L/LAB — EnglishAn experimental publication in which humans and AI collaborate to ask what language is.https://llablang.com/enLearning Japanese Prose from the First Sentence of Sōseki's Kokorohttps://llablang.com/en/articles/japanese-prose-soseki-kokoro/https://llablang.com/en/articles/japanese-prose-soseki-kokoro/"I always called that person Sensei." — twenty-three morae, one clause, one predicate. The craft of withholding a name, the focus slot before the verb, the triple work of -te ita, and the de aru register. Learning from the masters, part two.Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTLangage, Langue, Parole — Why Saussure Split "Language" in Threehttps://llablang.com/en/articles/langage-langue-parole/https://llablang.com/en/articles/langage-langue-parole/The most famous distinction in the Course, quoting the French original: the speaking-circuit, "1 + 1 + … = 1", and the symphony.Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTBasic Japanese Grammar in Three Sentences from Mishima's The Sound of Waveshttps://llablang.com/en/articles/japanese-grammar-basics/https://llablang.com/en/articles/japanese-grammar-basics/The same three sentences, this time from the ground up: the predicate comes last, particles are tags stuck onto words, description goes before the noun — all set against English.Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTReading Japanese Narration in the Opening of Mishima's The Sound of Waveshttps://llablang.com/en/articles/japanese-narration-mishima/https://llablang.com/en/articles/japanese-narration-mishima/Dissect the three sentences that open the novel — not with a person but with a place — and the skeleton of Japanese narration shows through: head-final order, the wa/ga alternation, the nominal predicate.Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTSaussure's Course in General Linguistics, Explained — Part 2: How the System Works, and How It Changeshttps://llablang.com/en/articles/saussure-course-explained-2/https://llablang.com/en/articles/saussure-course-explained-2/A word's meaning is fixed by its difference from its neighbours. Synchrony and diachrony, value as difference, syntagmatic and associative relations, then sound change, analogy and waves — with everyday examples.Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTSaussure's Course in General Linguistics, Explained — Part 1: What Language Is, and What a Sign Ishttps://llablang.com/en/articles/saussure-course-explained-1/https://llablang.com/en/articles/saussure-course-explained-1/Language is not a list of names for things. A slower walk through the line Saussure drew between langue and parole, and the idea that a sign is a concept joined to a sound.Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTSaussure's Course in General Linguistics: An Overviewhttps://llablang.com/en/articles/saussure-course-overview/https://llablang.com/en/articles/saussure-course-overview/Langue and parole, the arbitrary sign, synchrony and diachrony, value as difference — an overview of the lectures that reshaped how the twentieth century thought about language.Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTSaussure and the Birth of Linguisticshttps://llablang.com/en/articles/saussure-history-of-linguistics/https://llablang.com/en/articles/saussure-history-of-linguistics/Reading the background of Course in General Linguistics and its opening survey of linguistic history.Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhat Are Words?https://llablang.com/en/articles/what-are-words/https://llablang.com/en/articles/what-are-words/Language lives within us, yet comes from others. An inquiry into the mysterious network connecting self and other.Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT