Category: universals

382: There’s No Enhance Button (with Helen Fraser)

15 October 2019 / / Comments Off on 382: There’s No Enhance Button (with Helen Fraser)

We hear what we expect to hear.

That’s a problem in court, where covert audio recordings are often unclear. Who decides what goes into the transcript that lawyers, judges, and juries will see?

We’re talking to Dr Helen Fraser about …

338: Signed Language (featuring Ulrike Zeshan and Christy Filipich)

18 September 2018 / / Comments Off on 338: Signed Language (featuring Ulrike Zeshan and Christy Filipich)

The International Day of Signed Languages is upon us.

If we could look at all the signed languages in the world, what would they have in common? What misconceptions do hearing people have? And what is International Sign?

It’s all on this …

327: How We Talk (featuring Nick Enfield and Simeon Floyd)

29 May 2018 / / Comments Off on 327: How We Talk (featuring Nick Enfield and Simeon Floyd)

What is the meaning of um?

We make hesitation noises and tiny pauses in conversation all the time, but what’s the meaning behind them? And is it true that different cultures have different tolerances for silence?

We’re talking to …

313: That’s Cool. That’s Hot. (featuring Maria Koptjevskaja Tamm)

13 February 2018 / / Comments Off on 313: That’s Cool. That’s Hot. (featuring Maria Koptjevskaja Tamm)

Boiling with rage. A warm embrace. A cool time in a hot town.

How do we think about heat and cold, and how does this work its way into language? And does this have anything to do with what the …

265: Universal Grammar 2 (featuring Dan Everett and Lynne Murphy)

18 October 2016 / / 2 Comments

The biggest idea in linguistics is back on the table.

Is there such a thing as the Universal Grammar? Do you have to have a human brain to learn language, or is learning a language just like learning anything else? …

261: Red Big Balloon (featuring Damián Blasi)

20 September 2016 / / Comments Off on 261: Red Big Balloon (featuring Damián Blasi)

We love red big balloons — or are they big red balloons?

There’s a right way and a wrong way to do it, you know. But how do we know what the right way is? And what else does your …

257: Alien Languages

23 August 2016 / / Comments Off on 257: Alien Languages

What would an alien language be like?

The new trailer for the film Arrival has got us pretty excited, and there’s even a whole field of study called xenolinguistics. How will we know what to say when we make …

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