Tall Drink of Water - 18 August 2025

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

A Way with Words

Education, Language Learning, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why is it harder to talk if we don’t move our hands? Even when we’re talking on the phone we feel the need to gesture to aid communication. A new book offers a look at the relatively new field of gesture studies. And: Ever wonder why we describe the American flag as “red, white, and blue?” Why not “blue, white, and red?” Plus, everyone should have a hellbox for tossing their discards! But where exactly would you find one? Also: a tall glass of water, since dirt was young, since King Hatchet was a hammer, since Hector was a pup, a brain teaser about multiple letters, sold down the river, an alliterative drinking game, upper-case vs. lower-case, why we say red, white, and blue and not blue, white, and red, and how to pronounce pecan. Hear hundreds of free episodes and learn more on the A Way with Words website: https://waywordradio.org. Be a part of the show: call or text 1 (877) 929-9673 toll-free in the United States and Canada; elsewhere in the world, call or text +1 619 800 4443. Send voice notes or messages via WhatsApp 16198004443. Email [email protected]. 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.
0:03.8	I'm Grant Barrett.
0:04.9	And I'm Martha Barnett, and I have my hands placed firmly on this table, and I'm going to try to keep them there while I go on talking.
0:13.8	But, you know, Grant, I'm already noticing that it's really hard for me to carry on a conversation without moving my hands.
0:20.5	That sounds like trying to
0:22.7	win a horse race with two jockeys. It's a, it's a handicap, Martha. You can't do it. Yeah,
0:28.8	yeah, it's really difficult for me. But I've been thinking about gestures after reading a wonderful
0:35.4	new book on the topic by linguist Lauren Gahn, and we'll talk about it
0:40.3	more later in the show, but for now, let me just mention one study in this book. Researchers asked
0:47.2	participants to learn the rules of a game and then explain those rules to other people that they
0:53.4	were going to play the game with.
0:54.9	So they had to explain the rules to someone they were told would be their future teammate,
0:59.4	and they had to explain the rules to someone who was going to be a future competitor.
1:04.5	And each time, the people giving the instructions used pretty much the same words
1:09.5	and made about the same number of gestures,
1:12.3	but when they were explaining rules to their opponent, their gestures were smaller.
1:18.6	Oh, that's so interesting. So the illocutionary force was diminished because they didn't want to
1:24.2	fully inform the future competitors, and they felt like they were giving information
1:28.9	away with their hands? Or they were holding information back by holding their hands back.
1:33.9	Yeah, somehow. Yeah. It's a fascinating topic. Oh, so fascinating. I'm going to a board game
1:40.0	night this weekend and I'm going to be watching other people and myself. I just never thought
1:45.9	about this till I read this wonderful book, Gesture by linguist Lauren Gahn. We'll talk more about
	...

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