Anacostia is a rapidly gentrifying suburb in Washington DC, and as Anacostia changes, so does the language. How do the original Black residents use language to establish their cred? What about the language of the new Black gentrifiers? Dr Jessi Grieser has been listening. She’s the author of The Black Side of the River , and she joins Daniel for a chat.
Every Linguistics 101 student knows about HP Grice and his famous Maxims. They state that dialogue is usually cooperative — and when it doesn't appear to be, they explain how we manage to work out meaning anyway. But linguists are questioning the applicability and universality of these rules. Is it time for a reappraisal of Grice? We're joined by Rikker Dockum on this episode of Because Language.
Can dictionaries create a more fair world? One language observer sees that dictionaries, far from being a neutral chronicle of language, are capable of promoting social justice. Daniel speaks with Dr Rebecca Shapiro , author of Fixing Babel: An Historical Anthology of Applied English Lexicography .
The Words of the Year are out! And we’re talking about ’em. We’re answering all the questions in our voluminous Mailbag. We have here , there , and where . We also have that and what . Was there ever a hat ? Why are we friends with someone? Is the distribution of emoji Zipfian? If you study linguistics — the science of language — are you a STEM major? And Hedvig springs a game on us....
Our listeners have voted, and here are all the words! Which were our top Words of the Week? Which were the worst? And what did all the dictionary people pick? We’re joined by our very special guest (and lingopod pal) Dr Lauren Gawne for this very cheugy episode of Because Language .
Our friends and listeners bring us lots of great stories, questions, and words. So for this episode, we've invited them to present them themselves! All patrons have been invited to join us for this live episode, and many have brought pets. Also, Dr Hadas Kotek has examined the sentences used in linguistic textbooks and examples. How are people represented in our discipline?
The sciences are facing a replicability crisis. Some landmark studies were once considered settled, but then failed when they were retested. So have any linguistic experiments been toppled? And how do we fix this problem? Dr Martine Grice and Dr Bodo Winter have contributed to a special issue of Linguistics , and they join us for this fun episode.
Here to help us answer our voluminous Mailbag is the tireless Dr Caitlin Green, Vice Cancellor of Caitlin University. Among our questions: NON-BINARY or NONBINARY? What’s behind coffee names? Why is there an L in WOULD? Could swearing get in the way of persuasion? When is it time to stop supporting a minority language? What’s with the D in TIDDIES? Fee fi fo… fun? Why doesn’t it rhyme with ENGLISHMAN? Where does TUCKER come from?...
Dialect is a role-playing game about language and how it dies. Over the course of a game, players form an isolated community, create a private language, and watch it fade away as the community’s isolation is breached. We’re very pleased and honoured to play a game of Dialect , with game creator Hakan Seyalıoğlu of Thorny Games leading us through it.
You probably communicate with your friends using media references all the time. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But why do we include media references, when we could just talk? Turns out it has a lot to do with identity, building social relationships, and communication — all the stuff that language normally does. We’re having a media-heavy discussion with Dr Sylvia Sierra about her book Millennials Talking Media: Creating Intertextual Identities in Everyday Conversation ....
This is the second of a two-parter on generativism, the linguistic school of thought originated by Noam Chomsky. This time, it's from the perspective of early-career researchers. How is generativism relevant to them, and how do they regard its claims? We ask: What importance does linguistic theory have on day-to-day research? How does generativism relate to nativism , the idea that at least some language is innate? Is there a conflict between generativism and functionalism today? What's the next...
We’re doing a deep dive into generativism , the linguistic school of thought championed by Noam Chomsky. It’s had an enormous impact on the direction of linguistics, and even those who disagree with the generative programme will be at least somewhat conversant with its claims and the debate around it. Here, we’ll try to answer questions such as: What is generativism, and what are its claims? What does generativism help you to do in linguistics? What is the relationship to nativism , the idea tha...
The Because Language team are talking through some of the most interesting research around, and you get to listen! Valuable medical information gets lost when Indigenous languages are wiped out When it comes to learning languages, multilinguals have the edge over bilinguals A generativist argues that languages don't adapt to their environment. What's behind this? And it's iconicity turned up to 11: some experiments that explore how language began....
Linguistics as a discipline throws up challenges to Indigenous linguists. At the same time, they're the ones called upon to fix it. It can't stay like this. How do we make linguistics a safe place to work? Daniel, Hedvig, and very special co-host Ayesha Marshall are having a yarn with Lesley Woods and Dr Alice Gaby about their work in changing linguistics for the better.
OzCLO is the Australian Computational and Linguistic Olympiad. It gets students together to compete and solve linguistic problems. It’s also a gateway to further linguistic study. We’ve brought some of the winning students to compete in a linguistic quiz with Ben and Hedvig. Will it go well for them?
All it took was a tweet. Last week, linguists refocused their attention on a paper about humidity and tone. Was it bad linguistics? Environmental determinism? The reaction said a lot about linguistics and the nature of linguistic communication in the digital age.
What we call sometimes Chinese is really a gigantic family of languages. They’re somewhat divided in mutual intelligibility, and somewhat united in their writing system. How are they different, and how are they maintaining themselves? Two Chinese researchers, Wu Mei-Shin and Ye Jingting , join us. And what’s going on in the Cantonese lingopod world? We’re joined by Israel Lai of Rhapsody in Lingo .
Words of the Week are coming out of the woodwork, and who better to work through them with us than Grant Barrett of A Way with Words? Wowee.
Our Mailbag is once again full of questions, and podcasting luminary Helen Zaltzman is here to help us answer them! Why is the raspberry sound (PBTPBBBBT) not a speech sound in any language? Or is it? How can sounds in a language change so much over time? Am I BURNED OUT? Or BURNT OUT? Why are they called metaphysicians and not metaphysicists ? What can we call something besides LAME? Why is AMPHI- so infrequently used in English?...
Blog post with show notes: http://becauselanguage.com/29-cultish/ Support the show on Patreon: http://patreon.com/join/becauselangpod/ Language helps us build and maintain social relationships. Cults — however we define them — exploit this function and subvert it for their own ends. Amanda Montell is the author of the new book Cultish , and she joins us for this show. And researcher Jared Holt explains why QAnon conspiracy catch phrases seem to be dropping off in popularity from the mainstream w...
Show notes: http://becauselanguage.com/28-the-cutting-edge/ Become a patron and support the show: http://patreon.com/join/becauselangpod/ We're taking over Pint of Science (or are they taking over us?) for this episode! Three researchers are presenting their work in language, and they'll also tell us what they're learning about public science communication.
Blog post with show notes and video episode: http://becauselanguage.com/27-its-all-semantics/ Become a patron yourself: http://patreon.com/join/becauselangpod/ Are fish wet? What is bi-weekly ? And which Monday is next Monday? We’re solving some of the thorniest problems in semantics by voting, because that’s how language works! 👍 Our great Patreon patrons join us for this episode, along with Christy Filipich on Auslan interpretation. Part of #LingFest....
It joins, it divides. It’s disappearing in some places, but it’s stronger than ever in others. For this episode, we’re talking to Professor Pardis Mahdavi , author of Hyphen , an exploration of identity and self as it concerns this confounding little mark.
Who listens to the show more closely than anyone (except possibly Daniel)? It's Maya Klein , who transcribes every word we say in excruciating detail. What goes into the process of transcription, and is a word-for-word approach really the best? And what quirks and habits do we have on the show? Maya roasts us on this episode of Because Language .
For many students, university opens up new frontiers of learning — and new ways to be marginalised for their language use. A new book explores the problem of linguistic discrimination in higher education, and how to work toward fixing it. Also: Danish presents an unusual challenge for those who try to learn it — even babies. Why is Danish like this, and what does it tell us about language?
We're tackling these Mailbag questions with the help of our special guest and star of TikTok, the Layman's Linguist! Where do they say CHUBE instead of TUBE? When did contractions come into English, and why don't characters in period dramas use them? Did Hebrew displace Yiddish when it was revitalised? Do bilingual children have delays in syntax? When did the word APOLOGY move from a defence to an expression of contrition? Did linguistics affect your religious faith?...
What’s a corpsicle ? How old is the word hyperspace ? Who was the first writer to use the term warp drive ? These and many other terms can be found in the landmark work The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction , and with us is the editor, lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower.
There's so much news and research coming out, we can hardly address it all! But we're giving it a try on this episode of Little Words Newsblast Journal Club. Uzbek is romanising Honesty / certainty has a prosodic profile People with "gay-sounding" voices anticipate rejection and discrimination Language patterns emerge in protactile communities Gesture shows patterns
Kamala Harris is the first woman — and woman of colour — to be Vice President of the United States. In the campaign, she had to pull off a tricky task: stay true to her voice and multiple aspects of her identity by employing features of African-American English that would resonate with Black voters, but that wouldn’t alienate white voters. How did she do it? Dr Nicole Holliday joins Ben, Hedvig, and Daniel on this episode of Because Language.
More great questions from our Mailbag! How did we get from SUSS (suspect) to SUSS OUT (find out)? Is the J in JORTS part of a portmanteau, or a real live prefix? Why do PEEP, PEEK, and PEER resemble each other? Which acronym etymologies aren't bunk? Why do we add a SCHM- to words to signify derision? Are Mormon missionaries supernaturally good at learning languages?
