English Fun Facts

A psycholinguist wrote a book on language, and this was funny:

Mr. Pennebaker shows, for example, that someone is more likely to be lying if he says "Let me state clearly and without qualification" and more likely to be giving an opinion if he says: "There is absolutely no doubt that . . . ."

Another linguist comments on English, and argues

The advantage of the huge vocabulary of English, of course, is that it makes English a superb literary and scientific language, able to express fine and precise shades of meaning far more easily than other tongues. This is no small part of the reason English has become the near universal language of science. It also makes English more efficient. The English version of a lengthy text is always substantially shorter than versions in other languages.

English's verbs are simpler than, say, French and German, and nouns don't have gender. English isn't perfect, but it could be worse.