That's Not a Word, Is It?

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That's Not a Word, Is It?

FromSlate Debates

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31 minutes

Released:

May 16, 2017

Format:

Podcast episode

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John McWhorter discusses the near-futile impulse to determine what is, and what is not, a word.Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at www.slate.com/podcastsplus. Twitter: @lexiconvalleyFacebook: facebook.com/LexiconValleyEmail: lexiconvalley@slate.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Released:

May 16, 2017

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Lexicon Valley is a show about language, from pet peeves, syntax, and etymology to neurolinguistics and the death of languages. Hosted by linguist John McWhorter.

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Lexicon Valley #9: And May He Be a Masculine Bridge: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss how a simple quirk of grammar may affect the way we think. by Slate Debates
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Lexicon Valley #4: Jumpin' Salty in The O: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the vernacular wrapped in a dialect inside a language that some call Ebonics. by Slate Debates
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Lexicon Valley #2: A Bundle of Faggots: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the evolution of the word "faggot." by Slate Debates
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Lexicon Valley #18: The Rate of Exchange: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the commonly held belief that some languages are spoken faster than others. by Slate Debates
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Lexicon Valley #7: A Needle Pulling Thread: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the big ambitions of the word "so." by Slate Debates
30 min listen
Lexicon Valley #25: The Fawth Flaw: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss a defining feature of the classic New York accent. by Slate Debates
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Special Announcement from Lexicon Valley: Mike announces a run of all new episodes beginning later in the summer. by Slate Debates
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Special Announcement from Lexicon Valley: Mike announces a batch of brand new episodes. by Slate Debates
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Lexicon Valley #20: Death to Potatoes: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo speak with Nataly Kelly, coauthor of Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World. by Slate Debates
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Lexicon Valley #3: Consider the Lamppost: Lexicon Valley #3: Consider the Lamppost by Slate Debates
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Lexicon Valley #15: Then Is Now, Now and Then: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the historical present. by Slate Debates
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Man on the Street: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo talk to Jonathon Green, author of The Vulgar Tongue and Green's Dictionary of Slang, a 6,000-page, three-volume reference more than 20 years in the making. by Slate Debates
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Lexicon Valley #17: Ascent of the A-word: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo talk to linguist Geoffrey Nunberg about his book Ascent of the A-word: A**holism, the First Sixty Years. by Slate Debates
28 min listen
Lexicon Valley #6: A Meditation on Scrabble: Mike Vuolo talks to "Word Freak" author Stefan Fatsis about the nature of language in Scrabble. by Slate Debates
36 min listen
Lexicon Valley #8: When Nouns Grew Genitals: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss what it means for language to have gender. by Slate Debates
31 min listen
Lexicon Valley #10: One Giant Leap for Humanity: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the he said/she said of the epicene pronoun. by Slate Debates
40 min listen
Lexicon Valley #1: A Sin of Which None Is Guilty: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the longstanding English language proscription against ending a sentence with a preposition. by Slate Debates
25 min listen
Lexicon Valley #28: A Brief History of Swearing: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss curse words old and new with author Melissa Mohr. by Slate Debates
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Lexicon Valley #19: Here's to You Mrs. Malaprop: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss what malapropisms might reveal about the way we organize our mental dictionary. by Slate Debates
33 min listen
Lexicon Valley #13: Capturing the Past: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo talk about how Mad Men and Downton Abbey can teach us about language change. by Slate Debates
40 min listen
LinguaFile II | Lagniappe: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss a mystery word or phrase with lexicographer Ben Zimmer. by Slate Debates
26 min listen
Lexicon Valley No. 30: Eject at High Altitude: Mike Vuolo talks with an anthropological linguist about the influence geography might have on speech. by Slate Debates
22 min listen
Lexicon Valley #22: Talking Leaves and Lightning Paper: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the Cherokee syllabary. by Slate Debates
31 min listen
Lexicon Valley #11: When Being Done Replaced Doing: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the most significant change to the English language that you've never heard of. by Slate Debates
29 min listen
Lexicon Valley #5: Untuning the String: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo talk to author David Skinner about his book, The Story of Ain't, which will be published in the fall of 2012. by Slate Debates
37 min listen
Lexicon Valley #21: Undocumented Illegals: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the debate over "illegal" versus "undocumented" at the heart of U.S. immigration policy. by Slate Debates
35 min listen
Lexicon Valley No. 32: The Burden of Being Right: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the irresistible pull of language pedantry. by Slate Debates
37 min listen
Lexicon Valley No. 35: Learning to Say No: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the many meanings of a child's "no." by Slate Debates
28 min listen
Lexicon Valley #26: The Fawth Flaw, Part II: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss R-dropping and the New York accent. by Slate Debates
32 min listen
Lexicon Valley #16: Our Dying Words: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss what we lose when a language goes extinct. by Slate Debates
24 min listen

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That's Not a Word, Is It?

That's Not a Word, Is It?

Description

Titles in the series (100)

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