TELT

“Ever since Richard Brinsley Sheridan created the chronically misspeaking character of Mrs. Malaprop in his 18th-century romantic comedy The Rivals, we’ve had a convenient word with which to point out other people’s linguistic inferiority. But is saying “epitaphs” when you really mean “epithets,” as Mrs. Malaprop did, really a sign of ignorance? In fact, there’s much more to malapropisms than you might think. Listen as Bob Garfield and I [Mike Vuolo] discuss what a common speech error reveals about the way that our mental lexicon—that is, the dictionary in our head—is likely organized.”

Shona Whyte:

Lexicon Valley podcast with discussion between Mike Vuolo and Bob Garfield using David Fay and Anne Cutler's 1977 article for scientific background.

http://pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/item/escidoc:68653:10/component/escidoc:506938/Cutler_1977_Malapropisms+and+the.pdf

"Chomsky leads us through a history of language theory, concluding with the revolutionary model he championed: a universal grammar underpinning all languages that corresponds to an innate capacity of the human brain […] But he brandishes examples of how 'our moral and intellectual culture '.forcefully rejects universal moral judgments' -- such as continued U.S. refusal to approve anti-torture conventions.

In contrast, Elizabeth Spelke forcefully links 'universals in human nature to some of the developments in bringing about a greater balance in human rights.' Thirty years of cognitive and cross cultural research show that humans universally structure their world in terms of objects, have a universal capacity to represent numbers, and to represent other people as 'intentional, goal-directed agents whose freely chosen actions are subject to moral evaluation.'"

"Language, language and linguistic news...."

Short science reports in relation to language acquisition, links to TED talks, nicely organised and set out.  A painless way to get some more background on how languages are learned.