53: Mailbag of Compounds (with Tiger Webb)

Why does everyone say OOO! when they see someone fall down? Why do we say YUM when we feed a baby? And what's the deal with fillers like UM? For this episode we're talking about non-lexical vocalisati...

27 Maj 20232h 26min

How can you tell if a news story is intended to deceive? In one well-known case of journalistic deception, there were tells that required machine learning to trace. We're talking to author and computa...

15 Maj 20231h 44min

We're going deep into our Mailbag, and we're going to answer all your questions. Why do we say "here you go" when we give something to someone? Why can we reduce something to /sʌmʔ/? The thing is is,...

25 Apr 20231h 8min

When language was innovated, what happened next? How did it change our abilities — and our responsibilities — to each other? Dr Nick Enfield shares ideas from his new book, Consequences of Language. P...

3 Apr 20232h 12min

Here's an entire show, curated by one of our most prolific contributors — newly minted speechie PharaohKatt! She's got news. She's got words. She tries to stump us on Related or Not. She even teaches ...

25 Mars 20231h 37min

For this special live LingFest23 episode, we'll again be voting on tricky language issues, and our votes will be binding on all English users for all time because that's how language works. If you ha...

2 Mars 20231h 33min

We all have freedom of expression, but what are its limits — social and legal? And how have governments tried to curtail it? We're talking through the implications of free speech with Dennis Baron. He...

16 Feb 20231h 42min

The American Dialect Society Word of the Year has been chosen — and it's a wonderful and terrible pick! Depending on who you're talking to. In this episode, we're talking about -USSY and all the words...

27 Jan 20231h 36min