The question of how children acquire language has long intrigued parents and scholars. MIT cognitive scientist Deb Roy recently found a novel way to study what he calls “word birth.” He wired his home with cameras and microphones, and...
Simon Ager’s site Omniglot.com is stacked with full-deckisms from around the world. In English-speaking countries, someone who’s not quite with it is said to be “two sandwiches short of a picnic.” In Germany, however, this is...
Guess what! Or would that be Guess what? A Honolulu listener asks about the right way to punctuate this interjection. Should you use an exclamation mark or a question mark? How about an interrobang or a pronequark? This is part of a complete episode...
If someone says, “That’s a good question,” do you find it annoying or insincere? This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “That’s a Good Question” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi there. Hi...
Grant answers a listener’s email question about the meaning of the musical phrase chicky-wah-wah. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Bow-Chicka-Wow-Wow” Martha, we got an interesting voicemail from Misty in upstate...
A group of student architects who want their acronym to be CASA have a question. Is it more grammatical to call it the Chicano Architecture Student Association or Chicano Architectural Student Association? This is part of a complete episode...