Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
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Latest episodes
- Is it 'try and' or 'try to'? What does an epilogue do?
10 min
The phrase "try and" is a common and acceptable alternative to "try to," particularly in informal speech, and its usage has historical roots in the concept of testing or examining. - 'Rizz,' 'lost in the sauce,' and Dictionary.com's newest words, with Steve Johnson
Steve Johnson, Director of Lexicography at Dictionary.com, joins Grammar Girl to discuss the recent addition of nearly 6,000 new words. He explains the lexicographical process, the influence of technology, social media, and AI on language, and highlights interesting new slang and specialized terms from various fields. The conversation also touches on the criteria for adding words, the evolution of slang, and the importance of creativity in language.
- What 'kith and kin' and 'beck and call' have in common
Grammar Girl explores the fascinating world of 'fossil words' – words that persist only within fixed phrases. The episode delves into the origins and meanings of phrases like 'kith and kin', 'beck and call', and 'hue and cry', explaining how the individual words have largely fallen out of common usage. The show also features listener contributions, including examples of 'eggcorns' (misheard words like 'eye bulbs' for eyeballs) and the history behind phrases related to children's games and place names like 'Nimrod'. The discussion highlights how language evolves and how older words leave traces in modern expressions.
- Why "golly" and "gosh" are going the way of the dinosaur, with Sali Tagliamonte
This episode features a conversation with linguist Sally Taggliamonte, delving into the fascinating world of Ontario dialects. Taggliamonte shares her personal journey into dialectology, sparked by observing linguistic variations in her family and community. She discusses the extensive Ontario Dialects Project, highlighting unique regionalisms, the influence of French on English in certain areas, and the evolution of common expressions. The conversation also touches on the inclusion of Canadian words in dictionaries and concludes with book recommendations.
- Decoding the Chinese character paradox, with Dr. Charles Kemp
In this bonus episode, Dr. Charles Kemp discusses his research on the evolution of writing systems, particularly the Chinese script. Contrary to the intuitive expectation of simplification, his work reveals that Chinese characters have become visually more complex over millennia. He attributes this to the need for distinctiveness as the number of characters grew and the historical context of their creation. Dr. Kemp also touches on the practical implications of this complexity, such as learnability and potential links to myopia, while noting that system-level complexity (reusable components) has actually decreased. The episode concludes with his recommendations for books that influenced his career and interests, covering computer science, cognitive psychology, and linguistics.
Summary by InboxHiive. Not affiliated with Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. Written with AI from the episode audio; check the episode for exact quotes.