What can laughter teach us about language? | Cartoons and fun stories in linguistics

In this animated episode of Linguistics Behind the Scenes, Christina and Dominic explore how creative cartoons, comic strips and children’s shows can teach us about language, communication, cognition and learning itself.

- How does a curious mouse turn science into storytelling?

- Why do comic strips, from Peanuts to XKCD, make such powerful teaching tools?

- How can greeny green aliens help us understand how humans categorize the world?

- In what way do rubber ducks reveal that we often use language without thinking too much about it?

From “Die Sendung mit der Maus” to Dr. Seuss, from Calvin and Hobbes’ unexpected wisdom to XKCD’s scientific wit, the hosts show how humor helps us understand language and makes learning fun.

Full episode transcript available here:

https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/phil/english/sections/edling/sciencecommunication/podcast-transcripts.php#Episode22

This podcast episode is based on the following article:

Sanchez-Stockhammer, Christina. 2010. Comic linguistics: Comics and cartoons in academic teaching. In Mark Berninger, Jochen Ecke & Gideon Haberkorn (eds.), Comics as a nexus of cultures, 274-281. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Mentioned in this episode:

- Käptn Blaubär

- Die Sendung mit der Maus

- Sesame Street

- Mr Rogers‘ Neighbourhood

- The secret of Zoe’s dice (Viererkniffel): „Sendung mit der Maus“ episode with voiceover by Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer and her students. https://www.wdrmaus.de/extras/maus_international/englisch.php5. [8:20 min]

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