Lexicon Valley
305 episodes — Page 5 of 7
Ep 105How Did Americans Talk a Hundred Years Ago?
John McWhorter time travels to 1930 to eavesdrop on American English. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 104Like, Why Do We Use Like So Much?
A conversation with sociolinguist Alexandra D’Arcy X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 103What Had Happened Was Storytelling
John McWhorter discusses his new book, Talking Back, Talking Black. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 102Why We Stopped Teaching Children How to Read
A conversation with Mark Seidenberg, author of Language at the Speed of Sight. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 101Away in a Penthouse, the Little Lord Jesus
When hath gave way to has, plus the original meaning of merry. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 100What "The Wizard of Oz" Can Tell Us About "Arrival"
In Arrival, Amy Adams plays a linguist who discovers that language can radically alter a person’s sense of reality. Can it actually? X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 99Black Like Us
Are the slang, sounds and syntax of Black English a kind of universal patois for America’s youth? X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 98Language Lessons of Past Presidents
Some unwitting English instruction from previous U.S. presidents. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 97How You Vanquished Ye, Thee and Thou
How our rich and complex system of second-person pronouns got whittled down to just you. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 96Why Do People in Old Movies Talk Like That?
On the peculiar speech patterns of early 20th century Americans. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 95Billy and Me Went to the Store
On the unwritten rules of pronouns. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 94What Is a Dictionary, Really?
A conversation with John Simpson, former editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 93The Invisible Language of Nursery Rhymes
What does Hickory Dickory Dock really mean? X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 92Word Sex
Where do new words come from? Often old words. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 91Should Shakespeare Get a Modern English Makeover?
A conversation with Jack Lynch, author of Becoming Shakespeare: The Unlikely Afterlife That Turned a Provincial Playwright into the Bard. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 90Are Emoji a Language?
A conversation with Gretchen McCulloch on the big meaning behind our favorite little pictograms. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 89Finding Life in a Dead Language
A conversation with Ann Patty, author of Living With a Dead Language, about her transformative experience learning Latin. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 88Rules Are Made to Be Spoken
A conversation with Sali Tagliamonte, author of Making Waves: The Story of Variationist Sociolinguistics. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 87Should We Make English Spelling Easier?
A conversation with etymologist Anatoly Liberman, author of Word Origins and How We Know Them. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 86Your Brain on Profanity
Benjamin K. Bergen, author of What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves, discusses the science of cursing. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 85LinguaFile XXIV | Roshambo
Why some people call rock-paper-scissors roshambo, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 84The Blaccent
Linguist John McWhorter says the so-called blaccent is largely about vowel sounds. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 83LinguaFile XXIII | Red Herring
How Clupea harengus — a.k.a. Atlantic herring — came to signify a diversionary tactic, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 82Defecation Presentation
The earliest known example of "sh-t show" is from an English-language translation of a 1970s criminal trial in Germany. But what was the word or phrase being translated? X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 81LinguaFile XXII | Grain of Salt
On the origin of a skeptical phrase, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 80The Full, Firm, Valiant and Heavy-Hearted Trump
When exactly did sad become an insult? X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 79LinguaFile XXI | Wazzock
A peculiar insult from the north of England has the Oxford English Dictionary stumped, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 78The Fall and Rise of the Singular They
A pronoun that English borrowed from its Scandinavian neighbors gets new life as an alternative to he and she. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 77LinguaFile XX | In Cahoots
The curious case of a conspiratorial coinage, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 76Tears of Joy, Identity and a Prism of Isms
Editors at Merriam-Webster, Oxford University Press and Dictionary.com discuss the one word they believe best represents 2015. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 75LinguaFile XIX | 86'd
On the early-20th-century origins of a bizarre food-industry code, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 74Snoozefest
The energetic history of the word sleep. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 73LinguaFile XVIII | Hootenanny
On a word that was popularized during the 1940s folk movement, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 72A Cat, a Coward and Female Genitalia
The etymological quirkiness of the word pussy. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 71LinguaFile XVII | Humdinger
On a real beauty of a word, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 70Seven Centuries of F--ks
On a recent revelation regarding the history of one our most enduring expletives. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 69LinguaFile XVI | Boondoggle
On the origins of a very wasteful word, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 68How New York Became the Big Apple
New York City is big, sure, but why an apple? X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 67LinguaFile XV | Gringo
On the origin of a Spanish-language pejorative, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 66What Do You Mean What Is It Like?
On “a literary history of the strange expression ‘what is it like?’” — with lexicographer Anne Seaton. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 65LinguaFile XIV | Heebie Jeebies
On the jittery history of a nervous term, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 64What's the Deal with Translating Seinfeld?
Seinfeld has been dubbed into other languages, but does it actually translate? X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 63LinguaFile XIII | Bozo
On the etymology of a doofy and goofy word, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 62The Pollyanna Hypothesis
Are we humans a mostly positive people? Our language says yes. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 61LinguaFile XII | Kibitz
Adding our two cents' worth from the peanut gallery, with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 60M'athchomaroon, Zhey Lajak Vezhven!
Conlanger David J. Peterson on the art and craft of inventing languages for Game of Thrones. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 59LinguaFile XI | Seersucker
On a well-traveled fabric, featuring lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 58Double, Double, Toil and Trouble
You don't know nuthin' about the double negative. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 57LinguaFile X | Pumpernickel
On the flatulent history of a popular deli staple, featuring lexicographer Ben Zimmer. X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ep 56And Infinitum
On a quirk of grammar that Henry Fowler felt “should not be discountenanced.” X: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyWebsite: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices