Linguistically Aware

Tri-Transitive Structures: A Mystery for Linguistic Theory

Join us as Brooklyn sits down with Dr. Maria Cristina Cuervo, an Associate Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at the University of Toronto. Dr. Cuervo tells us about exciting research on something called “tri-transitive” structures and why their existence is so shocking to many theories of language!

Can machines tell when we’re being sarcastic?

In this episode, Brooklyn sits down with Andi — a high school student at Webber Academy — to talk about her year-long linguistics research project about automatically identifying sarcasm in speech. In this project, Andi teamed up with our faculty and graduate students to investigate what make something sound sarcastic and if we can teach a computer to use these cues to identify sarcasm.

Can machines tell when we’re being sarcastic?

In this episode, Brooklyn sits down with Andi — a high school student at Webber Academy — to talk about her year-long linguistics research project about automatically identifying sarcasm in speech. In this project, Andi teamed up with our faculty and graduate students to investigate what make something sound sarcastic and if we can teach a computer to use these cues to identify sarcasm.

Layers of Language: The Hidden Structure of Words and Sentences

In this episode, Brooklyn sits down with the incredible Dr. Elizabeth (Betsy) Ritter — a syntactician from the University of Calgary. In this interview, Betsy tells us all about her career journey and why we think languages have a hidden hierarchical structure.

Discovering How Kids Learn to Talk: Inside the Developmental Psycholinguistics Lab

Ever wonder how children develop language? Us too! Join us with Dr. Angeliki Athanasopoulou as we learn about the developmental psycholinguistics lab at the University of Calgary — what they study, why it matters, and what we know (or don’t know!) about how young minds acquire language.

Language in Humans and Machines with Dr. Julie Sedivy

What would it mean for machines to understand language the way humans do? In this episode, we dive deep into the fascinating intersection of linguistics, cognition, and artificial intelligence with psycholinguist, Dr. Julie Sedivy. We explore topics covered in the course “Language in Humans and Machines” (LING 302), being offered in Fall 2026. Plus, stick around to hear about a free public talk from Dr. Brian Dillon on the same topic at Contemporary Calgary on June 16th, 2026.

From linguistics to lesson plans: Insights in language curriculum development

In this episode, Tanna Butlin shares her path from studying linguistics to working in curriculum development with the Tsuut’ina Nation. She discusses what curriculum development involves in practice, how linguistic training informs the creation of language-learning materials, and how this work supports broader efforts in language revitalization.

When one word makes a difference: Designing experiments to explore grammar

Guest host Jesse Weir speaks with Dr. Keir Moulton (University of Toronto) about his path in linguistics and how subtle sentence contrasts like “I love that…” versus “I love it that…” reveal deeper insights into how language is represented and processed in the mind.

Poetry on the Radio

National Poetry Month. Poems by Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike, Joan Sarro, David Zieroth, Hilaire Belloc, Saul Williams, Lorna Crozier, Lauraine Saretsky, Mary Oliver, Margaret Atwood, Scott Alderson, Archibald Lampman.

What’s your mouth doing right now?: The scientific study of speech sounds

Brooklyn sits down with Dr. Stephen Winters - the University of Calgary's phonetician who walks us through how speech sounds are made, why languages sound so different from one another, and how phonetics plays a role in speech recognition, language learning, and speech therapy.