Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are tracking changes in the Philadelphia accent. Reporter Zack Seward dips into archives that include more than a century’s worth of Philly natives. The researchers say most regional accents are alive and well, even in the digital age, but they’re always changing.
http://www.npr.org/2013/04/05/176368267/dialects-changing-but-not-disappearing-in-philadelphia
Tagged with npr language linguistics philadelphia dialect english
Have you noticed the seemingly stratospheric rise of the word “so” in recent years? People use it not only as a conjunction or an intensifying adverb—as in “That’s so awesome!”—but also to begin or end sentences in a manner pregnant with implied meaning. So … Bob Garfield and I set out to determine what this sort of “so” might in fact be accomplishing. http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley/2012/04/lexicon_valley_beginning_and_ending_all_of_our_thoughts_with_so_.html
Tagged with linguistics grammar lexicon valley bob garfield language english
In the early 1960s, amid a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, a burgeoning civil rights movement here at home, and a dawning countercultural revolution, America’s intellectual class was in an utter freak out over a dictionary. That’s right, the 1961 publication of Webster’s Third Edition incited otherwise sober-minded newspaper and magazine writers to declare nothing less than the end of the world. Bob Garfield and I talk to author David Skinner about his forthcoming book, The Story of Ain’t: America, Its Language, and the Most Controversial Dictionary Ever Published.
Do you flinch when someone says “between you and I”? Textbook English tells us it’s ungrammatical, and yet it’s arguably more common than the officially sanctioned “between you and me.” Tennessee Williams, Mark Twain, William Shakespeare—all were guilty of using “I” when the sentence cried out for “me.” Or maybe they weren’t so guilty after all. Bob Garfield and I discuss the oft-uttered, much-maligned “between you and I.”
Tagged with linguistics grammar lexicon valley bob garfield language english
We all learned you’re not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition. But from where did this alleged rule come? And why does it encumber us with such labored sentences as the one preceding this? In the first episode of Slate’s new language program Lexicon Valley, producer Mike Vuolo and On the Media co-host Bob Garfield explore the history of the terminal preposition rule, and whether there are good reasons to follow it.
Tagged with linguistics grammar lexicon valley bob garfield language english
Simon Winchester discusses his book The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Video here: http://ww3.tvo.org/video/177526/simon-winchester-his-book-meaning-everything
Delve into the history of DARE, the Dictionary of American Regional English, with LQ contributor Simon Winchester and DARE chief editor Joan Hall.
http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/audio-video/lq-podcast-dare.php
George Bernard Shaw ridiculed the British obsession with class, recognising that its most powerful expression was not in what someone said, but how he or she said it. Using a wealth of archive, we hear how the drive to hide linguistic, geographical roots often went hand in hand with a desire to be seen as part of the metropolitan set and we hear about the post war levelling and the move away from RP.
Tagged with accent rp bbc linguistics language english pronunciation
Professor Jean Aitchison delivers her first Reith Lecture from her series entitled ‘The Language Web’. She explores whether our language really is in decay and argues that we need to understand language, not try to control it.
Tagged with bbc reith lectures language words english book:author=jean aitchison
Presentation from SXSW 2011.
When the New York Times banned the word "Tweet" from it’s pages, it marked the first time a major publication had formally rejected a Internet-born branded verb. As new behaviors are created online, our culture struggles with ways to define them and often settles on flawed nomenclature. In this hour we will take a look at some of the most misleading words from the digital lexicon and try to pick a few to banish forever.
Tagged with sxsw new york times language lexicon web linguistics english
Page 1 of 2Older