Tagged: language

Texting has become an incredibly common way of communicating in the 21st century. Back in 2011, the Pew Research Center reported that young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 sent around 110 text messages per day. The texting craze has also given rise to an entirely new vocabulary — texters of all ages abbreviate, punctuate and accentuate in ways that are totally unique to the cell phone age.

So one question arises: Is texting killing our language? Ross Reynolds LOLs with professor John McWhorter and discusses the possible impact of txting and the feared f8 of language.

Our spring membership drive rolls along with two of our favorite interviews: two-time Grammy winning musician Taj Mahal joined us late last year to celebrate 40 years in music and a new retrospective album, "Maestro." Plus, we listen back to a conversation with Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker about his book, "The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window Into Human Nature."

What's so funny about peace, love and understanding? Nothing, but other words are hilarious! Ross Reynolds talks with language columnist Ben Zimmer about words we love, words we hate and words that simply make us laugh. 

When it comes to proper usage, the Grammar Police work overtime. Have you ever corrected another person’s grammar? How did that go over? Linguist Geoffrey Pullum has written widely on language and usage, from technical syntactic theory to a study called “The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax." He joins us for a conversation about the constant struggle for grammatical excellence (or even just improvement) and the right and wrong way to encourage better sentence structure.