Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics

– Would you like some coffee? – Coffee would keep me awake. Does that mean yes coffee, or no coffee? It depends! Is it the morning or the evening? Is the person trying to pull an all-nighter or take an afternoon nap? A computer looking strictly at the meanings of the words would be confused, but we humans do this kind of thing all the time without even noticing it. In episode 11 of Lingthusiasm, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne talk about the hidden assumptions of cooperation that we bring to every conversation. They were formulated by the linguist Paul Grice, and are known as the Cooperative Principle or Grice’s Maxims. Not only does stating these assumptions explicitly help us understand conversations where we exchange messages beyond the literal meaning of our words, but it also explains a lot of humour – many jokes rely on creative flouting of Gricean Maxims! This month’s Patreon bonus was about language play: games like Pig Latin, rhyming slang, and Verlan, as nominated and voted on by our patrons. You can get access to it and previous bonuses about hypercorrection, the doggo meme, swearing, teaching yourself linguistics, and explaining linguistics to employers by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon. http://patreon.com/lingthusiasm We hit our next funding goal shortly after recording this episode, which will allow us to start bringing on guest linguists, so stay tuned for more info on upcoming interviews! For the links mentioned in this episode, check out our shownotes page at: http://lingthusiasm.com/post/164303700686/lingthusiasm-episode-11-layers-of-meaning

Some linguists work with multiple languages, while others focus on just one. But for many people, learning a language after early childhood is the thing that first gets them curious about how language works in general and all the things in their native language(s) that they take for granted. In episode 10 of Lingthusiasm, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne talk about how learning languages can feed into linguistics and vice versa. We also explore the power dynamics that affect learning languages, and the importance of learning about the rules of interaction as well as the rules of grammar. This month’s Patreon bonus was about hypercorrection, where you try so hard to follow a linguistic rule that you end up overshooting. You can get access to it and previous bonuses about the doggo meme, swearing, teaching yourself linguistics, and explaining linguistics to employers by supporting Lingthusiasm on Patreon. http://patreon.com/lingthusiasm Gretchen’s new recorder in this episode is thanks to the support of our patrons! For more information, and links to things mentioned in this episode, visit the show page: http://lingthusiasm.com/post/163226798571/lingthusiasm-episode-10-learning-languages

The hosts explore the concept of constituency and how words form groups with other words. They discuss different examples of constituency in language, including ambiguous sentences and internet dog memes. The episode also delves into the linguistics of the doggo meme and its connection to Australian slang. The hosts highlight the importance of understanding constituents in language and provide information on supporting the podcast.

Kory Stamper, a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster, discusses the making of dictionaries, including how they are created for languages without dictionaries, the changing role of dictionaries online, and the surprising historical origins of words. The podcast also explores the value of Australian dictionaries, the challenges of language documentation, and the importance of sign language dictionaries.

There are some pretty funny quotes of historical people complaining about kids back then doing linguistic things that now seem totally unremarkable. So let’s cut to the chase and celebrate linguistic innovation while it’s happening. In episode 7 of Lingthusiasm, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch explore how far back we can trace complaints about the language of Kids These Days, why linguistic discrimination is harmful, and why “be like”, hyperbolic “literally”, and other modern innovations are actually signs of something awesome. We also announce a Patreon to keep the podcast sustainable! You can support us there to listen to a bonus episode about swearing and future monthly bonus content, and help decide the topics of future episodes. Even if you’re not sure about pledging, do check out the Patreon goals to see some of our future plans and our video to see a totally realistic and not at all staged cameo from our producer. Check out http://patreon.com/lingthusiasm For more information visit the show page: http://lingthusiasm.com/post/159796192161/lingthusiasm-episode-7-kids-these-days-arent

Learn about the history and development of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) which represents sounds from all languages. Explore the challenges of spelling systems across different languages, the complexity of English spelling, and the role of orthography and stress systems in pronunciation. Discover linguistic games and sketches inspired by the IPA, such as an IPA version of 2048 and a comedy sketch about pirates and skeletons. Also, delve into the use of the IPA in sign languages and the relationship between sign languages and spoken language alphabets.

Explore how different languages categorize colors and the implications of this. Learn about the relationship between color perception and language, as well as the challenges faced by dictionary editors and children learning color words. Discover the relationship between color and other senses, including odor descriptions and synesthesia. Dive into the fascinating world of synesthesia and the consistent color mapping for each letter of the alphabet.

Discover the inside scoop of the Word of the Year vote, including categories and politics, while exploring offerings from other organizations. Dive into the tension between the American Dialect Society and African-American English. Learn about the influence of Twitter on the word of the year criteria. Find out why 'democracy sausage' was chosen as the Australian Word of the Year and ponder the complicated nature of defining words in linguistics.

Linguists discuss the movie Arrival and its portrayal of linguistics, highlighting accurate language barriers and the creation of a fictional language. They explore the concept of linguistic relativity and the absence of pointing gestures in alien communication, while also sharing their recent activities and upcoming projects.

Topics discussed include pronoun systems in different languages, changing English pronouns for writing fanfiction, the excitement around singular ‘they’, the Lingthusiasm logo, the importance of pronouns in communication, logophoric pronouns and obviation, spatial locations in sign languages for pronoun reference, the history of the singular 'they' pronoun, and gender-neutral pronouns and the future of English pronouns.