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Show notes for Episode 86 ⚠️🤬⚠️Contains swearing (obvs) and quite a lot of it…handled seriously and with academic rigour (🧐)⚠️🤬⚠️ Welcome to episode 86 of Lexis in which we go in mob-handed with 5 (count ‘em!) interviewers and Dr Chris Montgomery, Senior Lecturer in Dialectology in the School of English at the University of Sheffield. Lisa, Jacky, Dan, Amanda and guest interviewer, Neil Hutchinson ask him about his work on dialect and how this relates to his new project on regional swearing. ...
Show notes for Episode 85 ⚠️⚠️⚠️We talk about some topics and forms of language - the language of incels and the manosphere, for example - that might be considered unpleasant and upsetting for some listeners⚠️⚠️⚠️ Welcome to episode 85 of Lexis in which Dan talks to Dr Rob Topinka, Reader in Digital Media and Rhetoric at Birkbeck, University of London. We talk about: Why language is important to politics What rhetoric is, its characteristics and what it’s designed to do How rhetoric works in onl...
Welcome to episode 84 of Lexis in which we have both an interview and a Lang in the News segment. Amanda and Dan talk to Dr Daria Bahtina, Continuing Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at UCLA about a lot of things, including: Generational slang and online vernacular Whether any slang is ever truly ‘meaningless’ The rapid pace of slang generation, diffusion and disappearance in an online world What happens when slang leaves niche communities and gets picked up more widely Moral panics aro...
Welcome to episode 83 of Lexis, another student-led episode, which this time features Oli, an A Level student at the Dubai British School interviewing Dr Sarah Hopkyns, with some help from Dan. Sarah is a Lecturer in TESOL and International Education at the University of St Andrews, Lecturer (Teaching) in Intercultural Communication at the Institute of Education, UCL and Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. We talk about: What we mean by ‘The Gulf’ and the Gulf nati...
Welcome to episode 82 of Lexis, in which Raj, Dan and (guest interviewer and friend of the pod) Amanda Cole talk to Dr Rianna Walcott, Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland, and Associate Director of the Black Communication and Technology (BCaT) Lab. We discuss her 2023 PhD, A Tweet at the Table - Black British Identity Expression on Social Media . We talk about: Black community, identity and self-expression on social media Black Twitter Sociolinguistic work on Black...
Welcome to episode 81 of Lexis, a special student takeover edition which features Freya and Miles from Eltham Hill School in South London in conversation with Dr Jessica Aiston, postdoctoral research assistant in Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London (and who previously appeared on episode 50 talking about critical discourse studies). The episode is all about the language of, and around, neurodiversity, including: Why this episode exists and why Freya and Miles wanted to record it What ...
Welcome to episode 80 of Lexis in which Dan and guest interviewer Ben talk to Dr Matthew Hunt, Lecturer of Sociolinguistics, University of Southampton about voice pitch, including: What it is and how we measure it What it ‘means’, including its ‘social meaning potential’ The judgements that we make about pitch and why these matter Gendered perceptions of pitch His work on domestic violence cases and the role of pitch in perceptions of ‘victimhood’ Gender and football commentaries Advice to A Lev...
⚠️ Content warning ⚠️ We discuss mental health, self-harm and suicide as part of this episode. Welcome to episode 79 of Lexis in which Raj & Dan talk to Dr Charlotte Entwistle, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in Psychology, University of Liverpool. We discuss: Her path from A levels to research How language analysis can be used in psychology What language reveals about our minds and how they work The linguistic patterns associated with different personality traits Language and mental...
This episode features John Kelly, a distinguished lexicographer, who shares insights into how "Word of the Year" (WOTY) decisions are made, considering data, culture, language, and brand. The discussion delves into the WOTY phenomenon as both a marketing exercise and a vital tool for fostering metalinguistic awareness and collective understanding in a polarized world. Kelly evaluates past and present choices, explores the longevity and impact of words like "selfie" and "6-7," and touches on language's dual capacity for reclamation and harm, culminating in his personal WOTY choice, "fascism."
Raj and Dan welcome Professor Lynne Murphy to discuss recent news stories about the 'Americanisation' of young people's English. They delve into the historical context of these moral panics, examine the cognitive biases and national identity concerns behind the claims, and explain how language truly evolves. The conversation also covers the influence of British English on American English and critical ways to approach media narratives on linguistic change.
Guests Dani Yin and Cheryl Wakslak discuss their research on gendered exclamation mark usage in digital communication, revealing how women are more self-conscious and navigate a "double bind" between warmth and assertiveness. The conversation delves into the societal expectations influencing communication choices and the impact of evolving digital norms. The episode also features a segment on recent media debates surrounding inclusive language and the resistance to such changes.
Welcome back to Lexis. This is episode 75 and it’s a bumper edition. We pick up on a recent survey of teachers by Teacher Tapp about teachers’ accents and run with it… We talk to teacher, Arun Sharma about his experiences, we interview Alex Baratta, Amanda Cole and Rob Drummond and we discuss the survey results in more detail and cover some other stories about accents in the news. Teacher Tapp’s blog about this: https://teachertapp.com/articles/how-teachers-feel-about-their-accents/ Teacher Tapp...
Welcome to Episode 74 of Lexis. Jacky and Dan talk to Dr Laura Smith-Khan, Senior Lecturer - School of Law, University of New England, Australia about… How she got into the linguistics of law Where and how law and language overlap Clarity, accuracy and the power dynamics in legal language Migration, borders, refugees and the law Assessing ‘credibility’ and some of the processes of refugee law Critically assessing media discourses around migration Laura Smith-Khan’s university profile: https://ww...
Welcome to Episode 73 of Lexis. Dan talks to Sam Hellmuth, Catherine Laing, Lauren Harrington and Salina Cuddy about the forthcoming York English Language Toolkit event for A Level English Language teachers. You can sign up here: https://englishlanguagetoolkit.york.ac.uk/workshops Previous workshops and case studies are here: https://englishlanguagetoolkit.york.ac.uk/case-studies Lexis is on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social Contributors Lisa Casey blog: https://livingth...
Welcome to Episode 72 of Lexis. Raj and Dan talk to Professor Karrin Vasby Anderson, Department of Communication Studies, Colorado State University, USA about: Communication studies - what kinds of communication are studied and how Power and politics Toxic masculinity & Trump Gender and politics The ‘double-bind’ for women in politics The Presidential debates of 2016 and 2024 Language, demagoguery & healthy democracies. Karrin’s University of Colorado page: https://www.libarts.colostate....
Welcome to Episode 71 of Lexis. Lisa, Dan and guest presenter Amanda Cole talk to Professor Mercedes Durham, from the Centre for Language and Communication, Cardiff University about her work on Welsh English. We talk about: The Leverhulme Trust project "Sociolinguistic Variation in South East Wales: Change and Contact" What makes Welsh English distinctive Varieties of Welsh English and how they’ve come to be Attitudes to Welsh English accents The power of Gavin and Stacey Charlotte from The Trai...
In this episode, Dr. Emma Humphries explores the multifaceted nature of prescriptivism, defining it as an ideology and activity focused on correcting and judging language. She shares insights from her "You're Wrong" project, which crowdsources examples of prescriptivism in popular culture, and discusses how linguistic judgments often serve as proxies for deeper social discrimination, touching on efforts like France's new accent discrimination law. The conversation also delves into how prescriptivism, while often seen negatively, can sometimes serve positive roles, particularly for minority languages, and offers advice on challenging rigid linguistic attitudes.
Welcome to Episode 69 of Lexis. Dan is joined by guest interviewer Amanda Cole for this episode as we talk to Dr Natalie Braber, Professor in linguistics at Nottingham Trent University and Alice Paver, Research Assistant at the Phonetics Laboratory, University of Cambridge about their new paper, ‘Stereotyped accent judgements in forensic contexts: listener perceptions of social traits and types of behaviour’. We talk about: Previous accent attitude research What makes their research different an...
Show notes for Episode 68 Here are the show notes for Episode 68, in which Lisa, Jacky, Raj and Dan talk to lexicographer extraordinaire, connoisseur of coinages and expert slangster, Tony Thorne, Language consultant at King’s College London, about the words of 2024, those on his radar for 2025 and what new words tell us (or don’t) about the world we live in today. We talk about: The WOTY lists of 2024 Why WOTY generates interest and column inches What didn’t make the cut What’s driving lexical ...
Show notes for Episode 67 Here are the show notes for Episode 67, in which Jacky and Dan talk to Joe McVeigh, Senior Lecturer in Communication at the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, PhD candidate at University of Helsinki and formerly a Linguistics lecturer at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland about how to spot (and critique) a bad linguistics article, including how to look at: 1) misleading framing 2) contradictions, and 3) no evidence (or anecdotal evidence). The articles we di...
Dr. Andreea Calude discusses the linguistics of social media, exploring how purpose, audience, and platform affordances shape online communication. The conversation covers identity performance, the application of linguistic theories like move analysis to digital texts, and dispels common misconceptions about the perceived decline of language due to social media. Calude also offers personal reflections, book recommendations, and career advice for budding linguists.
Here are the show notes for Episode 65, in which Raj and Dan talk to Jullietta Stoencheva, PhD candidate in Media and Communication Studies at Malmo University about: Extremist narratives and how they are constructed Who the ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ are in extremist Us vs Them narratives Everyday extremism, plausible deniability and ‘borderline discourse’ Pushing the Overton window Her latest work and what it reveals The Psychologist article about the everyday extremism project: https://www.bps.org.uk/ps...
Show notes for Episode 64 Here are the show notes for Episode 64, in which Raj and Dan talk to Katie Mansfield, PhD Researcher at The University of Sheffield & Lecturer in Education at The University of Gloucestershire about: Her research on working-class children, non-standard English and style shifting at school Combining approaches from linguistics and psychology to develop a suitable methodology Working memory, executive function and style shifting School and government policies on stand...
Show notes for Episode 63 Here are the show notes for Episode 63, in which Raj and Dan talk to Dr Isobelle Clarke, Lecturer in Security and Protection Science in the Dept of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University about: Anti-science discourses The language of climate change denialism The attraction and appeal of anti-science narratives Methodologies for analysing discourses: including why linguists still need to interpret patterns Exploring discourses around Islam and Muslims i...
Show notes for Episode 62 Here are the show notes for Episode 62, in which Raj and Dan talk to Fiona McPherson, senior editor at the Oxford English Dictionary about: 20 years of Oxford Word of the Year Why she can’t reveal any secrets about WOTY2024… Why some words stick around and others don’t What makes a good WOTY candidate Word formation processes Where and how new words are being generated and disseminated 20 Years of Words that Reflect our World: https://corp.oup.com/word-of-the-year/ Our ...
Show notes for Episode 61 Here are the show notes for Episode 61, in which Jacky and Dan talk to Dr Lucy Jones, Associate Professor in Sociolinguistics at the University of Nottingham about Words We Live By: A Guide to LGBTQ+ Language, including: Why language labels are so important when discussing sexuality and sexual identity Whether or not such labels categorise and divide more than they validate and unite The expanding lexicon of LGBT terminology and initialisms Why it’s important to start c...
Show notes for Episode 60 Here are the show notes for Episode 60, in which Raj and Dan talk to Peter Stockwell, Professor of Literary Linguistics at the University of Nottingham and Jessica Norledge, Assistant Professor in Stylistics at the University of Nottingham about stylistics, including: What stylistics is and what it offers How English language students can apply linguistic analysis to literary texts The Nottingham Stylistics Toolkit project Some of their favourite tools in the toolkit Wh...
Show notes for Episode 59 Here are the show notes for Episode 59, in which Dan talks to Sam Hellmuth, Professor of Linguistics at the University of York about the 2024 York English Language Toolkit workshop. We also talk to Eytan Zweig and James Tompkinson about their sessions. You can sign up here: https://englishlanguagetoolkit.york.ac.uk/workshops Previous workshops and case studies are here: https://englishlanguagetoolkit.york.ac.uk/case-studies Contributors Lisa Casey blog: https://livingth...
Show notes for Episode 58 Here are the show notes for Episode 58, in which Dan talks to Professor of Corpus Linguistics, Dr Vaclav Brezina of Lancaster University about: The new Frequency Dictionary of British English What certain words can tell us about a changing language Using corpora to track change Why we need more than just words to understand patterns of language change Why media discourses around change might need to be treated with caution Vaclav’s University page: https://www.lancaster...
Show notes for Episode 57 Here are the show notes for Episode 57, in which Lisa, Jacky and Dan talk about some recent Lang in the News, including: Apostrophes and why their disappearance has signalled the end of civilisation Johanna Gerwin’s new paper on how MLE and ‘Jafaican’ have been ‘enregistered’ in the UK press Some articles about MLE A really good student answer to a question on MLE (thanks, Abi 😁 ) And then straight after that, Raj and Dan talk to the actual Dr Johanna Gerwin about her ...
