Babel No48 (Autumn 2024)
Articles
In defence of plumbing Joseph Wilson talks to James Pennebaker about his studies into the significance of function words
The One With All The Sarcasm Pauline Madella discusses the pragmatics of Chandler Bing’s sarcastic humour
Language attitudes, ducks and the garden path Judit Vari looks at whether we can tell which language varieties are endangered by looking at our language attitudes
Regular features
Language in the news Two cheers for the apostrophe
Ask a linguist What exactly IS contrastive stress?
Diary of a linguist Katie Wales on the language all around us
Language games Grokking tech talk
The complete and utter history of English Writing it all down
Analysing the language of poems ‘Pond Dipping’, by Sarah Wardle
The word hoard The names of birds
Giving voice a voice Turning Japanese…?
A clash of symbols Special [k]
Kill the joke Why sometimes the joking is funnier than the joke
Letters from a linguist Dylan & Dylan
Linguistic horizons Enthusiasm
Meet the professionals Teacher and writer
Screentest Hot Skull
Languages of the world Balesoria
Reviews Clive Young’s Unlocking Scots; Fabio Cerpelloni’s Any Language You Want; Chants of Sennaar