lingthusiasm

Bonus 11: We are all linguistic geniuses - Communicating linguistics interview with Daniel Midgley of Talk the Talk

We're excited to be part of the broader linguistics podcast community and bring you behind the scenes on other shows!  

In this interview, Lauren sat down with Daniel Midgley of the Talk the Talk radio show/podcast to talk about how Daniel got into linguistics, what linguists and radio producers have in common, his...

15: Talking and thinking about time

When we talk about things that languages have in common, we often talk about the physical side, the fact that languages are produced by human bodies, using the same brain and hands and vocal tract. But they’re also all produced (so far) by people from the same planet and going through the same fourth dimension: time.

As the ...

Exciting future goal planning!

First things first: YAaaaaayyyyyYYYyyy!!! Less than a year after starting the podcast, we not only have a Patreon model that is sustainable, but you now get a full-length bonus episode every month from December on! 

(Also, Patreon isn't changing their payment structure after all, so everything is as it was before, and apo...

Bonus 10: Liveshow Q and eh

This episode is the Q&A session recorded after the Discourse markers liveshow. We fielded questions from the audience, as well as some sent in by patrons and fans who couldn't attend, and now you get to hang out with this excell...

14: Getting into, up for, and down with prepositions

Are you up for some prepositions? You might think you’re over prepositions, but have you ever really looked into them, or have you just gone by them? Other parts of speech notwithstanding, prepositions are something we’re really down with.

In Episode 14 of Lingthusiasm, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne introd...

Wear your linguistics fandom on your sleeve (Sneak peek!)

By popular demand, we now have Lingthusiasm merch! We're soft-launching the merch here on Patreon because we wanted you all to be the first to know, and it'll be released to the internet at large in time for the next episode on Thursday (but please keep it under wraps until then). 

Lingthusiasm the podcast transforms your...

Lingthusiasm anniversary episode in November - Recommend, Review and Relisten!

November is the 1-year anniversary episode of Lingthusiasm! To celebrate a whole year of enthusiastic linguistics podcasting, we’re aiming to hit another milestone at the same time: 100,000 listens across all episodes. We’re currently just above 95.5k, so it’s totally doable! 

This time last year, Lingthus...

Bonus 9: Is X a sandwich? Solving the word-meaning argument once and for all

We asked you if a burrito was a sandwich, and you said 'no'. We asked you if ravioli was a sandwich and you said 'heck no'. We asked you if an ice cream sandwich was a sandwich and things...started to get a little murky. This isn't just a sandwich problem: you can also have similar arguments about what counts as a cup, a...

13: What Does it Mean to Sound Black? Intonation and Identity Interview with Nicole Holliday

If you grow up with multiple accents to choose from, what does the  one you choose say about your identity? How can linguistics unpick our  hidden assumptions about what “sounds angry” or “sounds articulate”?  What can we learn from studying the melodies of speech, in addition to  the words and sounds...

Bonus 9 poll - Is X a sandwich?

Is a hotdog a sandwich? What about pizza? What about a taco? What even is a sandwich? 

Wait, but is cereal soup? Is a bench a chair?? Is a cup a bowl??? 

AHHH HOW DOES MEANING WORK????

In an upcoming bonus episode, we're going to explore the hotly debated, much-requested "Is X a sandwich?" issue, and what...

Bonus 8: So, like, what’s up with, um, discourse markers? Hark, a liveshow!

There are all these little words and phrases that we use all the time - y'know, anyway, okay, right, so, however, I mean, uh, and then... They aren't strictly necessary, and yet our speech would feel so weird without them. Welcome to the world of discourse markers! 

In this special Lingthusiasm live show, recorded ...

12: Sounds you can’t hear - Babies, accents, and phonemes

Why does it always sound slightly off when someone tries  to imitate your accent? Why do tiny children learning your second  language already sound better than you, even though you’ve been learning  it longer than they’ve been alive? What does it mean for there to be  sounds you can’t hear?

Impromptu Montreal liveshow!

Later this month Lauren will be travelling to Montreal for a conference, and it just so happens that Montreal is where Gretchen lives! We decided that we couldn't resist this rare occasion for both of us being in the same place at the same time to try organizing a liveshow!  

We're thinking of it as a practice run for the...

Bonus 7: DIY Linguistic Research

What's the etymology of this word? When did people start using that thing? How is this new slang term used? 

Answering common linguistic questions is often a matter of where to look. In this bonus episode, Gretchen and Lauren talk about our favourite freely accessible linguistics research tools, from Etymonline to ...

What kinds of Lingthusiasm merch would you be interested in?

Our next bonus episode is going to be about doing linguistic research, especially when you're just getting started, not at a university, or don't have a huge budget. It was a tie with the previous topic, so we're happy to see that all the suggestions have been so popular, but we also don’t want to deprive you of a chance to cl...

11: Layers of meaning - Cooperation, humour, and Gricean Maxims

– Would you like some coffee? 
– Coffee would keep me awake. 

Does  that mean yes coffee, or no coffee? It depends! Is it the morning or  the evening? Is the person trying to pull an all-nighter or take an  afternoon nap? A computer looking strictly at the meanings of the words  would be co...

Bonus 6: Language Play

You've probably heard of Pig Latin, or ig-Pay atin-Lay, where you bring the initial consonants to the end of the word and add -ay. But what about the inverse, where you bring the final consonants to the beginning of the word and add -ay? gay-Pi nay-Lati? In theory, it should be just as easy. In practice, the second one is way...

It's a tie! Thanks for voting to select bonus 6... and 7!

The recent poll was so close that we've decided that bonus 6 will be about language games, and episode 7 will be about linguistic research ideas. 

Don't worry, we know you like the chance to vote (well, except the three of you who voted in the last poll against choosing), so we'll have a fun ~mystery poll~ instead of next...

Bonus 6 - what do you want to hear?

Which topic, suggested by your fellow patrons, would you like to hear for lingthusiasm bonus 6? 

10: Learning languages linguistically

Some linguists work with multiple languages, while others focus on just one. But for many people, learning a language after early childhood is the thing that first gets them curious about how language works in general and all the things in their native language(s) that they take for granted. 

In episode 10 of Lingthusiasm...

Bonus 5: Hypercorrection

Is it "you and me" or "you and I"? Does "octopus" pluralize as "octopuses", "octopi" or "octopodes? If you're ordering a nice bottle of champagne, how do you say Moët? And what does that say about you?

People care a lot about talking "correctly" -- sometimes so much that we over-apply things we've been corrected on eve...

New recorder in the wild!

The new recorder is here, thanks to all you lovely patrons, so we thought we'd let you get the first glimpse of it in its, er, natural habitat! 

(Don't worry, it was returned to its protective case as soon as the photo was taken!)

9: The bridge between words and sentences - Constituency

 How do we get from knowing words to making brand-new  sentences out of them? In episode 9 of Lingthusiasm, we talk about how words form groups with other  words: constituency.

Once you start looking for it, constituency  is everywhere: in ambiguous sentences like “time flies like an arrow;  fruit fl...

Vote for bonus 5!

We have two candidates for the topic of bonus five, and voting is open until Saturday. Which topic are you most interested in?

Bonus 4: Doggo linguistics behind the scenes

A while back, Gretchen was interviewed as part of an NPR story on the 'doggo' meme. While we were recording episode 8, Gretchen shar...

We're glad you're here

We just wanted to take this chance to say thanks to all of you that help make Lingthusiasm happen! This was the first month that your pledges paid our producer and our transcriber, which is a huge help for keeping the podcast ad-free and sustainable.  

We were both big fans of the Patreon model before we decided ...

Vote for bonus 4!

Last month Gretchen was interviewed as part of an NPR story on the 'doggo' meme. While we were recording episode 8, Gretchen shared some of the backstor...

8: People who make dictionaries - Review of WORD BY WORD by Kory Stamper

Dictionaries: they’re made by real people! 

In episode 8 of Lingthusiasm, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch talk about Word by Word, a recent book by Kory Stamper, a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster, about how dictionaries get made. (Spoiler: we liked it.) We also talk about how dictionaries get made for la...

Bonus 3: How to sell linguistics skills to employers

Whether it's a semester of Linguistics 101, a BA, or a PhD, in our third bonus we share our tips for selling linguistics to future employers. We talk about why linguists have valuable skills that employers love, how to translate linguist-speak into boss-speak, the linguistic and other skills that have made our own careers possib...

Vote on Bonus Topic 3!

We have two topic ideas for bonus three. Voting is open over the weekend and Monday. Which topic would you most like to get the lowdown on?