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Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics

14: Getting into, up for, and down with prepositions

Lingthusiasm - A podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics

Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne

Science

4.8791 Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2017

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Are you up for some prepositions? You might think you’re over prepositions, but have you ever really looked into them, or have you just gone by them? Other parts of speech notwithstanding, prepositions are something we’re really down with. In Episode 14 of Lingthusiasm, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne introduce you to our favourite English grammar book, the mammoth, 1800-page Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (affectionately known as CGEL), and take a deep dive into its 60+ pages all about prepositions. We also explore how it is that a grammar can even have sixty pages of things to say about prepositions in a single language and how the tricky edge cases are what makes grammar so interesting. Plus, we look at cousins of the preposition in other languages, like case markers, postpositions, and even circumpositions, why prepositions are complicated to translate, and pied-piping, the prepositional structure named after a fairy tale. This month’s bonus episode is about how linguists solve the divisive question of what makes a sandwich a sandwich. We introduce prototype theory to solve sandwiches, explain how bats and penguins relate to the idea of ‘birds’, and explore other meaning questions. You can get access to it and previous bonuses about discourse markers, language games, hypercorrection, teaching yourself linguistics, and more by supporting Lingthusiasm at patreon.com/lingthusiasm We also now have Lingthusiasm merch! Check out our soft, patterned IPA scarves in red, olive, and navy; shiny Lingthusiasm logo stickers; and mugs, t-shirts, and tote bags that say NOT JUDGING YOUR GRAMMAR, JUST ANALYSING IT at lingthusiasm.com/merch. Thanks so much to everyone who spent the month recommending and reviewing Lingthusiasm to celebrate our first anniversary this episode! We had the ambitious plan to get the show past 100,000 listens, but we knew we could only do it if you helped to introduce Lingthusiasm to new ears. You stepped up and helped us get there right on schedule! If you left a recommendation or review in public, we’ll thank you by name or pseudonym on our special anniversary post next week. If you recommended us in private, we obviously don’t know about it, but we hope you still feel a warm glow of satisfaction. For the links mentioned in this episode, check out our shownotes page at: http://lingthusiasm.com/post/167572233831/lingthusiasm-episode-14-getting-into-up-for-and

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to Lenthusiasm, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics. I'm Gretchen

0:21.7

McCallick. And I'm Lauren Gorn. And today we are getting into, under, over, and around

0:26.9

prepositions. But first, it's our anniversary episode. Yay! Wow, a whole year! It's been a whole year!

0:33.9

In the lead up to this anniversary episode, we've been asking you to recommend, review, and

0:40.6

re-listen to the show.

0:42.3

We had the ambitious aim of hitting 100,000 listens for our first year, thanks to your

0:49.4

diligent sharing, your diligent reviewing, your diligent listening to the show.

0:54.2

Your enthusiastic sharing.

0:55.8

There was so much great enthusiastic sharing that happened.

0:58.7

And at the time of recording, we are on track to hit that by the time this episode goes up.

1:03.6

Thank you so much.

1:04.8

There's just like so much thanking happening here.

1:08.3

Thank you for listening for this year.

1:10.3

Thank you for continuing to support the show

1:12.8

and we're looking forward to year two of Lingthusiasm. In the next few days, we'll be posting an

1:18.2

anniversary post thanking everyone who wrecked us in the last month. There is still time to get your

1:22.9

name on the list. If you publicly recommend Lingthusiasm on your social media platform of choice or leave a

1:30.1

review on your pod feeder of choice and let us know that that happened or if you want to just

1:34.8

recommend us privately you can have a warm glowy feeling that we will confer upon you or feel free to

1:39.8

health about it people have also been asking us about merch. Are we going to have any

1:45.8

Lingthusiasm-themed items that you can adorn your body with? And the answer to that is,

1:50.6

yes, we now have merch. Yay! Think of this as our one-year celebration of Lingthusiasm.

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