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Welcome to the Valley!
Lexicon Valley is an audio show dissecting this messy, maddening and thoroughly wonderful thing we call language.
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John McWhorter talks to sociolinguist Alexandra D'Arcy about the spike in our use of like. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 32 min 17 sec
John McWhorter discusses the subject of his new book, Talking Back, Talking Black: Truths About America's Lingua Franca. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmar...
· 30 min 15 sec
Mark Seidenberg, author of Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can’t, and What Can Be Done About It, discusses the fallout from the so-called reading wars. Twitter: @lexiconvalle...
· 29 min 38 sec
When hath gave way to has, the original meaning of merry, and other insights from popular Christmas carols. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/L...
· 25 min 28 sec
In Arrival, Amy Adams plays a linguist who discovers that language can radically alter one's perception of reality. But is that true? Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Web...
· 27 min 0 sec
Are the slang, sounds, and syntax of Black English a kind of lingua franca for America's youth? Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconVall...
· 30 min 40 sec
What can we learn about English from Bill Clinton, the two Bushes, and other leaders of the free world? Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/Lexi...
· 29 min 2 sec
Whither didst thou go? How our rich and complex system of second person pronouns got whittled down to just "you." Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstud...
· 33 min 2 sec
What Bette Davis, FDR, and Ralph Kramden have in common when it comes to speech. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 31 min 13 sec
John McWhorter on what the intricacies of the future tense tell us about the unwritten rules of pronouns. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/Le...
· 24 min 54 sec
John Simpson, former editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, talks about life as a lexicographer. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconV...
· 22 min 22 sec
John McWhorter makes linguistic sense of seemingly arbitrary children's verse. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 22 min 38 sec
How Words Hook Up and Make New Ones Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 34 min 40 sec
John McWhorter talks with author Jack Lynch about the sacrilege of modified Shakespeare. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/LexiconValley
· 43 min 43 sec
Gretchen McCulloch talks to John McWhorter about the big meaning behind our favorite little pictograms. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios.com/Lex...
· 37 min 34 sec
Ann Patty, author of "Living With a Dead Language: My Romance With Latin," talks about her transformative experience of learning Latin. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Web...
· 25 min 28 sec
Sali Tagliamonte, author of Making Waves: The Story of Variationist Sociolinguistics, talks about the underlying disorder of the English Language. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/Lexic...
· 28 min 59 sec
Etymologist and poet Anatoly Liberman says that English is one of the most difficult languages to spell. But we can change that. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website:...
· 25 min 7 sec
Why are so many swear words monosyllabic? Benjamin K. Bergen, author of the upcoming What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves, discusses the science of cursing....
· 31 min 57 sec
Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot! How an American Revolutionary War figure spawned a new name for a very old game. Twitter: @lexiconvalley Facebook: facebook.com/LexiconValley Website: booksmartstudios....
· 25 min 47 sec