Four Calling Birds? Not Exactly.
Happy New Year! In the generous spirit of the holidays, we’re making this week’s bonus segment free to all. But there’s more: Until the end of the year, you can get 30% off a subscription to Booksmart...
21 Dec 20214min
Why Does the Letter A Look That Way?
An alphabet, one of humanity’s greatest innovations, is far from intuitive. Our own English lettering was borrowed from the Romans, of course, but where did they get it from? And where did the concept...
14 Dec 202141min
Happy Days Are Here
Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss what it means to be happy, both lexicographically and philosophically. Visit Lexicon Valley. A Book...
2 Dec 202140min
In Language, Context Is King
The late philosopher Paul Grice formulated four brief maxims by which conversations are generally governed. Most humans find it relatively easy to observe them. Machines, on the other hand, not as muc...
23 Nov 20217min
That's Not What Irony Means, Alanis
Language doesn't often do what you think it should. It’s as messy as almost anything that’s created by natural selection, but that’s what makes it so fun. Visit ...
16 Nov 202131min
Can You Play “Jew” in Scrabble?
Scrabble and other similar games have been the subject of an ongoing lexicographic debate in recent years, with some arguing that ethnic slurs have no place in the official dictionary or on the board....
2 Nov 202133min
A*#holes and B%tches
Dividing up nouns as “masculine” and “feminine” has not been a part of English for many centuries. And yet our language remains peppered throughout with gender, often overtly in terms like Mrs. and Mr...
19 Okt 202136min
On the Singular They and Slippery Slopes
English has been calling out for a gender-neutral pronoun for more than a century, with many failed attempts at invented words and portmanteaus. Singular "they" — once the scourge of schoolhouse gramm...
5 Okt 202137min
