Zack in Santa Barbara, California, is curious about what’s happening when someone interjects the expression Right? in the middle of a sentence or explanation without allowing time for the listener to respond. Expressions like Right? and You know? are tag questions, which can have any of several different linguistic functions. Depending on the situation, a tag question might be used to accomplish such things as building camaraderie with the listener, soliciting tacit agreement, holding the floor, or yielding it. This is part of a complete episode.
Unparalleled misalignments are pairs of phrases in which the words in one phrase are each synonyms of the words in the other, but the phrases themselves mean different things. For example, the phrase blanket statement can be paired with cover story...
Jameela in Charlotte, North Carolina, says her family refers to their television’s remote control as the clicker, but her friends insist on calling it the remote. These devices go by other names as well, including doofer, flicker, zapper, and...
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