Why are some languages more systematic than others?
We often hear about the irregularities in English, and other languages have them as well. But new work shows that systematicity in a language is influenced by the number of speakers in …
Category: it’s in the dictionary (page 1 of 2)
Poetry isn’t (just) enjoyable, it can be useful.
It can help us with language learning and memorisation, and help us in historical linguistics. And even computers are getting into poetry generation, probably because they want to learn the secret of …
Juxtapose. Obfuscate. And of course, absquatulate.
All these words appear in a new dictionary for young people. It’s The Dictionary of Difficult Words, and we’re talking to the author, lexicographer Jane Solomon.
Activate your sesquipedalian …
Imagine watching your language erode away.
How would you help it to stay alive? What can one person do in the face of language loss? There’s good news: lots of people are taking up the challenge and becoming language activists. …
Flexible. Funny. Foul.
This most versatile of English words is all of these and more. And it gets a thorough cataloging in The F-Word by lexicographer Jesse Sheidlower.
He sits down with Daniel for a chat on history, power, …
Dictionaries don’t just write themselves, you know. And lexicographers have some pretty cool tricks to do what they do.
How do they spot new words? And how can their definitions influence our lives?
We’re talking to lexicographer Jane Solomon on …
It’s a Talk the Talk live show!
We’re working together with Pint of Science to bring science to the pub. But we’re not alone — we’ve got early-career researchers Amy Budrikis and Troy Reynolds to talk about their work in …
The Talk the Talk team takes the stage in a special live episode at the Disrupted Festival.
The Yawuru language of Western Australia has been going dormant, but many courageous teachers are bringing it back for a new generation. …
We’re talking about Singapore Colloquial English, or Singlish.
The Singaporean government would love to wipe it out, but Singlish is gaining prestige in the English-speaking world. Oxford is even adding Singlish words to its dictionary. But what is this …
People are asking questions about language and gender equality.
What’s Oxford Dictionaries doing about some of its questionable definitions? And linguists are wondering why Disney princesses don’t talk more.
Linguist Daniel Midgley is listening on this episode of Talk the …
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