Lexis

Matthew Butler

https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/alex.baratta

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

Nov 26, 202341:55

Episode 45 - Alex Baratta and accentism

Show notes for Episode 45

Here are the show notes for Episode 45, in which we talk to Dr Alex Baratta, Senior Lecturer in Language, Linguistics & Communication, Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester about:

Accents, accents… and more accents!
Teacher accents and ‘professionalism’
Social connotations and stereotypes of accents - good and bad
Why one accent isn’t ‘better’ than another and why exposure to accents might be the way to overcome accentism

In our regular Lang in the News segment we talk about how formal greetings and sign-offs might be becoming a thing of the past and why that’s the fault of… well, pretty much everyone that Daily Mail readers don’t like. We also have a quick chat about the European-wide attempts to make language more inclusive, the first round of WOTY2023 and we big up Rob Drummond’s book, You’re All Talk.

Alex Baratta’s University of Manchester page:

Some of the articles, books and research we mentioned:

https://theconversation.com/teachers-with-northern-accents-are-being-told-to-posh-up-heres-why-88425

http://blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/british_politics/2017/06/putting-an-accent-on-things-the-need-to-clarify-speech-expectations-for-british-teachers/

https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/clarifying-accent-standards-for-british-teachers

Understanding all kinds of English accent can improve empathy and learning – and even be a matter of life and death

Yours Sincerely is dead…

The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/sep/13/yours-sincerely-is-dead-so-how-should-you-sign-off-an-email

And in the Mail:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12510471/Is-end-sincerely-Old-phrases-die-decade-language-formal-research-finds.html

Attempts to promote inclusive language in European languages

What’s in a word? How less-gendered language is faring across Europe

#WOTY2023

‘AI’ named most notable word of 2023 by Collins dictionary | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian

AI named word of the year by Collins Dictionary - BBC News

Opinion piece about new words https://archive.ph/kv2UQ

Rob Drummond’s new book: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/you-re-all-talk-why-we-are-what-we-speak-rob-drummond/7512151?aid=4868&ean=9781914484285

Contributors

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social Jacky Glancey

Matthew Butler

Kingsley Ugwuanyi’s SOAS page: https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/kingsley-o-ugwuanyi

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

Nov 11, 202342:41

Episode 44 - Kingsley Ugwuanyi + Amanda Cole

Show notes for Episode 44

Here are the show notes for Episode 44, in which we talk to Dr Kingsley Ugwuanyi, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Horizon Europe’s RISE UP Research Project, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at SOAS about:

Nigerian English
Global Englishes and who ‘owns’ a language
Accent attitudes and identity
Models and theories of world Englishes

In a Lang in the News bumper segment we talk about recent research into young people’s accents in the south east of England and media reactions to it, including a chat with Dr Amanda Cole of University of Essex about her paper and how it’s been covered.

The paper (with Folajimi Oyebola) that we discussed: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Attitudes-of-Nigerian-expatriates-towards-accents-Ugwuanyi-Oyebola/ed2c0e7ac631c4a10fad45021abc8028c1305efc

The BBC article we talked about: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-66569668

Kingsley’s PhD: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344951319_English_language_ownership_perceptions_of_speakers_of_Nigerian_English

Amanda Cole's recent accent research

https://theconversation.com/cockney-and-queens-english-have-all-but-disappeared-among-young-people-heres-whats-replaced-them-215478

The Mail covers it… And its readers comment: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12691143/Kings-speech-cockney-silenced-rise-new-accents-popularised-Ellie-Goulding-Adele-Stormzy.html

Telegraph

https://archive.ph/c56Zb

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/30/kings-english-cockney-replaced-new-accents/

BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-67289519

The Guardian Pass Notes: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/oct/31/language-barrier-why-even-harry-has-stopped-speaking-the-kings-english

The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/05/cockneys-out-all-speaking-multicultural-now-accents

Accent intelligibility

https://theconversation.com/understanding-all-kinds-of-english-accent-can-improve-empathy-and-learning-and-even-be-a-matter-of-life-and-death-215922

Contributors

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

BlueSky: @englangblog.bsky.social Jacky Glancey

Matthew Butler

Cameron et al. on tag qns: https://web.stanford.edu/~eckert/PDF/CameronTags.pdf

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

Nov 06, 202301:08:27

Episode 43 - language & gender special part 2

Show notes for Episode 43

Here are the show notes for Episode 43, the second part of a Language & Gender double episode special, in which Lisa, Jacky and Dan discuss ways to teach Language and Gender at A Level, from the 3 / 4 Ds models, to slightly tweaked and reverse Ds, through to corpus methods, treating gender as part of a wider ‘identity’ approach and much more.

Some of the resources and links that we mention in this episode

Clare Feeney’s Twitter thread with a suggested approach: https://twitter.com/ClareFeeneyUK/status/1672172689224605697?s=20

Cameron, Deborah. and Shaw, Sylvia. (2016). Gender, Power and Political Speech: Women and Language in the 2015 UK General Election - Research Portal | Lancaster University

Corpus for Schools | Corpus resources for A-level English Language and English Language Teaching

Teaching unit 17: Being Asian in London – Ethnicity, gender and social networks Background Audio clips

Alessia Tranchese’s paper on sexualised violence against women: https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/en/publications/covering-rape-how-the-media-determine-how-we-understand-sexualise

Alessia Tranchese’s paper on the language of incels on Reddit: https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/en/projects/online-misogyny-new-media-old-attitudes

Previous Lexis episodes that we mention in this episode.

Episode 10: Lucy Jones gender, sexuality and identity special https://open.spotify.com/episode/1m9UKNUUysD6Vawj61C2kW?si=U8fBAYFyRHSonV9NQ85qag

Episode 14: Emma Moore

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1j6MyddIEivQ8x2e2cObhR?si=uLwnyY10QDy_92UEpk4EhA

Episode 15: Dana Gablasova

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7nagsHhogFSfJmexecKlXt?si=U5ehaxmxQWSN57J5dAtjkQ

Episode 19: Elena Semino

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ISaApHlLITDd7l9npXKKj?si=Wlei19KwTTyTeWfbK15qvg

Suggested reading:

Deborah Cameron’s blog, Language: a feminist guide: https://debuk.wordpress.com/

Deborah Cameron’s Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Cameron_(linguist)

Deborah Cameron wrote this Research Update for Teachers for the EMC back in 2015: https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/language-gender-a-research-update-for-teachers

Contributors

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

BlueSky: @danc.bsky.social

Jacky Glancey

Matthew Butler

Deborah Cameron’s blog, Language: a feminist guide: https://debuk.wordpress.com/

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

Jul 27, 202340:35

Episode 42 - Deborah Cameron, language & gender special part 1

Here are the show notes for Episode 42, the first part of a Language & Gender double episode special, in which we talk to Deborah Cameron, Professor in Language and Communication at Worcester College, Oxford about:

Robin Lakoff 50 years on from Language and Woman’s Place
Where language & gender research has headed post-Lakoff
Deborah Cameron’s forthcoming book, Language, Sexism and Misogyny
What kinds of more recent research we could be looking at for the A Level
Online misogyny and Disney princesses
The other Deborah (Tannen)

We’ll be back soon with a follow-up episode in which we look at how we can approach the teaching of language and gender in a world that’s changed since the earliest days of research into this field.

Deborah Cameron’s Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Cameron_(linguist)

Robin Lakoff’s 1973 article for Language in Society can be found here: https://web.stanford.edu/class/linguist156/Lakoff_1973.pdf

Somer articles about Deborah Cameron’s Myth of Mars and venus from around the time it was published: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/oct/01/gender.books

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/oct/03/gender.politicsphilosophyandsociety1

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/oct/02/gender.familyandrelationships

https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/language-common

Deborah wrote this Research Update for Teachers for the EMC back in 2015: https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/blog/language-gender-a-research-update-for-teachers

Carmen Fought and Karen Eisenhauer, ‘The Princess Problem’: https://www.kareneisenhauer.org/projects-and-publications/

A Q&A with Karen Eisenhauer about her work: https://english.news.chass.ncsu.edu/2017/04/20/language-gender-and-disney-princesses/

The Washington Post on the Disney Princess research: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/01/25/researchers-have-discovered-a-major-problem-with-the-little-mermaid-and-other-disney-movies/

Alessia Tranchese’s paper on sexualised violence against women: https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/en/publications/covering-rape-how-the-media-determine-how-we-understand-sexualise

Alessia Tranchese’s paper on the language of incels on Reddit: https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/en/projects/online-misogyny-new-media-old-attitudes

Contributors

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

BlueSky: @danc.bsky.social

Jacky Glancey

Matthew Butler

Johanna’s QMUL staff page: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sllf/linguistics/people/research-staff/profiles/johanna-gerwin.html

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

Jul 16, 202356:48

Episode 41 - Johanna Gerwin and London English

Show notes for Episode 41

Here are the show notes for Episode 41, in which Dan talks to Dr Johanna Gerwin, a sociolinguist at QMUL and DFG (German Research Foundation) post-doctoral researcher for the London Talks project about London English, including:

The London Talks and Real Talk East projects
What ‘enregisterment’ means and how language styles and varieties become enregistered
‘Metalinguistic’ discourses about London English - MLE, Cockney and Estuary
The power of discourses around language
Slang swag

Johanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jo_gerw

The London Talks project website: https://londontalksresearch.co.uk/

Real Talk on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RealTalkEast

In our regular Lang in the News segment, Lisa, Jacky and Dan talk about ‘cis’ and how it’s been termed a slur by Elon Musk. We discuss where ‘cis’ comes from and all the related issues about language policing in a changing world.

Elon Musk claims ‘cis’ is a slur…

Elon Musk sparks outrage with threat to ban ‘cisgender’ as a ‘slur’ on Twitter | The Independent

Elon Musk claims use of 'cis' and 'cisgender' on Twitter is 'harassment', threatens to suspend users

Researcher who coined term 'cisgender' hits back at Elon Musk

Cisgender refers to people whose gender identity aligns with the one assigned at birth. The researcher who coined the term, Dana Defosse, first used the word in a 1994 post on an early internet forum, which Oxford English Dictionary cited when it added the term to the dictionary in 2015

No, Elon Musk, cis is not a slur | The Independent

OED update December 2015:

New words notes December 2015 | Oxford English Dictionary

“Another sign of our increasingly complex understanding of personal identity in the twenty-first century is the inclusion of a cluster of words beginning with the prefix cis–: cis, cisgender, cisgendered, and cissexual. Derived from the Latin preposition cis, meaning ‘on this side of’, until relatively recently this prefix was chiefly visible in English in the adjectives cisalpine and cismontane (‘on this side of the Alps/mountains’), and in the names of certain chemicals displaying a particular type of molecular symmetry. Since 1994 however, when the word cisgendered was used by an American academic appealing for help with a study of transgender issues, cis– has taken on a new lease of life in a group of words which provide a direct equivalent to identity terms such as transgender and transsexual when referring to people who are not trans, i.e., those whose sense of their own personal identity corresponds to their birth sex.”

What does 'cisgender' mean? | Merriam-Webster

Etymology of ‘cis’: The Word “Cisgender” Has Scientific Roots | Office for Science and Society - McGill University

And Jill is no longer part of the Lexis team - thanks to her for being involved and for all her contribution and insights!

Contributors

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

BlueSky: @danc.bsky.social

Jacky Glancey

Matthew Butler

The York English Language Toolkit website can be found here: https://englishlanguagetoolkit.york.ac.uk/case-studies

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

Jun 26, 202345:60

Episode 40 - York English Language Toolkit

Show notes for Episode 40

Here are the show notes for Episode 40, a bumper edition in which Lisa, Jacky and Dan talk to four linguists from the University of York about their York English Language Toolkit website and teacher CPD sessions. We talk to:

Sam Hellmuth about the Toolkit and some of her favourite sessions in the past 10 years.
Tamar Keren-Portnoy about her child language research
George Bailey about the Our Dialect app
Claire Childs about her work on perceptions of non-standard grammar

This year’s sessions can be found here: https://englishlanguagetoolkit.york.ac.uk/workshops

York English Language Toolkit on Twitter: https://twitter.com/YorkToolkit

Sam Hellmuth on Twitter: https://twitter.com/samhellmuth

Claire Childs on Twitter: https://twitter.com/childs_claire

George Bailey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/grbails

University of York Department of Language and Linguistic Science: https://twitter.com/UoYLangLing

Contributors

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

BlueSky: @danc.bsky.social

Jacky Glancey

Jill Lavender

Matthew Butler

Dan Collen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpinelessL

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

Jun 07, 202356:36

Episode 39: Dan Collen on weaponized laughter memes & Heddwen Newton on Lang in the News

Show notes for Episode 39

Here are the show notes for Episode 39, in which Lisa and Dan talk to Dan Collen, an online hate researcher from Canada about his work on the Weaponized Laughter: Memes and Hate in the Canadian Digital Landscape report he has helped produce. We talk about:

Memes: what they are and how they work
What is classified as hate speech and the ‘hallmarks of hate’
The discourses at work in hate speech
Online communities and their role in shaping and influencing wider culture
Dog whistles and plausible deniability
Hope for the future?

🚩As might be obvious when looking at hate speech, this episode comes with a content warning for themes of racism and discrimination.🚩

And for a Lang in the News special, we talk to Heddwen Newton about her newsletter English in Progress, some recent news stories that have caught her eye and how to stay on top of news stories about language.

The Weaponized Laughter Memes report: https://cdn.sanity.io/files/rdq6owff/production/6b78f8630669069025ea145da2221ef2c1fac032.pdf

Hatepedia site: Hatepedia

“Hatepedia is an online database and resource centre built with original research to provide educators, parents, lawmakers, and researchers with tools to identify and counter the proliferation of online hate.”

Heddwen’s Language in Progress newsletter: https://englishinprogress.substack.com/

Heddwen’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Heddwen

Susie Dent’s ‘banished words list’: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65634829

And the Tweet that started it: https://twitter.com/susie_dent/status/1658380887698931712?s=20

Contributors

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Mastodon:

Jacky Glancey

Jill Lavender

Matthew Butler

Anna’s university page: https://www.uibk.ac.at/anglistik/staff/islentyeva/islentyeva.html

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

May 28, 202301:07:20

Episode 38 - Anna Islentyeva and the representation of masculinity in advertising

Here are the show notes for Episode 38, in which Lisa and Dan talk to Dr Anna Islentyeva of Innsbruck University, Austria about the representation of masculinity in advertising, including:

The “Real Men Score” paper she has recently published with her team
Stereotypes around gender representation
Methodologies and approaches to data
Multimodal approaches to visual texts

Anna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hei_anni

The “Real Men Score” paper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HZsad35JBMD0kM4FqpXpWn8xWnIzAiL-/view?usp=share_link

Anna Islentyeva, Elisabeth Zimmermann, Nadia Schützinger & Andrea Platzer (2023) ‘Real Men Score’: Masculinity in Contemporary Advertising Discourse, Critical Discourse Studies, DOI: 10.1080/17405904.2023.2173625

The study that Anna mentioned into perfume advertising was by Helen Ringrow and this is her book The Language of Cosmetics: The Language of Cosmetics Advertising | SpringerLink

And in our regular Lang in the News segment, Jacky and Dan talk about linguistic accommodation, the power of accents and why politicians love to talk down to us.

Northern lessons for southern Tories

https://twitter.com/christopherhope/status/1649520363926110210?t=pCM6q2gelPqBiOFGy4bQcA&s=19

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/21/how-do-you-sex-a-limpet-susie/

Rishi Sunak’s downwards convergence

Here’s the clip: https://twitter.com/sturdyAlex/status/1640280827086143488

Is it “hilariously inauthentic”(Alex Andreou)?

Is it “sheer desperation by an out of touch rich boy trying to show he is in tune with the public” (Dave Lawrence in replies to tweet above https://twitter.com/dave43law/status/1640326877842685954?s=20 )?

Or is it just another example of politicians (of all parties) trying to sound more human and a perfectly natural way of doing language?

Jane Setter article about people keeping/losing accents:

https://theconversation.com/why-some-people-lose-their-accents-but-others-dont-linguistic-expert-201986

George Osborne:

'Mockney' George Osborne backs working Briddish with dodgy accent

George 'Mockney' Osborne: Chancellor in Estuary accent shocker

George Osborne, gawd bless yer | Victoria Coren | The Guardian

Academics 'dropping regional accents' to fit in at elite universities (linked story to accommodation)

Ed Miliband with Russell Brand:

Accent on common ground as Miliband takes on Russell Brand's estuary twang

The cultural significance of Ed Miliband's mockney accent | The Spectator

Has Ed Miliband changed his accent to get elected?

Tony Blair:

London Journal; Britons Prick Up Their Ears: Blair's a Li'l Peculiar

I don’t have a posh accent – am I bothered? | Suzanne Moore | The Guardian

Accents in Higher Education:

Academics 'dropping regional accents' to fit in at elite universities

British academics try to hide regional accents, study finds

Alex Barratta’s work on accents and teaching

Research exposes prejudice over teachers with northern accents

Contributors

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Mastodon:

Jacky Glancey

Jill Lavender

Matthew Butler

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

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

Apr 23, 202348:30

Episode 37 - Heidi Colthup and the language of gaming

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:

Her journey into academia
How we define what a game is
The language used around and about gaming
Narrative and the power of storytelling in games

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

Mar 25, 202352:59

Episode 36 - Claire Hardaker and forensic linguistics

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

Forensic linguistics
What language can reveal about us
The benefits and problems of technology in forensic linguistics
The role of the forensic linguist in an unequal society
The future of forensic linguistics

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

Dec 30, 202259:21

Episode 35 - an opinion articles special with Harriet Williamson

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:

Opinion articles and what makes a good one, including pieces about language issues
The job of a commissioning editor
Paths into journalism
Educating the public about language

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

Dec 23, 202259:34

Episode 34 - Arran Stibbe and ecolinguistics

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:

Ecolinguistics - what it is and why we need it
The power of storytelling and the environment
Critical language awareness and its role in fighting back against climate catastrophe
Challenging ecologically damaging narratives, ‘greenwashing’, economic ‘growth’ metaphors and more…

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

Contributors

Matthew Butler

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Jacky Glancey

Jill Lavender

Show notes for Episode 33 Here are the show notes for Episode 33, in which Dan and Jill talk to Katy Brown from the Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies at University of Bath about: The mainstreaming of far-right discourses around migration & race What we mean by ‘discourse’ and ‘discourses’ and the power of discourse Analysing discourses, metaphors and narratives around social and political issues Dog whistles and the reception of messages by audiences Methodologies for analysing patterns and specificities in language data Katy’s University of Bath page: https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/persons/katy-brown Blog post on mainstreaming (with Aurelien Mondon and Aaron Winter): The far right, the mainstream, and mainstreaming - RACE.ED ⚠️⚠️⚠️Content warning: we discuss themes of racism, xenophobia and hate speech as part of this episode, so the discussion might not be suitable for all listeners⚠️⚠️⚠️ And in our regular Lang in the News segment, Lisa, Jacky and Dan talk about how language is used to represent migration, migrants and refugees. We reference two papers that analyse the language used to represent migration, one by Tamsin Parnell and one from Charlotte Taylor. Charlotte Taylor 2021 paper on conceptual metaphors for migration: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0957926521992156 Tamsin Parnell 2022 paper on representation of immigrant identities in Brexit-related government documents: The representation of migrant identities in UK Government documents about Brexit A corpus-assisted analysis | Request PDF Suella Braverman’s description of migration as an ‘invasion’. Suella Braverman ‘putting lives at risk’ with ‘migrant invasion’ claims day after firebomb attack | The Independent Suella Braverman sparks furious backlash after branding migrant crisis an 'invasion' - Mirror Online David Shariatmadari on why the language matters: https://twitter.com/D_Shariatmadari/status/1587183760138715136 Older article by him: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/10/migration-debate-metaphors-swarms-floods-marauders-migrants Counter-narratives: https://twitter.com/elliemaeohagan/status/1587151926482935808 Changing the Conversation on Asylum: A Messaging Guide | Freedom from Torture CLASS report on countering divisive narratives: http://classonline.org.uk/pubs/item/the-divide-and-rule-playbook CLASS on race and class: http://classonline.org.uk/pubs/item/the-uk-race-class-narrative-report Suella Braverman's talk of a refugee 'invasion' is a dangerous political gambit gone wrong Suella Braverman was warned ‘hate speech’ could inspire far right 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

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

Nov 26, 202246:37

Episode 33 - Katy Brown and discourse analysis

Nov 22, 202244:33

Episode 32 - Kate Barber and the language of misogyny in online communities

Show notes for Episode 32 Here are the show notes for Episode 32, in which Lisa, Dan and Jill talk to Kate Barber from Cardiff University about: Forensic linguistics Researching discourse in online communities using corpora Discourse analysis of misogyny in the manosphere and far-right online communities Challenging and ‘inoculating’ against these narratives ***Many of the themes - misogyny, sexual violence and racism - and potentially some of the language, that we’ll be discussing in this interview will be disturbing and upsetting so please be aware that this might not be suitable for all listeners*** Kate’s page on the Cardiff University website: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/research-students/view/1066269-barber-kathryn Kate on Twitter: https://twitter.com/katebarber2015 MANTRaP: https://www.markmcglashan.org/projects/mantrap Some coverage of Andrew Tate: Teachers urged to listen for 'manosphere' talk in school corridors amid misogynistic social media trends Inside the violent, misogynistic world of TikTok’s new star, Andrew Tate Andrew Tate: how the 'manosphere' influencer is selling extreme masculinity to young men Lang in the News links The original clip of the Suella Braverman “Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati” jibe Suella Braverman blames ‘Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati’ for disruptive protests – video | Politics ShockProof Beats tells it like it is: https://twitter.com/shockproofbeats/status/1582644846002458624 You can buy the slogan on a mug, badge and tshirt now as well https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1329225869/tofu-eating-wokerati-mug?click_key=440d43995cc8e52a6ff851637ee54dfd8c9e3d41%3A1329225869&click_sum=9eef5300&ref=hp_rv-5&cns=1&sts=1 More on Braverman’s insults here: Tofu? Please Suella Braverman, you're embarrassing us all here From polenta to lemons: the everyday foods demonised by Britain’s class wars | Jonathan Nunn | The Guardian Rakie Ayola interviewed on BBC: https://twitter.com/thatbloodyMikey/status/1584523823675625473 More here: Woke - a great response to its use https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/rakie-ayola-takes-down-woke-criticism-bbc-breakfast_uk_6357a411e4b051268c585f3e?utm_campaign=share_twitter&ncid=engmodushpmg00000004 https://twitter.com/RakieAyola/status/1584969705047015424 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

Nov 01, 202243:11

Episode 31 - Danny Bate and the joys of etymology

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:

Etymology (obvs)
Connections between English and other languages
What words can tell us about language change
‘Sound laws’ and historical linguistics

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'

Contributors

Matthew Butler

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Jacky Glancey

https://twitter.com/JillLavs

Jill Lavender

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

Oct 28, 202255:31

Episode 30 - Jessica Norledge and the Language of Dystopia

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

Oct 21, 202259:48

Episode 29 - JPB Gerald

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

Contributors

Matthew Butler

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Jacky Glancey

Robert McKenzie’s Northumbria University webpage https://researchportal.northumbria.ac.uk/en/persons/robert-mckenzie

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

Sep 17, 202255:45

Episode 28 - Kendra Calhoun

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

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

Jun 25, 202250:28

Episode 27 - MLE in the Media special

Show notes for Episode 27 Here are the show notes for Episode 27, an MLE in the media special, in which we talk to Dr Matt Hunt Gardner from the Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics, University of Oxford about recent stories and articles on Multicultural London English and look at the language, the views, the framing and the timing of those pieces in a bit more detail. Matt Hunt Gardner’s website: https://www.matthuntgardner.com/ Matt’s pages at University of Oxford: https://www.ling-phil.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-matt-hunt-gardner Matt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/matthuntgardner The articles themselves The Telegraph Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/Telegraph/status/1536696753717665792 The Telegraph piece: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/13/wagwan-street-slang-britains-main-dialect/ The Guardian piece: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jun/14/wagwan-why-are-more-and-more-britons-speaking-multicultural-london-english The Mail Online piece: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10921527/Wagwan-language-urban-dialect-takes-IRAM-RAMZAN-says-not-change-good.html Some selected Mail Online comments: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dx0UfZPxEAXxjX9abBNtyCGz6SRo_BlL/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110439791983693362630&rtpof=true&sd=true Evening Standard piece: https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/britain-london-slang-accents-regional-diversity-lenny-henry-b1006546.html The i piece: https://inews.co.uk/opinion/multicultural-london-english-dialect-40-years-old-middle-class-britain-terrified-1690448 Other sources on MLE: Multicultural London English – part 1 The 'M' in 'MLE' – Youth Slang's Origins | tony thorne Old MLE complaints from EngLangBlog: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RNLPjiCIv4X8Pw_VhLzSbj6olcISUn_1/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110439791983693362630&rtpof=true&sd=true 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

Note: a better audio version of this was uploaded on Nov 30th 2022

Jun 19, 202237:16

Episode 26 - Robert McKenzie and Speaking of Prejudice

Show notes for Episode 26

Here are the show notes for Episode 26, in which Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk to Dr Robert McKenzie of Northumbria University about implicit biases in accent attitudes, the benefits of approaching language study with a multidisciplinary approach and the Speaking of Prejudice project.

The Speaking of Prejudice project website: https://research.northumbria.ac.uk/languageattitudesengland/

Student resources from Speaking of Prejudice project: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10ui8etPOB2z2OvO6k2ebTIe-56t24rHR/view?usp=sharing

Speaking of Prejudice on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpeechPrejudice

Robert McKenzie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/robertm98205445

Teacher resources from Speaking of Prejudice project:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CjuWwWJHMupN_ZRB1CRjQKFo2ZgraZGk/view?usp=sharing

The British Academy showcase event can be found here: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/british-academy-summer-showcase-2022/programme-exhibits/

The forthcoming book: https://www.routledge.com/Implicit-and-Explicit-Language-Attitudes-Mapping-Linguistic-Prejudice-and/McKenzie-McNeill/p/book/9780367703530

Robert’s book recommendations:

Language Myths by Laurie Bauer

and

English with an Accent: Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the U

Contributors

Matthew Butler

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Jacky Glancey

https://public.oed.com/blog/oed100-repainting-the-dictionary/

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

May 22, 202239:52

Episode 25 - the OED

Here are the show notes for Episode 25, in which Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk to Fiona McPherson and Freia Reimink-Layfield about their work on the OED: how they view the role of dictionaries, expand their pool of sources and reassess word definitions as time goes by.

OED100: Repainting the dictionary

Blog | Oxford English Dictionary

Varieties of English Archives | Oxford English Dictionary

Lang in the News

Man arrested for allegedly threatening Merriam-Webster over definition of female - ABC News

Man arrested for threatening to 'bomb' Merriam-Webster over trans-inclusive definitions

A corpus-based approach to discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in UN and newspaper texts. - Research Portal | Lancaster University

Cameron, Deborah. and Shaw, Sylvia. (2016). Gender, Power and Political Speech: Women and Language in the 2015 UK General Election - Research Portal | Lancaster University

'I want a voice that fits me': teenager's quest for communication aid with Walsall accent

Contributors

Matthew Butler

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Jacky Glancey

Kamran Khan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SecurityLing

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

May 11, 202244:16

Episode 24 - Kamran Khan

Show notes for Episode 24

Here are the show notes for Episode 24, in which Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk to Dr Kamran Khan of the University of Copenhagen about security studies, discourses around refugees and Muslims and the role of language in national identity, especially around language testing and citizenship.

Kamran’s ResearchGate page: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kamran-Khan-45

https://archive.discoversociety.org/2020/01/08/the-counter-extremism-shift-in-esol-policy-and-the-double-securitisation-of-muslims/

The New York Times’ Trojan Horse Affair podcast can be found here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/podcasts/trojan-horse-affair.html

Lang in the News

We talked about this paper by Ian Cushing and Julia Snell:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-in-society/article/white-ears-of-ofsted-a-raciolinguistic-perspective-on-the-listening-practices-of-the-schools-inspectorate/E6ECBB4A5DDE794CD44270C67CAEDF19

You can read more about it here (check out the comments and Ian’s patient replies too!):

https://theconversation.com/ofsted-has-been-dictating-what-proper-english-is-heres-why-thats-a-problem-176742

And we refer to the TES article that you can find here: https://www.tes.com/magazine/analysis/general/does-ofsted-have-problem-language-policing

LancsBox is here: http://corpora.lancs.ac.uk/lancsbox/download.php

Contributors

Matthew Butler

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Jacky Glancey

Show notes for Episode 17 Here are the show notes for Episode 17 where Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk about: ‘Woke’... are we woke? Are we fighting a war on woke? What does it even mean and why is it being used to attack people for just being nice humans? Meghan Markle’s representation in the tabloid press And we talk to Dr Amanda Cole from the University of Essex about accents, identity and how accents in the South East of England have been changing. Barbara Windsor: you're more likely to hear a cockney accent in Essex than east London now Accentism is alive and well – and it doesn't only affect the north of England There's still a hierarchy of accents in Britain and why talking with the 'wrong' one might hold you back Ethnic minorities ‘deemed less intelligent because of their accents’ (paywalled) Amanda Cole on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmanditaCole Amanda Cole University of Essex page: https://www.essex.ac.uk/people/colea17303/amanda-cole Amanda Cole is speaking at the next emagazine English Language conference for students! More details here: EMC Online: English Language A Level Student Conference (30th June 2021 2-4pm) | Conferences Woke The Woke Handbook for Boomers | Magazine (paywalled) What does 'woke' really mean and why is Tesla CEO Elon Musk mocking it? 'WOKE' NOT WOKE What does 'woke' mean? The origins of the term, and how its meaning has changed How the word ‘woke’ was weaponised by the right (Trigger warning: contains images of both Laurence Fox and Toby Young) Meghan Markle Here Are 20 Headlines Comparing Meghan Markle To Kate Middleton That Might Show Why She And Prince Harry Are Cutting Off Royal Reporters Comparing How Meghan Markle is Discussed in the Press vs. Kate Middleton | GreenBook *Quick note: at 45:10 we mention ‘abstract verbs’. We obviously meant ‘abstract nouns’: please forgive us.* 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

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

May 09, 202245:27

Episode 18 - Emma Byrne

*Explicit warning*

Show notes for Episode 18 Here are the show notes for Episode 18 - our first birthday episode! - where Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk about: ‘So’ and why it annoys language pedants and prescriptivists. Language discourses around two texts discussing ‘so’. And we talk to Dr Emma Byrne, author of ‘Swearing Is Good For You: the amazing science of bad language’ about...swearing. Obvs. Emma Byrne’s Swearing is Good for You page: Swearing is Good for You – Emma Byrne, Science Writer and Broadcaster Emma Byrne in The Guardian: Swear by it: why bad language is good for you | Emma Byrne Emma Byrne in Time Magazine: The Benefits of Swearing Emma Byrne in Elle: There's a Swearing Double Standard—and Women Can Change It - Emma Byrne on Gendered Perception of Swearing Broca’s area in the brain: The Broca Area and Language Production Wernicke’s area in the brain: WikiPedia: Wernicke's area Sophie Scott on Why we Laugh Sophie Scott: Why we laugh | TED Talk Sophie Scott on Why do Humans Laugh Why do humans laugh? So Alec Marsh in The Spectator on ‘so’ The remorseless rise of 'so' Lane Greene has responded on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lanegreene/status/1392805484768468993 He links to this https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/so-and-so-that-coordinating-or-subordinating-conjunctions?page=1 And there’s already been several peeve fests about ‘so’ over the years: So Here's Why Everyone Is Starting Sentences With The Word 'So' How A Popular Two-Letter Word Is Undermining Your Credibility So Shoot Me – Frank McNally on the sentence-opener of the century (so far) Today presenter John Humphrys declare war on the use of the word 'so' So, here's a carefully packaged sentence that shows me in my best light | Oliver James And this is a good piece on it: https://www.npr.org/2015/09/03/432732859/so-whats-the-big-deal-with-starting-a-sentence-with-so?t=1620925294688 In defence of the word 'so' - a much better take on ‘so’ from Elizabeth East. 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

Jun 09, 202150:22

Episode 17 - Dr Amanda Cole

May 28, 202146:43

Episode 16 Ffion Brown

Show notes for Episode 16 Welcome to Episode 16 of the Lexis podcast and our first new episode of 2021, in which Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk about: The language of news reports on violence against women The power of language to represent and frame events And we talk to Ffion Brown about her work on the representation of mental health. Some of Ffion’s reading suggestions: Methods of Critical Discourse Studies - Ruth Wodak (Editor) Michael Meyer (Editor) https://uk.bookshop.org/books/methods-of-critical-discourse-studies/9781446282410 The Little Prince https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-little-prince-colour-illustrations/9781909621558 Language in the News https://twitter.com/_chris_hart/status/1370868282216026113?s=20 ‘Elite police officer appears in court charged with woman’s murder’ - Times headline https://twitter.com/JNRaeside/status/1370774580948824065?s=20 Reporting on the Atlanta Spa Shootings https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/17/jay-baker-bad-day/ “He was pretty much fed up and kind of at the end of his rope. Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did,” Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jay Baker said Wednesday. He was describing the 21-year-old man accused of killing eight people, mostly Asian and almost all women, in a rampage across three Atlanta-area spas. UK headlines about an attack on a teenage girl in Derby https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1370799588160983042?s=20 Jackson Katz: Violence Against Women - it’s a men’s issue https://www.ted.com/talks/jackson_katz_violence_against_women_it_s_a_men_s_issue/transcript 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

Apr 25, 202131:07

Episode 15 - Dana Gablasova

Show notes for Episode 15 Welcome to Episode 15 of the Lexis podcast, our last for the hellscape that has been 2020, in which Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk about: Words of the Year Words entering the dictionary Words leaving the dictionary And we talk to Dr Dana Gablasova from Lancaster University about Corpus Linguistics: what it involves what it can offer to students investigating language the ways it can open up questions to explore in data some important recent studies the Corpus in Schools project Dana Gablasova’s Lancaster University page: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/linguistics/about/people/dana-gablasova Dana’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/danagablas The Corpus for Schools homepage: Corpus in classrooms | Corpus for Schools Future Learn’s Corpus Linguistics MOOC: Corpus Linguistics Analysis - Online Course The BNC: [bnc] British National Corpus The BNC 2014: British National Corpus 2014 Baker, Gabrielatos, McEnery, Sketching Muslims: (PDF) Sketching Muslims: A Corpus Driven Analysis of Representations Around the Word 'Muslim' in the British Press 1998-2009 Semino, Demjen, Hardie, Payne: Metaphor, Cancer and the End of Life: (PDF) Metaphor, Cancer and the End of Life: A Corpus-Based Study Elena Semino on Covid metaphors: 'A fire raging': Why fire metaphors work well for Covid-19 - Making Science Public Reframe Covid: #ReframeCovid - Contribute Louise Mullany and Loretta Trickett: A comic strip to fight misogyny hate crime Paul Baker on corpus methods to explore the representation of gay men in the UK press: Language, Sexuality and Corpus Linguistics: Concerns and Future Directions Paul Baker Abstract In this paper I discuss the poten Language in the News Summary of selected WOTY choices Oxford: too many to decide... Collins: lockdown Cambridge: quarantine Australian Dictionary: iso Macquarie: rona & doomscrolling Merriam Webster (USA): pandemic Oxford report: Oxford Word of the Year 2020 | Oxford Languages The American Dialect Society has different categories and voted for a range of good ones, even if their main WOTY (covid) was a bit dull: American Dialect Society Collins Dictionary WOTY: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/woty Cambridge Dictionary: https://dictionaryblog.cambridge.org/2020/11/24/cambridge-dictionarys-word-of-the-year-2020/ David Shariatmadari in The Guardian: Pandemic, lockdown and Megxit: the most influential words of 2020 Irish Times: The word of the year is defined as 'watching Normal People in your pyjamas'. What is it? Merriam Webster on US WOTY: Word of the Year 2020 | Pandemic Piece on Australian WOTY: https://theconversation.com/rona-iso-quazza-words-of-the-year-speak-to-our-australian-take-on-covid-150949 Macquarie’s Covid words of 2020: The Macquarie Dictionary COVID Word of the Year shortlist Macquarie’s overall list (Karen, Covidiot and Doomscrolling): https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/resources/view/word/of/the/year/2020 UK education top ten words of 2020: Word of the year 2020: the teachers' choice Essex Girl removed from dictionary https://news.sky.com/story/essex-girl-removed-from-dictionary-after-campaigners-claim-term-is-offensive-12151727 'Essex girl' removed from dictionary following campaign 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 Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CI3kZ7rZq5C70AyM2D-XVm3vF_DUno3vuSkIWrNNoa4/edit?usp=sharing Here’s to a better 2021...

Dec 31, 202038:56

Episode 14 - Emma Moore

Show notes for Episode 14 Welcome to Episode 14 of the Lexis podcast in which Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk about: How language frames and represents people and events Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp Advice to women about personal safety And we talk to Professor Emma Moore from the University of Sheffield in a wide-ranging interview about: non-standard English and how it’s used for different purposes the importance of understanding the societal origins of attitudes to language why we need to understand the differences between spoken and written systems ...and how sociolinguistics saved our lives! Emma Moore’s Sheffield University page: Professor Emma Moore | English Emma Moore’s Eden Village Girls study: “I were out with Lucy last week. She were in a right good mood.” What Did You Say? https://festivalofthemind.sheffield.ac.uk/2020/futurecade/what-did-you-say/ What Did You Say? Podcast episode: https://festivalofthemind.sheffield.ac.uk/2020/spiegeltent/what-did-you-say-podcast/ Jenny Cheshire’s Reading study: Jenny Cheshire – Linguistic Variation and Social Function – All About Linguistics Penelope Eckert’s High School study: Penelope Eckert – High School Ethnography Peter Trudgill’s Norwich study: Peter Trudgill, Norwich Lesley Milroy’s Belfast studies: Milroy's Belfast Study Language in the News The representation of (convicted murderer of Reeva Steenkamp) Oscar Pistorius: Sonia Sodha on Twitter: "My god BBC. “The extraordinary story of paralympic and Olympic sprinter” who “suddenly found himself at the centre of a murder investigation.” Extraordinary? Found himself? INSPIRATIONAL?! No way to talk about a convicted murderer. Talk about minimising the murder of women.… https://t.co/dW8dZoRpiZ" Anya Palmer on Twitter: "They've changed it to say he killed her. Still not saying he murdered her. He was charged with murder when he MURDERED his girlfriend.… https://t.co/4gAOrU3UML" https://twitter.com/soniasodha/status/1321367689475067904 Debbie Cameron on Twitter: "So, we can add 'found himself at the centre of a murder investigation' to the already long list of convoluted formulas the media use to gloss over men's violence against women and make the perpetrators into tragic heroes. (See also the play on the word 'trials' in the title)… https://t.co/koQUBG2eYV" Police advice to women: https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1316307733147246594?s=20 https://twitter.com/MisterLJones/status/1316810550190407680?s=20 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 Transcript:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iaQEzsVjifbKajiYJPob54-AHGoAGiAwk-mfLjD5M_o/edit?usp=drivesdk

Dec 24, 202043:49

Episode 13 - Accent Special

SHOW NOTES (TRANSCRIPT AT BOTTOM) Show notes for Episode 13 Welcome to Episode 13 of the Lexis podcast in which Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk about accent in an accent prejudice special, including: Negative attitudes to regional and social accents Social attitudes to ‘regional’ accents Humour, pride and regional/social identity online Doric covid warnings As part of this we also talk to Lauren White whose report into accent and social attitudes at Durham University spurred several of these stories. Lauren’s report is here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344434314_A_REPORT_ON_NORTHERN_STUDENT_EXPERIENCE_AT_DURHAM_UNIVERSITY Language in the News Students from northern England facing 'toxic attitude' at Durham University (this is the one based on Lauren’s report) Guardian main story on accent discrimination and class: UK's top universities urged to act on classism and accent prejudice Guardian on accent discrimination: 'It's had a lasting impact': students on being bullied over their accents UK students: Have you been ridiculed over your accent or background? Accentism against Essex: Accentism is alive and well – and it doesn't only affect the north of England Rob Drummond discussing use of ‘regional’ re accents: https://twitter.com/RobDrummond/status/1319923837824356352 University of York on accent attitudes: https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2019/research/regional-accents-doesn't-hold-back-top-jobs/ Various articles on attitudes to accents based on a marketing survey from OnBuy: Yorkshire most trustworthy accent in the UK, says survey | Bradford Telegraph and Argus Yorkshire Accent Has Been Voted Most Trustworthy Accent In The UK Brummie accent named least trustworthy in the UK, study reveals Sexiest accents from (ahem) Illicit Encounters survey (Trigger Warning: features a picture of Barry Chuckle): Men from Yorkshire have England's sexiest accent, poll finds Accents/dialects discriminated against on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EngLangBlog/status/1319014609781739520 Interesting and effective use of representation of accent/dialect: https://twitter.com/AngelaRayner/status/1319021626311180291?s=20 Doric Covid warnings: https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/doric-coronavirus-advice-tells-ye-fit-ye-need-ta-dee-195854/ Accent Bias in Britain project: https://accentbiasbritain.org/ The Accentism Project: http://accentism.org/ Eccentricity podcast: https://www.accentricity-podcast.com/ 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

Dec 15, 202025:17

Episode 12 - Vanja Karanovic

Show notes for Episode 12 Welcome to Episode 12 of the Lexis podcast in which Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk about: Children’s language development via Twitter videos of babies with huskies, lullabies and big-scale projects that measure children’s lockdown language. We also talk to Dr Vanja Karanovic about bilingual children’s language development. Vanja’s Twitter page: https://twitter.com/DrVanjaK Some of the texts referred to: Grosjean, F, 2012, Bilingual: Life and Reality, Harvard University Press Crystal, D, 1989, Listen to Your Child (2nd edition), Penguin (Chapter 7) De Houwer, A.,2009, BIlingual First Language Acquisition, Multilingual Matter Language in the News Baby and Husky: https://imgur.com/gallery/sakCQNd Constance Bainbridge on lullaby research: https://twitter.com/conBainbridge/status/1318294620778995716 Julien Mayor: https://twitter.com/julien__mayor/status/1321922810634227712 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

Nov 18, 202041:00

Episode 11 - Catherine Laing

Welcome to Episode 11 of the Lexis podcast in which Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk about: Interruptions: in the US presidential debate, in online classrooms via TikTok and how gender and power are factors in how we are treated in conversations. We also talk to Dr Catherine Laing from Cardiff University’s Centre for Language and Communication Research about child language development and infant-directed speech. Catherine Laing’s University page: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/921190-laing-catherine Catherine’s Twitter account: https://twitter.com/cathelaing24 Schieffelin and Ochs’s paper (1986) on how child-directed speech isn’t used in some societies: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/ochs/articles/Schieffelin_Ochs_1986_Language_Socialization.pdf Casillas, Brown and Levinson on verbal interaction with children in a southern Mexico village https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cdev.13349 Cristia, Dupoux, Gurven & Stieglitz on verbal interaction with children in lowland Bolivia: https://srcd.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cdev.12974 Babel, The Language Magazine: https://babelzine.co.uk/ The Vocal Fries podcast https://vocalfriespod.com/ Language in the News Interruptions in the US presidential debate: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/trump-interruptions-first-presidential-debate-biden.html Interruptions between Trump and Clinton in 2016: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/9/27/13017666/presidential-debate-trump-clinton-sexism-interruptions https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-third-presidential-debate-how-many-times-interruptions-sexism-a7371286.html Interruptions of a woman in STEM (via TikTok): https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/woman-in-stem-interruptions-tiktok/ Deborah Cameron on interruptions and gender: https://debuk.wordpress.com/2020/08/15/woman-interrupted/ Language in Conflict: https://languageinconflict.org/ 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

Oct 17, 202035:46

E10 Language, sexuality and identity special

Show notes for Episode 10 Welcome to Episode 10 of the Lexis podcast in which Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk about: Another bad article about language, which takes a swipe at people who ask for people to respect their pronoun choices. We also talk to Associate Professor in Sociolinguistics at the University of Nottingham, Dr Lucy Jones about language, sexuality, gender and identity. Lucy Jones’ blog: https://queerlinglang.wordpress.com/ Lucy Jones’ University of Nottingham page: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/people/lucy.jones Lucy’s Twitter account: https://twitter.com/jones_lucy Robert Podesva’s study on falsetto and identity: https://web.stanford.edu/~eckert/Courses/l1562018/Readings/Podesva2007.pdf Language in the News Here’s the article by Joanna Williams in The Times that we analysed: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/declaring-your-pronouns-is-pure-narcissism-7rffv2mrz A couple of the bits we talked about are reproduced below: Declaring your pronouns is pure narcissism An identity-obsessed minority with too much time on its hands has lost touch with reality Joanna Williams I’m Joanna, she/her. You probably guessed that from my name and my photo. But declaring one’s pronouns is all the rage and I’d hate to appear out of touch. I’m all for denying biology. I pretend I’m not getting older and can still drink too much without suffering the next day. I pretend I can fit into clothes I bought 20 years ago. But I don’t insist other people confirm my delusions. Demanding to be called they/them rather than he/she is to insist that the rest of the world share in your fantasy. When Jeremy Corbyn spoke at the Pink News awards late last year he began his speech by saying: “My name is Jeremy Corbyn, pronouns he/him.” Surely no one in attendance doubted Corbyn’s manhood, or that men are commonly referred to as “he”. People devise all kinds of ways to signal their political beliefs, particularly when they decide that doing so makes them out to be especially virtuous. Pronoun-declaring is, in truth, a game played by an identity-obsessed minority with far too much time on its hands. Forced attempts at normalising pronoun introductions may be done in the name of inclusivity but they reveal only how hopelessly out of touch those who run our universities, local authorities and political parties have become. They no longer have any idea how normal people talk to each other. 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

Sep 22, 202001:00:24

Episode 9 - Tony Thorne

Show notes for Episode 9 Welcome to Episode 9 of the Lexis podcast in which Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk about: Good and bad articles about language, featuring an absolute peeve-fest from James Innes-Smith in The Spectator and a much better one from Stan Carey on emoji panics on the MacMillan Dictionary blog. We also talk to author, lexicographer, slang expert and visiting language consultant at King’s College, London, Tony Thorne about new words and lots more! Tony’s Twitter page: https://twitter.com/tonythorne007 Tony Thorne’s King’s College page: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/foundations/tony-thorne/who-is-tony-thorne Language and Innovation: Tony’s blog which chronicles much of his recent work on new words: https://language-and-innovation.com/ Coronaspeak: #CORONASPEAK – the language of Covid-19 goes viral Kate Burridge and Howard Manns onn pandemic vocabulary: 'Iso', 'boomer remover' and 'quarantini': how coronavirus is changing our language Language in the News Here’s the article from The Spectator that we analysed: War of the words: have we stopped making sense? (Hat Tip to Havant and South Downs College for the link to the Spectator article: https://twitter.com/HSDCEngLang) We also made reference to this article by Lindsay Johns: Ghetto grammar robs the young of a proper voice If you want to see some responses to the Lindsay Johns article, many of which are relevant to the Spectator one too, try here: EngLangBlog: Ghetto grammar and here: Thoughts on Lindsay Johns and 'Ghetto Grammar' We liked this article by Stan Carey, though: Will emojis ruin English? Find more of Stan’s writing through here: https://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/author/stan-carey and here: https://twitter.com/StanCarey 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

Sep 03, 202053:23

Episode 8 - Northern accent special

Show notes for Episode 8 Here are the show notes for Episode 8 which is a special edition on Northern accents where Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew (2 proper Northerners, a Welsh person and a soft, southern shandy drinker) talk about: Northern accents, dialect levelling and reports of a new ‘educated middle class northern English accent’ emerging. And we talk to Dr Georgina Brown from Lancaster University about the study itself. Georgina Brown’s Lancaster University page: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/linguistics/about/people/georgina-brown Northern accents are becoming more similar, suggests new research A link posted by project leader Patrycja Strycharczuk about the Manchester research: Strycharczuk et al.’s Frontiers paper sparks controversy The paper itself can be found here: General Northern English. Exploring Regional Variation in the North of England With Machine Learning Patrycja Strycharczuk (@PatStrycharczuk) Kevin Watson on Scouse: Scousers are proud of their accent Cambridge University’s app to measure dialect change: Do you say splinter, spool, spile or spell? English Dialects app tries to guess your regional accent Cambridge app maps decline in regional diversity of English dialects Media reports on the paper Guardian: Northern English accents becoming more similar, researchers find Mail Online: Northern accents 'are becoming more similar' Daily Telegraph: Northern accents becoming more similar as middle-class 'General Northern English' emerges, study finds Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/northern-accents-more-similar-distinct-cities-manchester-leeds-sheffield-a9623071.html A great Twitter account to follow if you want to see how Twitter can be used for dialect research: https://twitter.com/tweetolectology 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

Aug 21, 202029:10

Philip Seargeant - E7

Show notes for Episode 7

Here are the show notes for Episode 7 where Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk about:

‘Irregardless’ and why this word causes prescriptivists such angst.
The Daily Mail going overboard on ‘man overboard’ and why challenging sexist language gets such a bad press.

And we talk to Dr Philip Seargeant of the Open University about emoji and political storytelling.

Philip Seargeant’s university page: http://www.open.ac.uk/people/ps4549

Philip Seargeant’s website: Philip Seargeant

Twitter: https://twitter.com/philipseargeant

Philip Seargeant on emoji: https://www.digitaltrends.com/features/emoji-digital-language-of-emotion-phillip-seargeant/

Philip Seargeant on political storytelling: https://www.ft.com/content/d0d0f4ec-a4d2-11ea-92e2-cbd9b7e28ee6 (paywalled)

The Special Adviser's Tale, or Political Storytelling in the Time of Covid

Irregardless

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/06/is-irregardless-a-real-word-dictionary

Peter Sokolowski of Merriam Webster Dictionaries discusses ‘irregardless’ in a Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/PeterSokolowski/status/1280585356908388352

‘Man overboard’

Sailors told to stop using Navy terms like 'unmanned' and 'man power'

Royal Navy bans terms 'unmanned' and 'manpower' because it's 'sexist'

Contributors

Matthew Butler

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Jacky Glancey

Show notes for Episode 6 Here are the show notes for Episode 6 where Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk about: language change related to the term ‘Karen’ and how its meaning has drifted and been debated the changing of the name of Washington’s American Football team And we talk to Kelly Wright in a wide-ranging interview about her work in experimental sociolinguistics, how race and ethnicity are represented in language, blackness and whiteness in voices and lots more... Kelly Wright’s website: Covert Racism | Wright Linguistics Publications and interviews: https://kellywright5.wixsite.com/raciolinguistics/recent-publications John Rickford on Rachel Jeantel’s testimony at the George Zimmerman trial: Stanford linguist: prejudice toward African American dialect can result in unfair rulings A link to a presentation on housing discrimination: https://youtu.be/2YiSTziPt5o Kelly Wright on Twitter: https://twitter.com/raciolinguistic Groundbreaking report reveals racial bias in English football commentary The RunRepeat study: Racial Bias in Football Commentary (Study) Karen How 'Karen' went from a popular baby name to a stand-in for white entitlement What is and where did it come from? This from the Indy: What is the Karen meme and is it a misogynistic slur? | indy100 Hadley freeman in the Guardian on Karen being sexist: The 'Karen' meme is everywhere – and it has become mired in sexism Karen Attiah in the Washington Post about why it's not oppressive: Opinion | The ‘Karen’ memes and jokes aren’t sexist or racist. Let a Karen explain. A bit of a more nuanced suggestion that it allows white women to uphold white supremacy: I am no longer Outside in a AMG on Twitter Changing the Washington NFL team name (We’ve chosen not to use the team name here but you’ll find it referred to in some of these articles.) An NFL Name Change That Has Been a Long Time Coming https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53390944 https://www.economist.com/united-states/2020/07/18/renaming-the-washington-redskins 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

Music: Freenotes

Jul 30, 202048:44

Kelly Wright - E6

Jul 18, 202045:45

Ian Cushing - E5

Show notes for Episode 5 Here are the show notes for Episode 5 where Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk about language change and some of the arguments around banning and censoring language - the word game, Scrabble ‘banning’ racial slurs - slaves and masters, master bedrooms and nitty gritty: words that are being challenged and reviewed - political correctness, cancel culture and wokeness And we talk to Dr Ian Cushing about language in schools, the policing of language and the role, politics and importance of Standard English in education. You can find the links to the stories and research we’ve mentioned in this programme, below. Ian Cushing’s work on language in schools: Teachers' slang bans 'likely to cause long-term damage' Should schools be allowed to ban slang words like 'peng'? The Policy and Policing of Language in Schools: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-in-society/article/policy-and-policing-of-language-in-schools/6C4BC80399E27747D34819060E186A62#fndtn-information Comment on Ian’s article: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-in-society/article/comment-on-the-policy-and-policing-of-language-in-schools-by-ian-cushing/780222C30D0C8C011B8ACEB0FD8EC964 Ian’s response: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-in-society/article/power-policing-and-language-policy-mechanisms-in-schools-a-response-to-hudson/ACEE15C4A9A3BDC555B1DFCCF0446E5C Ian Cushing on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ian_cushing Language in the News Scrabble ‘bans’ slurs: US Scrabble bans racist and LGBTQ slurs from tournaments Scrabble community mulls banning racial and homophobic slurs Slaves and masters: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53050955 Master bedroom ‘banned’: Estate agents banned from saying 'master bedroom' due to concerns over slavery and sexism links Nitty gritty - is it a racist term? 'Nitty gritty' on Sky Sports' banned list of words due to supposed links to slavery Where does the phrase nitty gritty come from - and why has Sky Sports banned it? It's not just the n-word in the woodpile - from 'no can do' to 'hooligan' we reveal English's hidden racism Police forbid politically incorrect phrases | UK news   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  

Jul 11, 202051:26

Shivonne Gates - E4

Here are the show notes for Episode 4 where Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk about

- sacking headlines: who’s been sacked and who’s doing the sacking?

- TikTok teens and K-Pop stans trolling Trump

- and talk to Dr Shivonne Gates about Multicultural London English and how language is used by teenagers to express their social identities.

You can find the links to the stories and research we’ve mentioned in this programme, below.

Some of Shivonne Gates’ work mentioned in the interview:

Voices and Practices in Applied Linguistics: Diversifying a Discipline

Why the Long FACE?: Ethnic Stratification and Variation in the London Diphthong System

Shivonne’s book recommendation: https://wordery.com/homegirls-norma-mendoza-denton-9780631234906

Headlines:

The Guardian

Rebecca Long-Bailey sacked from Labour shadow cabinet by Keir Starmer – UK politics live

Daily Mail

Starmer reignites Labour civil war

Story of Trump’s Tulsa Rally being trolled by Tiktok users:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-tulsa.html

Contributors

Matthew Butler

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Jacky Glancey

website: https://accentbiasbritain.org/

Music: Freenotes

Jul 04, 202032:36

Devyani Sharma - E3

Show notes for Episode 3

Here are the show notes for Episode 3, where Jacky, Dan, Lisa and Matthew talk about

- the language of subtitles: turning non-standard into Standard English?

- the changing meanings and interpretations of gestures: taking a knee and what it might mean

- and talk to Professor Devyani Sharma of QMUL about accents, identity and how to deal with accent bias… among other things!

You can find the links to the stories and research we’ve mentioned in this programme, below.

Accent Bias in Britain project (QMUL)

Twitter: https://twitter.com/accentbias

Teach Real English! (QMUL)

http://www.teachrealenglish.org/

Devyani Sharma’s staff page: Devyani Sharma - School of Languages, Linguistics and Film

A Level English numbers up for first time in 7 years:

Provisional Entries for GCSE, AS and A level: Summer 2020 exam series

Professor Dick Hudson’s site has mapped the trends in A Level English over the years:

https://dickhudson.com/trends-english/

Marcus Rashford interview with the BBC: Marcus Rashford talks food poverty, his childhood and campaigning for free school meals

A Twitter thread on the potential ‘linguicism’ of ‘correcting’ subtitles: https://twitter.com/DrVanjaK/status/1272603255932170245

BBC subtitling guidelines: https://bbc.github.io/subtitle-guidelines/

Dominic Raab on ‘taking a knee’: Dominic Raab's obliviousness to taking a knee feels eerily like a government ploy to enrage black people

Changing meaning of OK gesture

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48293817

Trolling, hoax or attempt to disguise hate symbol?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48293817

Contributors

Matthew Butler

Lisa Casey

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

Dan Clayton

blog: EngLangBlog & Twitter: EngLangBlog (@EngLangBlog)

Jacky Glancey