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A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over

Ding Ding Man (Rebroadcast) - 22 June 2020

A Way with Words - language, linguistics, and callers from all over

A Way with Words

Language Learning, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2020

⏱️ 51 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1803, a shy British pharmacist wrote a pamphlet that made him a reluctant celebrity. The reason? He proposed a revolutionary new system for classifying clouds — with Latin names we still use today, like cumulus, cirrus, and stratus. Also: when reading aloud to children, what’s the best way to present a dialect that’s different from your own? And: If you’re only guessing when you toss it in the recyclng bin, then you’re engaging in wishcycling — and that does more harm than good. Plus, T Jones, diegetic vs. non-diegetic, affixes, solastalgia, since Sookie was a calf, don’t that just frost ya, a brainteaser, and more. Read full show notes, hear hundreds of free episodes, send your thoughts and questions, and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org/. Email words@waywordradio.org. Twitter @wayword. Our listener phone line 1 (877) 929-9673 is toll-free in the United States and Canada. Elsewhere in the world, call +1 (619) 800-4443; charges may apply. From anywhere, text/SMS +1 (619) 567-9673. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to Away with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

0:03.4

I'm Grant Barrett.

0:04.4

And I'm Martha Barnett.

0:06.0

Imagine that all the punctuation marks gave a party.

0:10.0

What would that look like?

0:12.0

Rachel Herbert asked that.

0:13.6

On Twitter, she's an editor in Seattle, Washington.

0:17.2

She wrote, sometimes I imagine punctuation marks

0:19.9

as people at a party.

0:21.3

Comma, uh-huh, uh-huh, okay, then what happened?

0:25.6

And the colon makes intense eye contact and says, now look.

0:30.2

And a semicolon, hand you their drink and plate

0:32.6

so that they can gesture more freely.

0:35.0

And the period abruptly says, we're done.

0:37.4

Let's go.

0:38.6

And I've been thinking about that,

0:40.9

like what would an asterisk be like at a party? I think it's a person

0:44.8

who's constantly surprised I don't know if the person who walks in in their own surprise party.

0:51.0

Or they're like hold on I'll be right back. Yeah. And then I was thinking a

0:54.7

Tilda would just sit there in the corner going, nia, nia, nia, nia. Right.

0:58.9

Prentices are two people leaning toward each other, talking intently ignoring everyone else right?

1:05.1

The Dash is making a run for the bathroom. Right and maybe the Slash is I don't know

...

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