TagDiscourse

I Know, Right?!

“I know, right?!” is a friendly way to acknowledge that you understand someone. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “I Know, Right?!” Hi, you have A Way with Words. Hi, my name is Julie. Hi, Julie, where are you calling from? Pasadena...

Who’s Your Googleganger?

It’s the news from your friends at “A Way with Words”! In our latest episode, we discussed “pore” vs. “pour,” “you’re” vs. “your,” “West Coast” vs. “Eastern seaboard,” African-American proverbs, the word “sanction,” and Faulknerian adjectives...

The Future is Here Proverb

Everyone knows old ones, but what about modern proverbs? Here’s an aphorism attributed to William Gibson: “The future is already here. It’s just not evenly distributed.” The hosts discuss some others. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript...

Possessive Form in Lists

What’s happening linguistically when someone’s using the second-person singular possessive in a list of items? A Charlottesville, Virginia, caller began wondering that recently after hearing a wood-flooring salesperson say, “You got your maple, you...

Guttural Utterances

Is there a name for those vocal sound we make when shrugging our shoulders or wordlessly affirming something with an “mm-hm”? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Guttural Utterances” Oh, hello. You have A Way with Words. Hi, this is...

Hell-to-the-No

A die-hard Tyler Perry fan is curious about an emphatic expression she’s heard in some of his movies: Hell-to-the-no. What’s up with the extra words? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Hell-to-the-No” Hello, you have A Way with Words...