The students authoring these blogs were each awarded a 2020 Linguistics Undergraduate Research Award (LURA 2020) for innovative work in a linguistics course at CU Boulder. Students in introductory as well as advanced courses were considered for the award. Nominated by faculty, GPTIs, and TAs, award winners were asked to create a short blog about their research. This project was supported by the ASSETT Faculty Fellows Program.

A meme of Obi-Wan Kenobi and General Grevious

How to Do Things with Memes

The memes shared by Star Wars prequel fans in a very nerdy corner of the... Read more
Donald Trump with the text "What is plausible deniability and how is Trump using it today?"

Trump’s Use of Conversational Implicature and Plausible Deniability

How do today’s politicians skew the truth in political discourse? By: Abbey Ehrhard Course: Language... Read more
A meme of Barack Obama with the text "Not bad" underneath

Of Presidents and “Obama Face”: Politics and Meme-ers

How do we participate in the evolving world of memes, especially when taking up a... Read more
A mosaic of images from famous Vines

Vine Is Dead, But …

Vine is dead, but... it lives on through digital users. By Paige Tapia Course: Language... Read more
A screenshot from the video

Finding Communities with Emojis

What happens when standard emojis no longer suffice? By: Gin Quesada Lara Course: Language and... Read more
An image of colorful circles the largest of which says "Linguistic relativity refers to the way native languages of people affect their world view."

“You Are What You Speak?”

Learning a language is more than memorizing vocabulary and grammar. It can also change how... Read more
An image of two speech bubbles saying "What did you make today?" and "Mistakes."

What the Duck??

We’ve all been there, when autocorrect changes what we were trying to say entirely. But... Read more
A meme from the show Phineas and Ferb

Who, Meme?

The success of an original meme depends on how it performs identity. By: Mae Cosgrove... Read more
Post-it notes with English pronouns written on them

Who? They and Them

The popularity of the singular usage of the pronouns “they/them” has become increasingly prevalent in... Read more
A word cloud of sports related words

The Game of Presidents: How We Understand Politics Through Sports Metaphors

Sports metaphors help politicians appeal to everyday people. By: Hannah Hawkins & Taylor Salazar Course:... Read more
An image of a word cloud

âš“Anchoring Digital Media

In today’s modern world, technology surrounds us, follows us, and defines us. Yet as digital... Read more
A picture of Donald Trump

Trump’s Use of Mock Spanish

How does our president use the Spanish language to divide society and further his agenda?... Read more
A cartoon about a doctor and patient

Improving Medicine One Interaction at a Time

Does anyone really like going to the doctor? By: Laura Wild Course: Language in US... Read more
A collection of IPA symbols

English to IPA Translation Using a Neural Network

Is it possible for a computer to learn the general patterns in English spelling? By:... Read more
A photo of the "ICE bae"

Deciphering “ICE Bae” through the Lens of Twitter Politics 

How do the American left and right interact on Twitter, particularly in response to viral... Read more
A woman in a hijab with the text "Allahu Akbar means 'God is great' not 'I'm going to murder you'."

The Semantic Pejoration of the Arabic Phrase 'Allahu Akbar'

How a phrase used by billions of Muslims worldwide lost its meaning. By: Max Dwight... Read more
A collection of communication technology icons

Wait, HOW Are they Using Fonts?

Have you ever wondered what meaning is intended when sOMEONE SWITCHES TO ALL CAPS IN... Read more