Talk the Talk

Recent work in genetics has revealed that all non-African people are related to Neanderthals, a now-extinct species of human. If there was interbreeding between us, how would they have communicated? Did Neanderthals have language, and what might it have been like? UWA linguist Daniel Midgley goes back in time on this week's Talk the Talk.

Are you a word maven? Have you ever used an aglet? Do you know where to find an octothorp? These and other words are lurking in your dictionary, but they're brought to light in a new book, "Thingamajigs and Whatchamacallits: Unfamiliar Terms for Familiar Things". UWA linguist Daniel Midgley interviews author, philosopher, and philologist Rod Evans on this week's Talk the Talk.

Do bird songs have grammar? Linguists have supposed that syntactic structure was only found in human language, but now a team of researchers is finding that finches use it in their songs. Does that mean they speak a kind of language? How is their communication different from ours? UWA linguist Daniel Midgley sorts it out on this week's Talk the Talk.

Scholars have long supposed that certain books of the Bible were written by a number of different authors. Now a team of language researchers is using computers to determine Bible authorship, and they're coming up with some surprising findings. Can text give an author's identity away? How can computers determine who wrote what? UWA linguist Daniel Midgley tells the story on this week's Talk the Talk.

An equality-minded preschool in Sweden is avoiding the use of gender-specific pronouns like 'he' and 'she', and referring to the kids as 'friends', rather than girls and boys. Is this linguistic egalitarianism, or radical language engineering? Does using gendered pronouns make you more sexist? UWA linguist Daniel Midgley is looking out for the children on this week's Talk the Talk.

We often speak of time as though it were a physical thing; we can run behind schedule, or move a meeting forward. But the Amondawa people of Brazil are unusual in that they do not use metaphors of space to talk about time. Dr Chris Sinha of the University of Portsmouth tells us more on this week’s Talk the Talk.

The US intelligence agency IARPA is putting a heavy research focus, not into lie detection or speech recognition, but metaphor. That's right, the figure of speech where you describe something as something else. But why would that be useful for national security? What can we learn about human language by studying metaphor? UWA linguist Daniel Midgley will illuminate the issue (so to speak) on this week's Talk the Talk.

Using bad language in Victoria could cost you. Swearing in public is already illegal, but soon police will have the power to issue on-the-spot fines instead of taking the matter to court, which will make enforcement more likely. Where's the line between prohibiting anti-social behaviour and inhibiting freedom of expression? Do laws pertaining to swearing have any place in the 21st century? UWA linguist Daniel Midgley may be breaking the law on this week's Talk the Talk.

Volunteering is a good way to make a difference in your community, and it's even better when it involves language. But not everyone knows just how to combine the two successfully. This week on 'Talk the Talk', we have Robin Knight from Read Write Now in the studio to tell us how volunteers make literacy work.

Part 2 of our interview with Brian Christian, author of “The Most Human Human”.

A 'bot' is a computer program that simulates human conversation. Some bots are quite sophisticated, but could they ever be mistaken for a human? This week on Talk the Talk, UWA linguist Daniel Midgley chats with Brian Christian, who assisted with a contest to find the most human computer, and wrote up his adventures in a book, "The Most Human Human".

Do you plank? Have you ever taken part in a flash mob, or been rickrolled? Even if you haven't, you may have wondered how the names for these and other Internet-related crazes got started. Well, UWA linguist Daniel Midgley is going to tell you anyway on this week's Talk the Talk.

Victorian schools are placing a new emphasis on bilingual education. The Premier Ted Baillieu wants to make second language learning compulsory for most students starting in 2015. But this is just another in a long line of language learning efforts. Why are English speakers so persistently monolingual? UWA linguist Daniel Midgley learns more on this week's Talk the Talk.

Human evolution resulted in the formation of what could be called the "super-brain", as humans gained the ability to share complex thoughts. What can archaeology tell us about the human mind and the evolution of language? This week's Talk the Talk features an interview with Dr. John Hoffecker, author of "Landscape of the Mind: Human Evolution and the Archaeology of Thought".

This week marks the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible. It's considered a masterpiece of English literature, and it's had considerable impact on the English language. What is it about the King James Version that has even atheists singing its praises? And how does it stand up to newer versions? UWA linguist Daniel Midgley gets religion on this week's Talk the Talk.