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]

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(23)

What is a "salad salad"? | Copies, quotes, and plagiarism

In this duplicative (but never dull) episode of Linguistics Behind the Scenes, Christinaand Dominic explore the fascinating world of copying – from plagiarism tophotocopies, and from fairy tales to “s...

27 Mars 38min

Can a robotic arm lose face? | The linguistics of politeness

In this futuristic episode of Linguistics Behind the Scenes, Christina and Dominic investigate how we talk to machines – and what our language reveals about the way we see them.- Do we treat AI and ro...

20 Feb 1h

Does punctuation matter? | To hyphenate or not to hyphenate

In this episode, Christina and Dominic make a point of exploring the tiny dots and lines that we find in writing. They uncover the history, humor, and hidden powers of punctuation marks – especially t...

3 Feb 44min

Are you working hard or hardly working? | Adverbs and data visualization

In this adverbially adventurous episode of Linguistics Behind the Scenes, Christina and Dominic dig deep into one of grammar’s dustiest drawers: the adverb category, which combines such different word...

12 Dec 202535min

What’s in a name? | How naming customs differ around the world

In this episode, Christina and Dominic tackle the fascinating – and sometimes funny – ways names reflect identity, culture, and even fashion trends.- Can names have meaning, or do they just point to p...

2 Nov 202539min

Are cooking recipes about YOU and ME? | Cookbook linguistics

In this deliciously geeky episode of Linguistics Behind the Scenes, Christina and Dominic trace the evolution of recipes as both instructions and stories, discussing how language, food, and emotion ar...

30 Sep 202552min

Do you say thank you to a robot? | When humans talk to AI

In this human-meets-machine episode, Christina and Dominic explore the curious intersection of linguistics and AI—with special focus on how people talk to robots. They explore the history of chatbots ...

9 Sep 20251h 19min