English Is Plain Weird

FromSlate Debates

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English Is Plain Weird

FromSlate Debates

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Length:

44 minutes

Released:

Mar 30, 2021

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

Don't be fooled into thinking that English is a typical language. It's not.
Slate Plus members get a bonus segment on Lexicon Valley each week, and no ads. Sign up now to listen and support our show.
Twitter: @lexiconvalley
Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley
Email: lexiconvalley@slate.com
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Released:

Mar 30, 2021

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 #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 #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 #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 #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 #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 #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 #23: Good Is Up: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss metaphor and the "fiscal cliff." by Slate Debates
30 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 #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 #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
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
Special Announcement from Lexicon Valley: Mike announces a batch of brand new episodes. by Slate Debates
3 min listen
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 #2: A Bundle of Faggots: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the evolution of the word "faggot." by Slate Debates
33 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 #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
27 min listen
LinguaFile I | Discombobulate: Mike Vuolo and Bob Garfield discuss a mystery word or phrase with Vocabulary.com executive producer Ben Zimmer. by Slate Debates
21 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
Lexicon Valley #12: The Eloquence of Plain English: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the Gettysburg Address. by Slate Debates
33 min listen
Lexicon Valley #15: Then Is Now, Now and Then: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the historical present. by Slate Debates
32 min listen
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
41 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 #14: By Their Words You Shall Know Them: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss stylometry. by Slate Debates
33 min listen
Special Announcement: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo announce a new run of Lexicon Valley episodes. by Slate Debates
3 min listen
Demonstratively Speaking: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss Sarah Palin's use of demonstrative pronouns. by Slate Debates
33 min listen
Lexicon Valley #27: Accentuate the Positive: Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo discuss the seemingly paradoxical phrase "yeah-no." by Slate Debates
28 min listen
Lexicon Valley #3: Consider the Lamppost: Lexicon Valley #3: Consider the Lamppost by Slate Debates
30 min listen
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
35 min listen
Special Announcement from Lexicon Valley: Mike announces a run of all new episodes beginning later in the summer. by Slate Debates
4 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
25 min listen

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English Is Plain Weird

English Is Plain Weird

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from Slate Debates

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