Because Language - a podcast about linguistics, the science of language.

Daniel Midgley, Ben Ainslie, and Hedvig Skirgård
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A podcast about linguistics, the science of language.

  1. 28. Juli

    142: If This Be Magic (with Daniel Hahn)

    Translating Shakespeare takes a knowledge of language, culture, and poetry — both in English and in the target language. There are tradeoffs and pitfalls, but a skilled translator can bring Shakespeare closer to our age, not just to another language. We're talking with translator Daniel Hahn, author of If This Be Magic: The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation. Also, we're answering listener questions. Send us yours! Timestamps 00:00 Start 00:21 Intros: Shakespearean insults 07:33 Pronouncing SUDOKU: Why so variable? 15:58 Ingressive speech 20:46 Nonplussed 26:59 Related or Not: Theme from Hugh 28:13 Related or Not: pooch, pouch, pocket, and poach 38:14 Related or Not: caddy and caddie 42:47 Related or Not: hemi-, demi-, and semi- 49:30 Chat with Daniel Hahn: Keeping everything but the words 52:51 Spanish as a language of translation 58:59 Translation closes the distance: Shakespeare in contemporary English 01:07:02 Poetic meter and when to break it 01:11:07 Punctuating the translation 01:16:08 Archaic words and the feel of Shakespeare 01:18:23 Hardest language to translate Skakespeare into? 01:20:43 Staying true to time and culture 01:26:05 Having fun 01:31:12 Monosyllables 01:34:32 The impact of GenAI on translation 01:37:38 Getting people to care about translation 01:40:37 Should multi-line highway word markings start near to us or start far? 01:47:48 Gender and the -ster suffix 01:56:12 Comment from Allyson: Soo-ee! 01:58:03 The Reads 02:02:01 Outtake

  2. 17. Juli

    141: Why Q Needs U (with Danny Bate and Caitlin M. Green)

    Each letter in our Latin alphabet tells a story. But what about spaces? Or writing direction? Should we get rid of some letters, or could we even do with more? Here to answer all these questions is Dr Danny Bate, author of Why Q Needs U: A History of Our Letters and How We Use Them. Timestamps 00:00 Start 00:44 Intros: Special letters 05:46 News: Spanish okay at World Cup? 09:30 News: Forgetting is helpful in language acquisition 21:18 News: Bluey in Yolŋu 25:41 Related or Not theme by Jo 27:21 Related or Not: prodigy, prodigal, and prodigious 34:19 Related or Not: vice, device, divide 43:09 Related or Not: gauntlet and gaunt 49:48 Interview with Danny Bate, author of Why Q Needs U 50:16 About Danny's podcast: A Language I Love Is… 52:24 The Alphabet: greatest innovation since sexual reproduction 56:08 The case against boustrophedon 58:51 Letters flipped over time 01:02:40 Why are some letters more common than others? 01:06:14 Why does H get used in so many digraphs? 01:10:52 Thoughts on spelling reform 01:18:07 Why are L and R so squirrelly? 01:28:53 The evolution of spaces in written language 01:31:46 What letters can we get rid of? 01:35:15 Actually, no, we need a new letter 01:36:53 Communicating linguistic ideas to the public 01:44:02 Word of the Week: monoculture 01:53:43 Word of the Week: algae-TBQ agenda 02:00:15 Word of the Week: hobbylos 02:03:14 Word of the Week: tokenmaxxing 02:06:27 Word of the Week: Claudeonomics 02:11:21 The Reads 02:18:18 Outtakes: Back on our Bluey nonsense + On being a Dan

  3. 30. Juni

    140: These Strange New Minds (with Christopher Summerfield and Caitlin Green)

    We created software that could generate human-like text output quickly and easily. Now we're dealing with the societal upheaval it's caused. What are the risks and rewards, and what can we learn about language from these large language models? Daniel — joined by Caitlin Green — has a chat with Dr Christopher Summerfield, author of These Strange New Minds: How AI Learned to Talk and What It Means.  Timestamps 00:00 Start 00:46 Intros: Generative A.I. concerns 04:15 Shout out to our patrons! 05:03 News: AP Style Guide defines COUPLE 10:35 News: Men do vocal fry more 14:59 News: Uptalk from 1890 16:01 News: Is Singlish up? 22:22 Related or Not: Bonkers Mélange editon, theme from Ste 23:41 Related or Not: population, discombobulate, bobbin 29:09 Related or Not: goggle, goo-goo, agog 36:09 Related or Not: once, ounce, pounce, lynx 41:55 Interview with Christopher Summerfield: Do you like A.I.? 44:21 Consequences of AI: Will we know nothing, or know everything? 47:03 Are LLMs just spicy autocorrect? 48:44 Are LLMs simply regurgitating their training data? 49:51 LLMs are getting better fast 52:33 On consciousness and intentionality 55:58 Do LLMs (or humans) understand? 58:58 The Chinese Room 01:01:00 Should we avoid anthropomorphising language around LLM behaviour? 01:04:02 Why we dismiss LLMs 01:07:26 Accelerationists, anti-hypers, and X-risk: Which are you? 01:09:49 Safety, privacy, and security 01:14:29 The magic wand of policy 01:20:18 Fixing the hallucination problem 01:27:36 Goals of the book 01:31:18 Word of the Week: liminal 01:39:59 Word of the Week: pink slime journalism 01:44:44 Word of the Week: waste colonialism 01:48:13 Quick words: hot-washing, eppy, shoulder surgfing, news-jacking, bio-break 01:51:37 Word of the Week: wario 01:55:02 The Reads 02:01:06 Outtake: That time when a siren went off in Hedvig's Parisian hotel, mid-recording Video for this episode: https://youtu.be/94SbeM0KpWw

  4. 9. Juni

    139: Magpie Syntax (with Stephanie Mason)

    Australian magpies are even cleverer birds than we thought. New research from Dr Stephanie Mason shows that they do two language-like things we used to think only humans could do: learn their calls socially, and combine their calls in a way that looks a lot like syntax. So are we calling this language? If so, how are the linguists taking it? Stephanie joins us to talk about magpies, media, and the territoriality of linguists. Timestamps 00:00 Start 00:54 Intros: Your favourite bird 07:10 What's coming up: Magpies 09:34 Join us! Patreon spruikery 11:32 News: Jamaican MP shut down for speaking Jamaican in Parliament 19:35 News: Whale phonology 31:46 News: Unicode to include new genderless pronoun for Mandarin 36:37 News: China and the Rubio Workaround 38:16 Related or Not: New theme from Hugh! 40:05 Related or Not 1: SLAP, SMACK, and SWAT 45:45 Related or Not 2: SOUND 56:13 Related or Not 3: SPECK, SPECKLE, SPECTRE, and SPECTRUM 01:00:36 Talking about magpies with Stephanie Mason 01:03:38 About Australian magpies 01:06:17 The problem of anthropomorphism 01:15:21 What's the semantic content? 01:22:52 Linguists can be territorial about language 01:34:48 Social complexity drives new behaviours 01:45:19 Magpies learn their calls socially 01:49:42 Magpies combine their calls 01:58:44 Magpies learn calls across the lifespan 02:05:36 Finding those birds 02:08:10 Doing public engagement: Are metaphors actually helping? 02:17:26 Words of the Week: mog 02:24:54 Word of the Week: pied-à-terre 02:27:48 Word of the Week: dummymander 02:33:03 Word of the Week: Sooooo-ee! 02:39:22 Etymology of Guacamole 02:39:35 Comment: guacamole = testicle sauce? 02:41:28 The reads 02:46:28 Outtake

  5. 12. Mai

    138: Pop-Up Gaeltacht (live with Laura Pakenham and friends)

    Wherever Irish speakers in the world get together, you can have a "pop-up Gaeltacht"! And we're having one on this episode. We've got author and TG4 presenter Laura Pakenham taking us through the history and orthography of this great and resilient language. Laura is the author of Irish: History and Culture Through Language. Timestamps 00:00 Start 00:24 Introducing Laura Pakenham 10:12 About Laura: Getting the gig 15:01 Navigating "correct" usage v. common usage 21:05 Different Irish voices on TG4 21:56 Getting feedback from Gaeilge speakers 24:33 Gaeilge as it is today 30:15 Irish is fun and cool, not so much a duty anymore 37:55 On coming to Irish as a learner 41:30 Related or Not: Theme 42:49 Related or Not: JIG, GIGUE, and JOG 49:51 Related or Not: HEATH, HEATHER, and HEATHEN 56:31 Related or Not: SCRAP and SCRUPLES 01:01:10 Gaeilge orthography and phonology 01:08:37 Gaeilge words and idioms 01:13:36 Why are things often referred to as "she"? 01:15:43 Favourite Irish words? 01:17:40 Irish diaspora and its linguistic impact 01:21:30 Advice for language advocates 01:23:59 The reads

  6. 1. Mai

    137: Are Trees Real? (with Yngwie Nielsen and Morten Christiansen)

    What goes on in our minds when we construct an utterance? Linguists often use syntax trees to represent the structure of sentences, but are they psychologically real? Yngwie Nielsen and Dr Morten Christiansen have found evidence for something else: we can recognise patterns in strings of words, even when they don't form coherent "treelets". They're giving us a walkthrough of their latest work. Timestamps 00:00 Start 00:31 Introductions: Yngwie and Morten 05:19 Insights into linguistics communication 07:45 What are syntax trees? 09:13 Why linguists love syntax trees 14:15 Treelets vs chunks: Looking beyond hierarchical structure 17:46 Wanna and gonna: Words that cross treelet boundaries 22:43 How to prime someone 28:18 Priming in this experiment: People do recognise chunks 32:26 Are people just filling in the treelet blanks? 35:23 Were they accidentally smuggling in treelets? 38:47 Do we process both treelets and chunks? 42:23 DensiTrees: A way of representing fuzzy networks 44:01 What are we doing mentally when we make an utterance? 47:20 What is language for? 49:29 Grammatical glue: How do we connect chunks? 53:23 Being able to language is bonkers 56:30 Should we be studying language differently? 01:01:09 Wrap-up and goodbyes

  7. 25. Apr.

    136: These Languages Are Anchors (with Mary Walworth)

    What will happen to the languages of climate refugees? Dr Mary Walworth has been working with the small island community of Nusi in Papua New Guinea, which was recently featured in an episode of Pole to Pole with Will Smith. What's it like doing media for a large audience, and more importantly, how do we help speakers hold onto their language? Dr Walworth joins us for this episode. Timestamps 00:00 Start 00:45 Intros 04:00 What's coming up on this episode 06:58 New patron shoutout and spruik 09:05 News: Air Canada CEO resigns over English communication 14:34 News: Banning foreign language election information in the UK 23:54 News: Can LLMs pass the Wug Test? 34:03 News: Does closing your eyes help you hear better? 39:48 Related or Not: Theme 40:23 Related or Not: GORGE, ENGORGE, and GORGEOUS 48:09 Related or Not: ANY and MANY 51:54 Related or Not: GUAVA, GUACAMOLE, GUARANÍ, GUARANÁ 01:00:20 Interview with Mary Walworth 01:45:52 Word of the Week: bimbofication 01:54:00 Word of the Week: glottophobia 01:55:50 Word of the Week: liveness check 01:57:54 Comment from Colin: CLAN and PLANTA 01:59:03 Comment from Lauren: crash blossoms 02:02:49 The Reads 02:08:09 Outtake

  8. 3. Apr.

    135: Linguistic Illusions (with Dan Parker)

    "More people have listened to this episode than you have." Why does this sentence look so right, but feel so wrong? When your grammar says one thing, but your brain says another, you may have found a linguistic illusion. We're talking to Dr Dan Parker, author of Linguistic Illusions: A Case Study on Agreement Attraction. Video for this episode: https://youtu.be/_9BcmMZrH7s Timestamps Start: 0:00 Intros: 0:27 News: 6:30 Related or Not: 34:22 Interview with Dan Parker: 49:53 Words of the Week: 1:38:00 Comment: 1:54:16 The Reads: 1:58:19 Outtakes: 2:05:39

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A podcast about linguistics, the science of language.

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