Lexis

Show notes for Episode 37

Here are the show notes for Episode 37, in which Dan and Jill talk to Dr Heidi Colthup of the University of Kent about the language of gaming, including: 

Heidi’s university page: https://www.kent.ac.uk/cultures-languages/people/1705/colthup-heidi 

Heidi on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Heidi_Colthup 

Some of Heidi’s recommended reading: 

Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, Rules of Play: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262240451/rules-of-play/ 

Marie-Laure Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media: https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Narrative_as_Virtual_Reality.html?id=cjAWAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y 

And in our regular Lang in the News segment, Lisa and Dan talk about Oxfam’s guide to “inclusive language” and why it has upset some people.  

Pronouns and inclusive language

Oxfam and gender neutral language:

Words matter: that’s why Oxfam is launching an inclusive language guide - Views & Voices 

“These principles and language guidelines are designed to prompt thought when using language. They are not set rules and should not be viewed as restrictions. They are intended to complement existing messaging frameworks and positionings.

We recognize that language is context- and audience-specific, and shifts between time and place; we would encourage you to think about what works best for your purpose.”

New Statesman

The furore over Oxfam’s “woke” language guide misses the point - New Statesman 

Is it a choice between “Blustering bigotry or preening sanctimony”? 

“Language is neither progressive nor regressive. It does not move along a line of continuous, consensus-led improvement, nor will it wholly degrade into meaningless relativism. What it does do is change – change being the mess made by the passage of time. It evolves as nature evolves: scruffily, multifariously and incrementally, its infinite variety matching that of the needs and circumstances of the people it serves. This is what gives words their power to disrupt the status quo –they are radically demotic, belonging to everyone and no one. No top-down initiative or prescription, whether from a right-on NGO or a thundering middle-market tabloid, can rob them of that quality. No actor, however powerful, can control or shape the whole.” 

Mail Online 

Oxfam's new 92-page inclusivity guide calls English 'the language of a colonising nation' | Daily Mail Online 

Telegraph 

Don’t say mother or father as it could offend, Oxfam tells staff 

Pink News 

Oxfam hits back at critics of trans-inclusive guidance who claim its 'erasing mums and dads' 

An Oxfam spokesperson told PinkNews: “We are proud of using inclusive language; we won’t succeed in tackling poverty by excluding marginalised groups. This guide is not prescriptive, it is intended to help authors communicate with the diverse range of people with which we work.

“We are disappointed that some people have decided to misrepresent the advice offered in the guide which clearly states that authors should respect the desires of those who want to be described as a mother or father.”

Why inclusive language doesn't have to exclude:

https://twitter.com/msolurin/status/1638908370274119682?t=yAnw7WkwLYQTKY0DbOUkgg&s=19

Dennis Baron on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/DrGrammar/status/1638682725585657856 

And his book “What’s Your Pronoun?” is really good on the history of much of this. 

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/What_s_Your_Pronoun_Beyond_He_and_She.html?id=SCqfDwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y 

Interesting piece on pronouns and language change

‘It’s complicated – but you can’t shy away from it’: everything you wanted to know about pronouns (but were afraid to ask) | Gender | The Guardian 

Here are the show notes for Episode 36, in which Dan and Lisa talk to Dr Claire Hardaker about:

Claire’s Lancaster University page: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/linguistics/about/people/claire-hardaker

Claire’s en clair podcast: http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/enclair/

Claire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/drclaireH

Claire on Mastodon: https://mastodonapp.uk/@drclaireh

And in our regular Lang in the News segment, Lisa and Dan talk about Words of the Year- which ones have been chosen so far, how they have been selected, why they work (or don’t?) and what they might tell us about 2022.

Collins: ‘Sums up 2022’: Permacrisis chosen as Collins word of the year | Culture | The Guardian

A year of ‘permacrisis’ - Collins Dictionary Language Blog

Oxford Dictionaries:

https://languages.oup.com/word-of-the-year/2022/#WOTY2022vote

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/goblin-mode-meaning-word-of-the-year-oxford-dictionary-b2239839.html

‘Goblin mode’: new Oxford word of the year speaks to the times | Language | The Guardian

Slobbing out and giving up: why are so many people going ‘goblin mode’? | Life and style | The Guardian

Cambridge Dictionary:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/editorial/woty

Merriam Webster: Word of the Year 2022 | Gaslighting | Merriam-Webster

Macquarie:

Teal named Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year – ‘an emblem of Australia’s political landscape’

Dictionary dot com:

Dictionary.com’s 2022 Word Of The Year Is…

Dictionary.com announces word of the year: ‘woman’ | US news | The Guardian

Dan’s Independent article about WOTY2022:

2022’s Words of the Year and what they tell us | The Independent

» Words of the Year American Dialect Society

Here are the show notes for Episode 35, an opinion articles special, in which Dan and Jacky talk to Harriet Williamson, the Voices Commissioning Editor at The Independent about:

Harriet’s Independent page:  https://www.independent.co.uk/author/harriet-williamson

Harriet on Twitter: https://twitter.com/harriepw

Indy Voices on Twitter: https://twitter.com/IndyVoices

Harriet’s article on accent-shaming: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/accent-bias-shaming-bbc-english-b2216735.html

Harriet on why, if you want to be a writer, it pays to be a reader: https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/editors-letters/better-writer-journalism-reading-stephen-king-b2140181.html

Victoria Richards’ article on language and refugees:

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/suella-braverman-invasion-migrants-firebombing-b2214905.html

And in our regular Lang in the News segment, Lisa, Jacky and Dan discuss and analyse an article by Michael Deacon of the Daily Telegraph that lays into the BBC’s Amol Rajan over his views on accents at the BBC. We also look at two letters from Telegraph readers in response to (and in support of) the Deacon article. We also see how many times we can say Amol Rajan’s name in the space of 30 minutes… 

Make sure you have the article to hand as we pull it apart!

Michael Deacon article here (paywalled version): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2022/09/28/amol-rajans-attack-posh-presenters-pure-inverted-snobbery/

Michael Deacon article here (Pressreader version): https://pressreader.com/article/281573769572585

Letters here: https://pressreader.com/article/282093460615450

Amol Rajan’s Cracking the Class Ceiling programme https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001fygr

And reviewed here

Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2022/12/06/how-crack-class-ceiling-review/

Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/dec/06/tv-tonight-amol-rajan-class-ceiling-bbc-jamie-claudia-winkleman-the-traitors

Amol Rajan’s initial points reported here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/27/amol-rajan-accuses-bbc-posh-having-accent-bias

Show notes for Episode 34

Here are the show notes for Episode 34, in which Dan and Jill talk to Arran Stibbe, professor of Ecological Linguistics, and teacher on the BA English course at the University of Gloucestershire (https://www.glos.ac.uk/enl) about:

Arran’s university page: Arran Stibbe - Staff Profiles

Taylor & Francis author interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTiktxHF_pY

The book: Ecolinguistics: Language, Ecology and the Stories We Live By - 2nd Edi

The Stories We Live By site: Stories We Live By

And in our regular Lang in the News segment, Lisa, Jacky and Dan talk about how language is used to represent the environment, how it is used in discussions and political campaigns around green issues and how some metaphors for the economy might not be the best ones to use…

Just Stop Oil: research shows how activists and politicians talk differently about climate change

Economists question 'black hole' in UK finances - BBC News

Economists urge BBC to rethink 'inappropriate' reporting of UK economy | IPPR

Contact us @LexisPodcast.  Subscribe: Lexis Podcast | Podcast on Spotify

Contributors

Matthew Butler

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewbutlerCA

Lisa Casey

blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ & Twitter: Language Debates (@LanguageDebates)

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Jacky Glancey

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JackyGlancey

Jill Lavender

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JillLavs

Music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys

Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys

Show notes for Episode 31

Here are the show notes for Episode 31, in which Lisa, Dan and (*drumroll*) new Lexis team member, Jill Lavender (*end drumroll*) talk to Edinburgh University PhD student and ‘that etymology guy’, Danny Bate about:

Danny’s website: https://dannybate.com/

Danny on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DannyBate4

Lang in the News links

Swearing - It's been in the news a fair bit… https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/oct/20/krishnan-guru-murthy-taken-off-air-for-swearing-about-steve-baker

https://preply.com/en/blog/cities-that-swear-most/

The power of swearing: how obscene words influence your mind, body and relationships

Good episode of The Bunker podcast about this: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/bunker-bonus-swearing-by-it-why-we-ing-love-to-curse/id1496246490?i=1000582791786

The success of compound swears - ‘shitgibbon’’ ‘fucktrumpet’ and ‘flagshagger’...

The rise of the shitgibbon – Strong Language

Compound pejoratives on Reddit – from 'buttface' to 'wankpuffin'

Contact us @LexisPodcast.  Subscribe: Lexis Podcast | Podcast on Spotify

Contributors

Matthew Butler

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Matthewbutlerwy

Lisa Casey

blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ & Twitter: Language Debates (@LanguageDebates)

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Jacky Glancey

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JackyGlancey

Jill Lavender

https://twitter.com/JillLavs

Music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys

Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys

Show notes for Episode 30 Here are the show notes for Episode 30, in which Jacky, Dan and Lisa talk to Dr Jessica Norledge, Assistant Professor in Stylistics at the University of Nottingham, about: Stylistics - what it is and how we can use it The language of and in dystopia ‘Text worlds’ and cognitive linguistics Her favourite dystopian novels Jess has just published The Language of Dystopia with Palgrave (see here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-93103-2) - (40% off until Oct 31st 2022 with HAL40 code!) We also talk in our regular Lang in the News segment about recent news stories on emojis, the ‘word gap’ and how ‘culture wars’ news stories are framed, with advice about reading them critically. Jessica Norledge’s University of Nottingham webpage: Jessica Norledge Twitter: https://twitter.com/jessnorledge The book: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-93103-2 (40% off until Oct 31st with HAL40 code) Lang in the News links Thumbs up emojis get the thumbs down from Gen Z (or not): Daily Mirror: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/thumbs-up-emoji-branded-inappropriate-28219379 NY Post: Gen Z has canceled the thumbs-up emoji because it's 'hostile' emoji thumbs up NYPost Oct 2022.pdf Thread here: https://twitter.com/EngLangBlog/status/1580276631473516544 The non-story aspect of all this is covered here: https://twitter.com/RottenInDenmark/status/1580348731215740928 But also the link to other non-stories about generational outrage is worth discussing: Linguists say full stops ‘intimidate young people’ as they seem angry | Metro News Another emoji story this week: geek emoji Article here: geek emoji Nottingham Post Oct 2022.pdf and also covered briefly in Telegraph and Mail Links to an older story in summer about generational use of emojis: Mail emojis generations July 2022.docx Ian Cushing gets the Daily Mail treatment for his critiques of ‘word gap’ discourses Ian’s thread: https://twitter.com/ian_cushing/status/1579731095884820481 The Mail article: Schools branded 'racist' for trying to improve pupils' vocabulary | Daily Mail Online Cushing Mail + later comments Oct 2022.docx Ian’s paper: Full article: Word rich or word poor? Deficit discourses, raciolinguistic ideologies and the resurgence of the ‘word gap’ in England’s education policy Ian’s thread on this: https://twitter.com/ian_cushing/status/1551555550395129856?s=20&t=dNK7RVsA-DrIIgr4C7VXPQ Ian and Julia Snell’s Ofsted paper: The (white) ears of Ofsted: A raciolinguistic perspective on the listening practices of the schools inspectorate | Language in Society | Cambridge Core Discussion of standardised English and Ofsted in the TES: Ofsted: Teaching pupils to speak standard English is 'social justice' Lynne Murphy’s emagazine article ‘How To Read the Language News – Sceptically’ is in emagazine 82 and available (if you have an emag subscription) through this link: emagazine For Advanced Level English Students Contact us @LexisPodcast. Subscribe: Lexis Podcast | Podcast on Spotify Contributors Matthew Butler Twitter: https://twitter.com/Matthewbutlerwy Lisa Casey blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ & Twitter: Language Debates (@LanguageDebates) Dan Clayton blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog) Jacky Glancey Twitter: https://twitter.com/JackyGlancey Music: Freenotes End music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys

Show notes for Episode 29

Here are the show notes for Episode 29, in which Dan and Lisa talk to Dr JPB Gerald about the tensions around standard language ideology when teaching English as a foreign language, the problems with the English teaching ‘industry’, and the spread of English around the world, along with many other themes featured in his new book, Antisocial Language Teaching: English and the Pervasive Pathology of Whiteness coming soon (30th September) from Multilingual Matters, Bristol.

We also talk in our regular Lang in the News segment about recent news stories about accent reduction and infant-directed speech.

JPB Gerald’s podcast: https://anchor.fm/unstandardized

Website: https://jpbgerald.com/blog/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JPBGerald

The book! https://multilingual-matters.com/page/detail/?k=9781800413269

Lang in the News links

Infant-directed speech research

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/08/14/1116524222/scholars-confirm-what-itsy-bitsy-babies-around-the-world-already-know?t=1661938173030

And this from University of York links nicely:

The York English Language Toolkit - changing IDS

Making your accent whiter

The AI startup erasing call center worker accents: is it fighting bias – or perpetuating it? | Technology | The Guardian

Linked thread here: https://twitter.com/EngLangBlog/status/1562322119022845952

Contact us @LexisPodcast.  Subscribe: Lexis Podcast | Podcast on Spotify

Contributors

Matthew Butler

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Matthewbutlerwy

Lisa Casey

blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ & Twitter: Language Debates (@LanguageDebates)

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Jacky Glancey

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JackyGlancey

Music: Freenotes

End music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys

Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys

Show notes for Episode 28 Here are the show notes for Episode 28, in which Dan talks to Dr Kendra Calhoun, University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology, UCLA about her work on online communication, how racialised identities are performed and constructed online and the power of interdisciplinarity (fine if you can say it). 

Kendra Calhoun’s UCLA page: https://anthro.ucla.edu/person/kendra-calhoun/ 

Kendra’s website: https://kendrancalhoun.com/ research pages (where many of the projects we talk about are covered) https://kendrancalhoun.com/research/ and her teaching pages https://kendrancalhoun.com/teaching/ ‘They edited out her nip nops’: Linguistic Innovation as Textual Censorship Avoidance on TikTok - this is the work on TikTok, censorship avoidance and linguistic creativity that we discussed: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BkagHBlDpZNqkMqXTlxsJcL9swApokqu 

Kendra Calhoun’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/_kendracalhoun 

Contact us @LexisPodcast. 

Subscribe: Lexis Podcast | Podcast on Spotify Contributors 

Matthew Butler Twitter: https://twitter.com/Matthewbutlerwy 

Lisa Casey blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ & Twitter: Language Debates (@LanguageDebates) 

Dan Clayton blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog) 

Jacky Glancey Twitter: https://twitter.com/JackyGlancey 

Music: Freenotes End music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. 

From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys