Hosted by Wayne Jones
Beth Young is an associate professor in the English department at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, United States. She is also the coordinator of the ongoing project to digitize the dictionary of English compiled by Samuel Johnson and first published in 1755.
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Beth's Profile
https://cah.ucf.edu/english/faculty-staff/profile/163
Johnson's Dictionary Online
https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/
My guest today is Dr. David Williams, who is an associate professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo, located in Waterloo, Canada. He has a five-year academic grant of over $250,000 to continue his work on the Oxford English Dictionary, with two main goals, which we talk about.
David Williams
https://uwaterloo.ca/english/people-profiles/david-williams
The Life of Words: Poetry, Lexicography, and Computing
https://thelifeofwords.uwaterloo.ca/
I discuss the recent announcement by the Italian government that it is introducing legislation to levy fines on those who use foreign terms, when there is an Italian equivalent, in official documents. I also talk about similar prescriptive tendencies by the governments of France and of the province of Quebec in Canada.
Sources:
"Italian government seeks to penalize the use of English words" (CTV News)
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/italian-government-seeks-to-penalize-the-use-of-english-words-1.6338822
Grande dizionario della lingua italiana
https://www.gdli.it/
Dictionnaire de l’Académie française
https://www.dictionnaire-academie.fr/
Vitrine linguistique (Office québécois de la langue française)
https://vitrinelinguistique.oqlf.gouv.qc.ca/
Oxford English Dictionary
https://www.oed.com/
My guest today is Dr. Valerie Fridland, who is a professor of linguistics in the English department at the University of Nevada, Reno. She’s also more publically engaged than many linguists, with a regular column in Psychology Today, and an upcoming book called—you heard it here first!—Like, Literally, Dude, which is about modern English, its beauties and controversies, and how it changes and adapts. This is the first part of my conversation with her: you can hear the rest on Friday in episode 94.
The Writing & Editing podcast is still ongoing!
It’s now hosted by Jennia D’Lima.
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