In film production, the term diegetic refers to a sound that occurs within the story itself that the characters supposedly hear, whereas non-diegetic sound refers to background music or narration. For example, the tune played by the pianist in...
Stereotyped notice in Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass points back to printing, not to a social generalization. Sidney from Indianapolis, Indiana, noticed the phrase in Douglass’s line about a meeting called under the...
A caller from New York City wonders about his grandmother’s use of the word says rather than said when she’s telling a story about something that happened in the past. It’s a form of the historical present tense that helps describe...
In the game of appending -ing to a movie title to change its plot, the movies Strangers on a Train and Network both become films about corporate life. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Strangers on a Training” We were...
People with synesthesia have long been known to associate sensations like sounds with others, like seeing certain colors. New research suggests that color associations with certain letters — at least for individuals born after 1967 — are largely...
A listener in Greenville, Tennessee, wonders about how the word meta went from prefix to adjective. Meta is simply a word used to describe something that’s about itself. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Getting Meta...