By Their Words You Shall Know Them
How we know L. Frank Baum didn't write the 15th Oz book — the surprising way mathematicians can determine authorship. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.co...
18 Juni 201232min
Capturing the Past
“Lord Grantham, Don Draper’s on Hold”: The algorithm that finds anachronisms in Downton Abbey, Mad Men and Edith Wharton. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudio...
11 Juni 201239min
The Eloquence of Plain English
Was Honest Abe a Poet? How Lincoln’s speaking style evolved from overly ornate to the brilliant simplicity of Gettysburg. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudio...
4 Juni 201231min
When Being Done Replaced Doing
As a language evolves, words, phrases and even whole tenses fall in and out of fashion. And then, every once in a while, a whole new way of expressing a particular thought will emerge seemingly out of...
29 Maj 201226min
One Giant Leap for Humanity
In the third and final installment of the Lexicon Valley series about language and gender, Mike Vuolo and Bob Garfield discuss the ongoing quest for a single, more equitable alternative to “he” and “s...
14 Maj 201237min
And May He Be a Masculine Bridge
Does talking about an object as masculine or feminine somehow cause us to think of it that way? In the second part of a Lexicon Valley series about language and gender, Mike Vuolo and Bob Garfield dis...
7 Maj 201228min
When Nouns Grew Genitals
Languages all across the world have what’s called grammatical gender, which means simply that nouns get divided up into different categories or “classes.” Sometimes those categories are called masculi...
30 Apr 201228min
A Needle Pulling Thread
Have you noticed the seemingly stratospheric rise of the word “so” in recent years? People use it not only as a conjunction or an intensifying adverb — as in “That’s so awesome!” — but also to begin o...
23 Apr 201228min
