Le Monde reporter captured the change perfectly by quoting a 45-year-old woman voter who blew up when the secretary of her party branch in Paris addressed her in the traditional leftist vernacular. "And why are you calling me 'comrade'?" she said. "We're not communists here...
...vernacular may not be unique to us, she says, but ours is unprecedented because of the media’s power to put words into mouths around the world. Savan finds pop in the flappers of the 1920s, “Seinfeld,” and the Super Bowl, and has veritable glossaries of pop for the Average Joe and what she calls “the community of commitment-centered words.” Two familiar Harvard personalities, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker and Cogan University Professor of the Humanities Stephen J. Greenblatt, even get mentions...
...words won’t make you sound smarter, according to this year’s Ig Noble Prize for improbable research recipient for Literature, Princeton psychology professor Daniel M. Oppenheimer. His paper, “Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly,” found that contrary to prevailing wisdom among undergraduates, readers are more likely to think that clear, concise writers are more intelligent. The study was published last year in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology. According to Oppenheimer’s paper, almost two thirds of the Princeton students...