All Episodes

What is a "salad salad"? | Copies, quotes, and plagiarism

Can a robotic arm lose face? | The linguistics of politeness

Does punctuation matter? | To hyphenate or not to hyphenate

Are you working hard or hardly working? | Adverbs and data visualization

What’s in a name? | How naming customs differ around the world

Are cooking recipes about YOU and ME? | Cookbook linguistics

Do you say thank you to a robot? | When humans talk to AI

Is English full of lonely words? | Linguistic tricks for learning words

Can we predict the future of English? | Current trends and language change

What do mocktails, mules, and grammar have in common? | Linguistic purism and hybridization

How can you translate the magic of fairy tales? | Grimm linguistics

Why do we check in at the check-in but check out at the checkout? | English compounds and their spelling

How do comics come to life on the big screen? | Language use in comic book adaptations

What does your accent say about you? | The role of pronunciation in language learning

Can we learn through video games? | Bridging knowledge and adventure

When does the day end and the night begin? | Talking about time in different languages

Should we name prehistoric skeletons? | Creating names for archaeological human remains

How difficult are comic strips and cartoons? | The language of comics

How can we keep Holocaust survivors’ voices alive? | Creating an interactive digital testimony in English

Does English have an infinite number of words for drunkenness? | Drunkonyms

How has Star Wars changed the English language? | Words from a galaxy far, far away

Welcome to Linguistics Behind the Scenes!