PODCAST

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.

Daniel Midgley, Ben Ainslie, and Hedvig Skirgård

A podcast about linguistics, the science of language.

science social sciences

All Episodes

01:11:07

49: Mailbag - It's That T Again (with Mignon Fogarty)

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2022/03/23

Lingcomm legend Mignon Fogarty (Grammar Girl) joins us to answer all the questions in our Mailbag! And we have to ask her about National Grammar Day. How do we bring out descriptive grammar, and tone down the policing? Why do some people say “She text me”? Why are some people convinced it’s the Flinstones and not the Flintstones? Are some people saying “I finished mines”? Is technology making us forget how to spell and write? And why does “going to Kong Kong” have a naughty meaning in Korean?

01:32:19

48: The Black Side of the River (with Jessi Grieser)

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2022/03/04

Anacostia is a rapidly gentrifying suburb in Washington DC, and as Anacostia changes, so does the language. How do the original Black residents use language to establish their cred? What about the language of the new Black gentrifiers? Dr Jessi Grieser has been listening. She’s the author of The Black Side of the River, and she joins Daniel for a chat.

01:13:47

47: We Need to Talk About Grice (with Rikker Dockum)

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2022/02/20

Every Linguistics 101 student knows about HP Grice and his famous Maxims. They state that dialogue is usually cooperative — and when it doesn't appear to be, they explain how we manage to work out meaning anyway. But linguists are questioning the applicability and universality of these rules. Is it time for a reappraisal of Grice? We're joined by Rikker Dockum on this episode of Because Language.

01:35:03

46: Just Words (with Rebecca Shapiro)

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2022/02/10

Can dictionaries create a more fair world? One language observer sees that dictionaries, far from being a neutral chronicle of language, are capable of promoting social justice. Daniel speaks with Dr Rebecca Shapiro, author of Fixing Babel: An Historical Anthology of Applied English Lexicography.

01:19:36

45: Mailbag of Words

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2022/01/29

The Words of the Year are out! And we’re talking about ’em. We’re answering all the questions in our voluminous Mailbag. We have here, there, and where. We also have that and what. Was there ever a hat? Why are we friends with someone? Is the distribution of emoji Zipfian? If you study linguistics — the science of language — are you a STEM major? And Hedvig springs a game on us.

01:23:01

44: Words of the Week of the Year 2021 (with Lauren...

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2021/12/22

Our listeners have voted, and here are all the words! Which were our top Words of the Week? Which were the worst? And what did all the dictionary people pick? We’re joined by our very special guest (and lingopod pal) Dr Lauren Gawne for this very cheugy episode of Because Language.

01:22:56

43: Journal Club: Zoomies on Zoom (with Hadas Kotek...

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2021/12/17

Our friends and listeners bring us lots of great stories, questions, and words. So for this episode, we've invited them to present them themselves! All patrons have been invited to join us for this live episode, and many have brought pets. Also, Dr Hadas Kotek has examined the sentences used in linguistic textbooks and examples. How are people represented in our discipline?

01:34:30

42: Replicability Crisis (with Martine Grice and Bodo...

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2021/12/01

The sciences are facing a replicability crisis. Some landmark studies were once considered settled, but then failed when they were retested. So have any linguistic experiments been toppled? And how do we fix this problem? Dr Martine Grice and Dr Bodo Winter have contributed to a special issue of Linguistics, and they join us for this fun episode.

01:14:07

41: Mailbag of Caitlin University (with Caitlin Green)

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2021/11/16

Here to help us answer our voluminous Mailbag is the tireless Dr Caitlin Green, Vice Cancellor of Caitlin University. Among our questions: NON-BINARY or NONBINARY? What’s behind coffee names? Why is there an L in WOULD? Could swearing get in the way of persuasion? When is it time to stop supporting a minority language? What’s with the D in TIDDIES? Fee fi fo… fun? Why doesn’t it rhyme with ENGLISHMAN? Where does TUCKER come from?

02:56:08

40: Dialect Playthrough (with Hakan Seyalıoğlu and...

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2021/11/15

Dialect is a role-playing game about language and how it dies. Over the course of a game, players form an isolated community, create a private language, and watch it fade away as the community’s isolation is breached. We’re very pleased and honoured to play a game of Dialect, with game creator Hakan Seyalıoğlu of Thorny Games leading us through it.

01:41:56

39: Is This a Reference? (with Sylvia Sierra)

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2021/11/01

You probably communicate with your friends using media references all the time. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But why do we include media references, when we could just talk? Turns out it has a lot to do with identity, building social relationships, and communication — all the stuff that language normally does. We’re having a media-heavy discussion with Dr Sylvia Sierra about her book Millennials Talking Media: Creating Intertextual Identities in Everyday Conversation.

01:56:07

38: Generativism 2: How It's Going (with Taylor...

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2021/10/14

This is the second of a two-parter on generativism, the linguistic school of thought originated by Noam Chomsky. This time, it's from the perspective of early-career researchers. How is generativism relevant to them, and how do they regard its claims? We ask: What importance does linguistic theory have on day-to-day research? How does generativism relate to nativism, the idea that at least some language is innate? Is there a conflict between generativism and functionalism today? What's the next

01:50:39

37: Generativism 1: How It Started (with David Adger...

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2021/09/30

We’re doing a deep dive into generativism, the linguistic school of thought championed by Noam Chomsky. It’s had an enormous impact on the direction of linguistics, and even those who disagree with the generative programme will be at least somewhat conversant with its claims and the debate around it. Here, we’ll try to answer questions such as: What is generativism, and what are its claims? What does generativism help you to do in linguistics? What is the relationship to nativism, the idea that

53:42

36: Journal Club: Clickety Clack (with Stephen Mann)

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2021/09/13

The Because Language team are talking through some of the most interesting research around, and you get to listen! Valuable medical information gets lost when Indigenous languages are wiped out When it comes to learning languages, multilinguals have the edge over bilinguals A generativist argues that languages don't adapt to their environment. What's behind this? And it's iconicity turned up to 11: some experiments that explore how language began.

01:21:43

35: Something's Got to Change (with Lesley Woods and...

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2021/08/27

Linguistics as a discipline throws up challenges to Indigenous linguists. At the same time, they're the ones called upon to fix it. It can't stay like this. How do we make linguistics a safe place to work? Daniel, Hedvig, and very special co-host Ayesha Marshall are having a yarn with Lesley Woods and Dr Alice Gaby about their work in changing linguistics for the better.

01:46:18

34: OzCLO 2021: 2 Cool 4 School (with Elisabeth...

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2021/08/05

OzCLO is the Australian Computational and Linguistic Olympiad. It gets students together to compete and solve linguistic problems. It’s also a gateway to further linguistic study. We’ve brought some of the winning students to compete in a linguistic quiz with Ben and Hedvig. Will it go well for them?

01:25:14

33: You're Wrong About Everett, Roberts, Blasi 2015

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2021/07/25

All it took was a tweet. Last week, linguists refocused their attention on a paper about humidity and tone. Was it bad linguistics? Environmental determinism? The reaction said a lot about linguistics and the nature of linguistic communication in the digital age.

01:38:50

32: Fallen Leaves: The Chinese Languages (with Wu...

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2021/07/18

What we call sometimes Chinese is really a gigantic family of languages. They’re somewhat divided in mutual intelligibility, and somewhat united in their writing system. How are they different, and how are they maintaining themselves? Two Chinese researchers, Wu Mei-Shin and Ye Jingting, join us. And what’s going on in the Cantonese lingopod world? We’re joined by Israel Lai of Rhapsody in Lingo.

58:34

31: All the Words (with Grant Barrett)

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2021/06/30

Words of the Week are coming out of the woodwork, and who better to work through them with us than Grant Barrett of A Way with Words? Wowee.

01:07:32

30: Mailbag of Raspberries (with Helen Zaltzman)

Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the... ·

2021/06/14

Our Mailbag is once again full of questions, and podcasting luminary Helen Zaltzman is here to help us answer them! Why is the raspberry sound (PBTPBBBBT) not a speech sound in any language? Or is it? How can sounds in a language change so much over time? Am I BURNED OUT? Or BURNT OUT? Why are they called metaphysicians and not metaphysicists? What can we call something besides LAME? Why is AMPHI- so infrequently used in English?

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Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.

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