Why do we say something is academic when referring to a question or topic that’s theoretical? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “It’s Academic at this Point” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Good morning...
A listener in Omaha, Nebraska, says his mother always ends a phone conversation not with Goodbye, but mmm-bye. How common is that? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Mmm-Bye” Hi, you have A Way with Words. Hello. My name...
A customer-service representative from Seattle, Washington, is curious about the phrases people use as a part of leave-taking when they’re finishing a telephone conversation. Linguists who conduct discourse analysis on such conversations say...
A caller from University Park, Maryland, wonders what’s really going on when someone says ” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “That’s a Great Question” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Jerry...
We heard from a woman who told her boyfriend about her plan to get her hair cut. He responded that he thought that particular style would make her hair “worse.” Does the word worse in this case imply that her hair was bad to begin with...
When a conversation on Twitter gets so crowded that replies contain more handles than actual comments, the result is a tipping Twitter canoe. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Twitter Canoe” Grant, you probably already...