From William Lily’s Rudimenta Grammatices to Geoffrey Hinton’s neural networks, this essay traces five centuries of inquiry into language — from moral discipline to scientific method to artificial intelligence — and asks why linguistics, the study of language itself, never solved the question that machines finally answered.
The Seven Parts of Speech The familiar seven parts of speech — noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection — have a lineage stretching back over two millennia. Their origins lie in the work of Dionysius Thrax (c. 170–90 BCE), whose Téchnē Grammatikē (The Art of Grammar) classified Greek words into eight categories. The …
The lotus rises pure from the mud, uniting science and symbol, matter and mind. This reflection explores how the flower’s ancient imagery bridges the two magisteria of human understanding — the measurable and the mysterious.
When the Church abandoned the language of eternity for the language of everyday speech, it lost more than words. The fading of Latin marked a deeper rupture — the disappearance of mystery. Yet, in the end, the contents of the chalice matter more than the metal from which it is made.
A reflection that begins with Jesuit Father Robert McTeigue, an American priest, philosopher, and host of The Catholic Current radio programme, whose plea for England’s return to Rome frames a meditation on tradition, illusion, and the enduring human need to make life worthwhile.
1. Size and Range of the Vocabulary A lemma is the main dictionary form of a word — the headword, usually shown in bold, under which all its inflected forms are listed. 2. Main Word Families (Frequency by Semantic Field) Domain Common Words & Roots Notes God / Divinity Deus, Dominus, sanctus, gloria, nomen, verbum, …
Quemadmodum desiderat cervus ad fontes aquarum(As the deer longs for the fountains of water) Summary A psalm of deep longing — the soul thirsts for God as the deer for water.Outwardly it is a prayer of exile and spiritual desolation; inwardly it speaks of the mind’s thirst for renewal, the search for the source of …
Beatus qui intelligit super egenum et pauperem(Blessed is he who considers the poor) Summary A psalm of David expressing compassion for the poor, personal suffering, betrayal by friends, and trust in God’s deliverance.It moves from mercy to pain to restoration, reflecting how awareness of our own weakness awakens the healing force within.It also foreshadows the …
A domestic portrait of Roman family life that revises sum, esse and introduces possessive adjectives (meus, tuus, suus, noster, vester). The passage reinforces everyday vocabulary while showing affection and harmony within the household.
An elemental lesson in contrasts — water and fire, calm and energy, coolness and heat. This passage introduces neuter nouns and reinforces adjective agreement through scenes of domestic and natural life.