Listen here to Episode 51: Small talk, big deal
“Cold enough for ya?” “Nice weather for ducks.”
Small talk is a valuable piece of our social interactions – it can be a way of having a momentary exchange with someone you don’t know very well or a bridge into getting to know someone better by figuring out which deeper conversational topics might be of mutual interest.
In this episode of Lingthusiasm, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch get enthusiastic about the science behind small talk: how we pick topics for small talk conversation, the fine art of media references from memes to movies, and our own tested strategies for dodging awkward small talk questions while keeping the conversation flowing, such as when you’re having a not-great time but don’t want to talk about it, and that ubiquitous linguist question “so, how many languages do you know?”
This month’s bonus episode is a Q&A with lexicographer Emily Brewster of Merriam-Webster! Gretchen and Lauren get enthusiastic with Emily about the process of making dictionaries, based on your patron questions. We also talk about how lexicography has changed since dictionaries went online and in the era of social media, and the extremely esoteric process of getting lexicography jobs. Get all your lexicography questions answers, as well as access to 45 other bonus episodes by becoming a Patron!
Crash Course Linguistics videos are available now and coming out weekly! Keep an eye out for them around 2pm North American Eastern Time on Fridays for the rest of 2020 (except a few holiday Fridays) and into early 2021. If you want to get an email each week with some further reading and practice exercises on each topic, you can also check out the companion issues of Mutual Intelligibility. Become a Patron and get access to the Crash Course channel in the Lingthusiasm Discord to chat about each episode!
Here are the links mentioned in this episode:
Lingthusiasm Episode 11: Layers of meaning - Cooperation, humour, and Gricean Maxims
Lingthusiasm Episode 39: How to rebalance a lopsided conversation
Lingthusiasm Episode 46: Hey, no problem, bye! The social dance of phatics
The magically effective way to respond to “so you’re a linguist, how many languages do you know?”
A Mission to Make Virtual Parties Actually Fun - Gretchen’s article for Wired on proximity chat
You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening, and stay tuned for a transcript of this episode on the Lingthusiasm website. To receive an email whenever a new episode drops, sign up for the Lingthusiasm mailing list.
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Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com
Gretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic.
Lauren is on Twitter as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.
Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our editorial producer is Sarah Dopierala, and our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.
Here’s the link again to Episode 51: Small talk, big deal
Thanks for listening, and stay Lingthusiastic!
Lauren & Gretchen