Can you hear colours? Or smell sounds?
We’re starting to understand synaesthesia — the blending of senses that some people experience. Now language researchers are using synaesthesia to understand how we process language, and even how language got started in the first place.
Linguist Daniel Midgley finds the synaesthete in all of us on this episode of Talk the Talk.
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Cutting Room Floor
We talk cycling and running. And dancing. What’s your sport?
Also we get het up about Boaty Mc Boatface and TISM. And then we get serious about science communication and storytelling.
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Show notes
Higgledy-piggledy
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=higgledy-piggledy
The Kiki-Bouba effect
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-bouba-kiki-effect/
Google Books just won a decade-long copyright fight
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/04/18/google-books-just-won-a-decade-long-copyright-fight/
Google wins book-scanning copyright case against Authors Guild
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-19/google-wins-long-running-book-scanning-copyright-case/7336622
Google’s Court Victory Is Good for Scholarly Authors. Here’s Why.
http://chronicle.com/article/Google-s-Court-Victory-Is/233940
Synesthesia: Why some people hear color, taste sounds
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150413214343.htm
Some Rules of Language are Wired in the Brain
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/some-rules-of-language-are-wired-in-the-brain/
Study links synaesthesia with coloured fridge magnets
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-01/24/synaesthesia
Lots of Cases of Synesthesia Are Based on Alphabet Magnets
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2015/03/04/synesthesia-based-alphabet-magnets/
Synaesthesia could help us understand how the brain processes language
https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2016/feb/26/synaesthesia-could-help-us-understand-how-the-brain-processes-language
Paper: Processing compound words: Evidence from synaesthesia (paywall)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027716300075
V.S. Ramachandran and E.M. Hubbard: Synaesthesia — A Window Into Perception, Thought and Language (long read, but worth it)
http://www.imprint.co.uk/rama/synaesthesia.pdf
Weak Synesthesia in Perception and Language (paywall)
http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199603329.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199603329-e-038
Why ‘Cool’ Is Still Cool
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/opinion/why-cool-is-still-cool.html?_r=1
The Birth of Cool
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/cool_story/2013/10/cool_the_etymology_and_history_of_the_concept_of_coolness.html
froobs blog: bork megapost
http://froobs.tumblr.com/post/134822731279/bork-megapost
Stop It Son, You Are Doing Me A Frighten
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/stop-it-son-you-are-doing-me-a-frighten
@ProBirdRights on Twitter
https://twitter.com/ProBirdRights
how can u find out a world if u don’t lick pic.twitter.com/uYPo52NajM
— Dog Solution (@DogSolutions) 9 June 2015
HOW TO: Have a fun? Deg know, do it with a friend. pic.twitter.com/UgWa0U34Zr
— Dog Solution (@DogSolutions) 20 November 2015
What Do Swedes Think of the Swedish Chef?
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/08/swedish_chef_what_do_swedes_think_of_him_they_think_he_sounds_norwegian_.html
Understanding the Swedish Pitch Accent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXp7_Sjgm34
Brr: It’s in the Duden, the official German dictionary
http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/brr
Cold Comfort: Is Brr Meant to be Spoken, or Only Written?http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/01/26/cold-comfort/
Image credit: https://www.alfavita.gr/arthron/υπογράφηκαν-οι-πρώτες-85-απολύσεις-εκπαιδευτικών-μετά-από-100-χρόνια
Transcript
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