Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
by Daniel Midgley, Ben Ainslie, and Hedvig SkirgårdA podcast about linguistics, the science of language.
Copyright: ℗ & © 2024 Because Language
Episodes
54: Slang (with Jonathon Green)
1h 37m · PublishedIt’s crude. It’s rude. And it’s a lot of fun. Slang has been with us for as long as people didn’t want others to understand what they were about. But what exactly is it? And has the nature of slang changed in our internet age?
Daniel is talking to eminent slang lexicographer Jonathon Green on this episode of Because Language.
53: Mailbag of Compounds (with Tiger Webb)
1h 32m · PublishedLanguage titan Tiger Webb is helping us with our voluminous Mailbag.
Hedvig is giving her annual Eurovision language roundup.
And we’re sorting through the lexicon of the 2022 Australian election.
- Is MAYBE a compound word? What about ANOTHER, or GARBAGE?
- Are GONNA and WANNA portmanteaus?
- What does it take to be a linguist?
52: The Language Game (with Morten Christiansen and Nick Chater)
1h 31m · PublishedHow is language like a game of charades? According to a new book, quite a lot. Charades players and language users improvise and work together to create meaning in a situation, and they get better at it as they reuse elements and build up patterns.
Drs Morten Christiansen and Nick Chater explain their vision of language to Daniel and Hedvig on this episode of Because Language.
51: A Wug-Tonne of Advice (with Kitty Liu and Romany Amber)
52m · PublishedWe had the pleasure of an interview with two up-and-coming linguists, wanting to find out more about the show and linguistic communication. It was such a fun chat that we wanted to share it with you. Here's Daniel and Hedvig with Kitty Liu and Romany Amber.
Part of this chat also appears in magazine form (along with a lot of other really good articles) : https://issuu.com/u-lingua/docs/issue_8_forweb
Thanks to Kitty and Romany for thinking of us, and thanks to U-Lingua for letting us make this audio public.
50: Employing Linguistics (with Anna Marie Trester and Ellen)
1h 37m · PublishedLinguistics is what we all love, but how do we make it pay? Turns out there are more ways than you might have thought of, and a new book is here to help. Dr Anna Marie Trester joins Daniel for an uplifting and hopeful chat.
And how do we make the online experience better for Blind people? Friend of the pod Ellen is here with some do’s and some do-not-do’s.
49: Mailbag - It's That T Again (with Mignon Fogarty)
1h 11m · PublishedLingcomm legend Mignon Fogarty (Grammar Girl) joins us to answer all the questions in our Mailbag! And we have to ask her about National Grammar Day. How do we bring out descriptive grammar, and tone down the policing?
- Why do some people say “She text me”?
- Why are some people convinced it’s the Flinstones and not the Flintstones?
- Are some people saying “I finished mines”?
- Is technology making us forget how to spell and write?
- And why does “going to Kong Kong” have a naughty meaning in Korean?
48: The Black Side of the River (with Jessi Grieser)
1h 32m · PublishedAnacostia 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.
47: We Need to Talk About Grice (with Rikker Dockum)
1h 13m · PublishedEvery 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.
46: Just Words (with Rebecca Shapiro)
1h 35m · PublishedCan 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.
45: Mailbag of Words
1h 19m · PublishedThe 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.
Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language. has 100 episodes in total of non- explicit content. Total playtime is 152:02:56. The language of the podcast is English. This podcast has been added on November 23rd 2022. It might contain more episodes than the ones shown here. It was last updated on May 24th, 2024 15:10.