TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How Interpreters Juggle Two Languages at Once
Language is complex, and when abstract or nuanced concepts get lost in translation, the consequences may be catastrophic. Given the complexities of language and cultural exchange, how do these epic miscommunications not happen all the...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How Miscommunication Happens (And How to Avoid It)
Katherine Hampsten describes why miscommunication occurs so frequently, and how we can minimize frustration while expressing ourselves better. [4:32]
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The Controversial Origins of the Encyclopedia
Addison Anderson recounts the controversial origins of the first encyclopedia. [5:20]
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How to Make Your Writing Funnier
Emmy Award-winning comedy writer Cheri Steinkellner offers a few tips and tricks for finding the funny in your writing. [5:07]
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The Science Behind the Myth: Homer's "Odyssey"
Matt Kaplan explains why there might be more reality behind Homer's "Odyssey" than many realize. [4:31]
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: What "Orwellian" Really Means
If you've watched the news or followed politics, chances are you've heard the term Orwellian thrown around in one context or another. But have you ever stopped to think about what it really means, or why it's used so often? Noah Tavlin...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How Misused Modifiers Can Hurt Your Writing
Emma Bryce navigates the sticky world of misplaced, dangling and squinting modifiers. [3:21]
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo: One Word Sentences and How They Work
Emma Bryce explains how one-word sentences illustrate some lexical ambiguities that can turn ordinary words and sentences into mazes that mess with our minds. [3:28]
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Who Am I? A Philosophical Inquiry
Throughout the history of mankind, the subject of identity has sent poets to the blank page, philosophers to the agora and seekers to the oracles. These murky waters of abstract thinking are tricky to navigate, so it's probably fitting...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Where Did English Come From?
Claire Bowern traces English from the present day back to its ancient roots, showing how the language has evolved through generations of speakers. [4:54]
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The Language of Lying
Noah Zandan uses some famous examples of lying to illustrate how we might use communications science to analyze the lies themselves. [5:41]
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: A Brief History of Melancholy
If you are a living, breathing human being, chances are you have felt sad at least a few times in your life. But what exactly is melancholy, and what (if anything) should we do about it? Courtney Stephens details our still-evolving...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How Languages Evolve
Over the course of human history, thousands of languages have developed from what was once a much smaller number. How did we end up with so many? And how do we keep track of them all? Alex Gendler explains how linguists group languages...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: A Rosetta Stone for the Indus Script
Rajesh Rao is fascinated by "the mother of all crossword puzzles" - how to decipher the 4000 year old Indus script. At TED 2011, he tells how he is enlisting modern computational techniques to read the Indus language, the key piece to...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: A Refresher on Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe, an American icon, is celebrated for his life and work. This lesson will delve deeper into his early life, his macabre short stories, his poem "The Raven," and his mysterious death in Baltimore in 1849. [3:49]
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: How to Build a Fictional World
Why is J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy so compelling? How about The Matrix or Harry Potter? What makes these disparate worlds come alive are clear, consistent rules for how people, societies- and even the laws of physics-...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The True Story of 'True'
The older the word, the longer (and more fascinating) the story. With roots in Old English, 'true' shares etymological ancestors with words like betroth and truce, but also with the word tree. In fact, trees have been metaphors for...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The World's English Mania
Jay Walker explains why two billion people around the world are trying to learn English. He shares photos and spine-tingling audio of Chinese students rehearsing English "the world's second language" by the thousands. [4:31]
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Mysteries of Vernacular: Lady
Why do we call women ladies? Well, etymologically-speaking, the word comes from the Old English words for hlaf (bread) and daege (maid), which, combined, mean the female head of the household and eventually indicated high social...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Mysteries of Vernacular: Robot
In 1920, Czech writer Karel Capek wrote a play about human-like machines, thereby inventing the term robot from the Central European word for forced labor. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel explain how the science fiction staple earned its...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Vampires: Folklore, Fantasy and Fact
The myth of the bloodsucking vampire has stalked humans from ancient Mesopotamia to 18th-century Eastern Europe, but it has differed in the terrifying details. So, how did we arrive at the popular image we know, love and fear today? And...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Speech Acts: Constative and Performative
When are words just words, and when do words force action? Linguist J.L. Austin divided words into two categories: constatives (words that describe a situation) and performatives (words that incite action). For instance, is a "No...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Mysteries of Vernacular: Bewilder
The history of the word bewilder is more straightforward than you might think. Roots can be traced back to the Old English words wilde (undomesticated) and deor (untamed animals), eventually combined into the word wilderness. Jessica...
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Shakespearean Dating Tips
Beyond giving the world dozens of English language masterpieces and inventing countless words (including the word countless), William Shakespeare, ever the overachieving bard, especially had a way with the romantic turn of phrase....