SILLY LINGUISTICS THE MAGAZINE FOR LANGUAGE LOVERS

A Brief
History of
Polari

THE
native POETRY OF
language LANGUAGE:
WORD SEARCH
hypocrisy
THE MAGAZINE FOR LANGUAGE LOVERS : ISSUE #29 : OCTOBER 2020
 CONTENTS
3
S IS FOR … SO LONG,
FAREWELL, AUF WIEDERSEHEN,
ADIEU
By Chris Davy

5
DIARY OF A (STUDENT) TEACHER
By Giulia Raus

8 21
CAN ANIMALS USE HUMAN
CASES OF FUNNY
LANGUAGE?
POLYSEMY/HOMONYMY
By Julia Alexander
By Valentin Pradelou

12 26
A BRIEF HISTORY OF POLARI
THE WALKING DICTION
By Catherine Muxworthy
By Tiffany Marcum
16 28
FORMAL AND INFORMAL PRONOUNS:
NATIVE LANGUAGE HYPOCRISY
By David Wells
By Gil Cohen

19 31
CODDIWOMPLING FREE FROM LINGUISTS: WHEN WORDS
By Emmeline Burdett GET STUCK ON THE TIP OF YOUR
TONGUE
By Inés de la Vina

34
THE POETRY OF LANGUAGE:
WORD SEARCH
By Rachael Brown

35
LEADERSHIP IS LANGUAGE: A
REVIEW
By Holly Gustafson

Front cover photo and content page photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels
This week's page numbers are in Polari!
October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 3 | TREY

S is for...

So long,

farewell,

auf wiedersehen,

adieu

By Chris Davy

@ chrisdavy1985

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
4 | QUARTER

So, I’ve decided to stop writing for Silly
Linguistics Magazine. For now at least. I’m
taking a break from it.
I know that the good people that put this
magazine together and keep it going will let
me write another article whenever I want
and send it in. Because we’ve got a great
thing going on here. We do make a great
team. And it’s a magazine that has a healthy
inclusive and progressive philosophy at its
core.
Why am I stopping?
Well truth be told, I struggle with the lack of
engagement from people. I put a lot of time
effort and energy into highlighting and
addressing what I think are some really cool
and useful things when it comes to language
and linguistics. But you don’t always get
much back in return. I’m not referring to
anyone or anything in particular. I’m
referring to the whole situation. And that to
me isn’t cool. Things have got to be S is
for...Symbiotic.
No news isn’t always good news. No news
sometimes means people don’t actually want
what you are offering. Kind of the same with
words and language really. Like when you
say something and someone doesn’t
respond.
It’s not that I feel like I’m wasting my energy.
Far from it. I know when anyone contributes
to anything someone will benefit. Because
it’s not me that it’s the important element.
It’s just the S is for...Someone. Anyone can
do what I’ve done. It just so happens to have
been me.
I’m sensing that things have become a bit S
is for...Stagnant. I’ve reached a plateau. So
I’ve got to make a change and mix things up
a bit. I’m obsessed with growth,
development, and progress and when I feel
like it isn’t happening I find something else
to do. Change is essential to growth. But so
are breaks. It’s literally how the human body
works.
Technically, I’m still contributing to the
magazine. I’m actively contributing the
break. This is a very conscious decision for
me. I mean, look at how long and articulate
my article is! Hahahahaha!
But, I’ve got my girlfriend. I’ve got my son.
I’ve got my time. And at the moment I’ve got
other ways that I’d rather S is for...Spend it.
Other ways that I figure I must spend my
time.
And that people, might be the biggest lesson
that I can give you with respect to learning
about language and linguistics.
Study. Strive. Scrutinise. Substantiate. Switch
or Stick. Select. Surpass. Savour.
Basically, put in the effort. Check yourself.
Check the situation. And if holistically it
feels right and makes sense to do so, then
move on.
It’s all part of the growth. I mean, S is
for...Scaling up.

But like a lot of good things. The true

essence of what has been contributed is
only ever realised once it is no longer being
contributed. So in order for me and you to
find out what it is that I’ve contributed I
have to stop contributing it for a while. It’s
all part of the process. Because until it
happens, we’ll never truly know its value.
In life, it’s massively important to know
when to walk away. To S is for...Separate
yourself from S is for...Something.

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 5 | CHINKER

Diary of a
(Student)
Teacher

By Giulia Raus

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
6 | SEY

Pandemic or not, holidays or not, school has started, and I already want to
retire. My first three weeks teaching have been chaotic to say the least.
English pupils need to get used to rules again, homework and teachers’
requirements. Nonetheless, as we say in Italian “il lupo perde il pelo ma non
il vizio” (the leopard cannot change his spots) and the same questions about
languages came up all over again.

“Miss, why do we have to learn French? Everyone in the world speaks

English anyways!” – do they though? There are many things that my pupils
do not consider when it comes to languages, first of all, knowing a second
language helps you to be more flexible. Second of all, it helps you to be open
to the word and then open-minded. Moreover, how many people really do
speak English? As I mentioned before in my previous articles, English is one
of the most spread languages in the world even because it is composed of
few “cultural expressions” like the one I have used in the first paragraph that
make the language less difficult to learn and more easily understandable, in
addition English grammar is objectively easier than many other languages.
So, at the end of the day, they think that English is SPOKEN by everyone is
because “broken English” is UNDERSTOOD by everyone.

Another thing that British students do not understand, are the political and
economical factors: they still do not know which type of job they would like
to do and depriving themselves from the knowledge of a second language
could stop them from getting the job they desire, secondly with Brexit at
the door, English will no longer be the official language in Europe, but on
the contrary French will be the first instead. So no, not everyone speaks
English and yes you do need to know a second language.

Another thing that I have noticed is that British pupils are not interested in
learning languages not only because they think English is spoken
everywhere, but because they do not study English at all, more precisely
they do not study grammar. Funnily enough the other day someone asked
what “went” was and when I replied, “it is the past tense of to go”. They were
more confused than before because they do not know the infinitive of their
own verbs.

So, how can we pretend that they learn a language from scratch when they
do not understand the grammatical explanations? On the other hand, I have
noticed that the students that already know a second language, because
maybe they speak it at home with their parents, have less trouble to
understand and improve. Why? Usually bilingual children do not know how

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 7 | SETTER

to write their second language (the one used to talk only with their family)
hence they do not know grammar rules and exceptions, how can they
understand the rules of a third language better than monolingual kids then?
They don’t!! what they have is the courage to dare and go for it. Being
immersed in a bicultural context made them more easy-going, moreover they
have the capacity to rapidly catch words and sentences.

This is the example that I would like to show to my pupils, knowing a second
language definitely makes you better!

Nevertheless, the British teaching method knows with whom they are dealing
with and created resources and systems that allowed children to learn no
matter what. The use of power points, interactive games on language web
sites, the use of songs and so on and so forth made the impossible possible
(just the opinion of a simple former Italian student). These systems stimulate
pupils’ memory and help them to remember rules and words easily. As far as I
am concerned, sometimes I miss the old boring grammar lessons where the
teacher used to sit on their chair and just explain the rules, leaving to us the
hard job of understanding and making it work, here in the UK sometimes I
feel like an entertainer, I walk around the class I sing I shout and sometimes I
play with my students to allow them to understand.

But are we forgetting someone? Not all the students are the same, and the
boring language lessons usually put off weaker students or the slower ones
making them feel unworthy, I cannot deny I felt the same more than once.
The idea of having a teacher who uses different methods to involve everyone
is a dream, and I have to say in Italy, they are rare because sometimes
professors are just too attached to their role and do not want to play with
their students. The British style keeps everyone with their feet on the floor, the
teachers especially have to learn to put themselves in their students’ shoes to
help them and push them without letting them down. So yes, I like the
teachers with their feet on the floor and the students that try to fly high
towards new horizons.

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
8 | SAY DOOE

CAN ANIMALS
USE HUMAN
LANGUAGE?
BY JULIA ALEXANDER
Photo by Wynand van Poortvliet on Unsplash

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 9 | SEY TREY

When Alex the African grey parrot was asked

“ What shape ?” about a triangle , ’

he d correctly

reply “ three cornered - ”. If Alex was shown a

collection of three red , five blue and four green

blocks and asked “ What colour five ?”, he would

correctly say “ blue ”. Alex even understood the

concept of zero , because when asked “ What

colour bigger ?”, he d ’ say “ none ” if the two

objects were the same size . I find it surprising

and impressive that a bird can understand us so

well .
Parrots are well known for being good at

mimicking human words In fact . , they are so good

at repeating human phrases that one can get

easily get confused about whether a parrot or a

person is talking . For example , Boris the parrot ,

owned by the Speaker of the UK House of

Commons , has surprised train passengers by

shouting “
Order , Order ” and “ Lock the doors .
Lock the doors ”. Passengers have reportedly

looked around and even replied in confusion

“ ’
Who s shouting lock the doors ?”.
Other animals can also mimic human speech Noc . ,
a beluga whale , could change its vocal rhythm

and lower its frequency to more closely resemble

to human speech . Then there s Kosnik ’ , an Asian

elephant , who learnt to speak a few Korean

words such as annyong ( hello ), nuo ( lie down ), and

choah ( good ). He succeeded in making human

sounds by placing the tip of his trunk inside his

mouth and raising his lower jaw , a method which

had never been seen before in elephants .

Moreover Hoover , a harbour seal , could speak

some English words such as “ Hello there ” and

“ How are you ?”. These cases show that several

different animals are capable of mimicking

human speech . However , like human babies , the

animals needed to be exposed to people talking in

order to learn human sounds .

Nevertheless , communicating in a language is not

just about mimicking speech , but also about

understanding what this speech means . Alex the

parrot seems to be understanding human

language , but this hasn t ’ been observed with

Kosnik , Noc or Hoover . Meanwhile most animals

lack the ability to even mimic speech , because

their brain or their vocal anatomy are unable to

produce human sounds . For example , macaque

monkeys have a vocal tract capable of human -

like speech , but seem to lack the necessary brain

circuitry for controlling their vocal tract .

Photo (top) courtesy of the Alex Foundation; https://www.altereddimensions.net/2016/noc-beluga-whale-spoke-telling-diver-to-get-out-of-its-tank (middle); http://petslady.com/article/can-seals-talk-one-could (bottom)

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
10 | DACHA

So what about great apes , our closest primate

relatives ? Can they communicate with human

language ? Great apes can learn to produce new

calls with varied pitch , amplitude , and duration .

However , they haven t ’ been able to exactly

imitate human sounds or speak in human phrases .

On the other hand , oral speech is not the only

way of communicating . In fact , many people

around the world communicate in sign language .

Great apes such as gorillas , chimpanzees and

orangutans naturally communicate with each

other using hand gestures in the wild and in zoos .

However , there is much flexibility in these natural

gestures , because one signal can have multiple

different meanings , while one meaning can have

multiple different signals . Furthermore , these

’
gestures don t form local languages .
Incredibly , great apes can learn sign language . A

gorilla called Koko was taught American Sign

Language ( ALS ). He could make over 1000

different signs , with the majority of these signs

being learnt by the time he was ten years old .

Koko could also understand around 2000 spoken

English words , despite not being able to

pronounce them . Moreover , he could create new

signs by compounding signs for words he already

knew . For example , he compounded signs for

“ scratch ” and “ comb ” to signify “ brush ”. Koko

also showed curiosity by asking questions . At 6

years old he starting signing “ Why ?” in response

to being told to “ open your mouth and close your

eyes ”. This meant Koko had a similar level of

understanding to a young child .

Sometimes an animal is incorrectly believed to

understand language . Over 100 years ago , Hans

the horse was taught numbers and could

correctly answer mathematical questions by

tapping his hoof . These could be quite complex

such as “ What are the factors of 28?” which he

would answer by tapping 2, 4, 7, 14 and 28 times .

He could also spell words such as the name of

painters by tapping once for the letter A , twice

for the letter B , and so on . However , it was later

realised that Hans wasn t actually solving these ’

questions himself . Instead , the horse was

deducing the correct answers by picking up on

’
the questioner s subtle facial expressions . Hans

’
wasn t able to correctly answer questions when

he was unable to see the questioner s face ’ , or

when the questioner didn t ’ know the correct

answer . This reveals the care that must be taken

when designing experiments investigating an

’
animal s linguistic abilities .

Photo (top) by RONALD COHN, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION; Photo (bottom) by Wim van 't Einde on Unsplash

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 11 | LONG-DEDGER

In order to avoid this “ Clever Hans ” effect , Koko

the gorilla s ’ vocabulary was tested carefully .

Firstly , a researcher would place an item in a box

with a transparent front , before exiting the

room . Then , Koko was allowed to enter the room ,

without having seen the researcher . Next , a

second researcher , who was unaware of the

contents of the box , would ask Koko “ What do

you see in the box ?”. This set up- ensured that

Koko was understanding the sign language rather

than interpreting unintentional facial cues from

the researchers .
Apart from gorillas , other great apes can

communicate in sign language . Washoe , a

chimpanzee , learnt to use at least 132 ALS signs

in 51 months of training , and understood many

more signs . She could also apply a sign to a novel

context , such as signing “ open ” to ask for a

water tap to be opened . Meanwhile , an

orangutan called Chantek learnt about 140 signs

over a seven year period . In contrast , Kanzi the

bonobo has learnt over 400 lexigrams , which are

symbols representing words such as “ egg ”,

“ water ”, “ big ”. Kanzi can also understand and

follow spoken English commands such as “sit up ”

or “ put the pine needles in the refrigerator ”.
In conclusion , both primates and parrots seem

capable of understanding and communicating in

a human language at a level similar to a young

child . These are really remarkable linguistic

abilities !

Photo by Nikolay Tchaouchev on Unsplash

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 12 | KENZA

A Brief History of

POLARI
BY CATHERINE MUXWORTHY

Photo by Delia Giandeini on Unsplash

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 13 | THIRTEEN

P olari, is language best remembered for its use in Britain by the gay subculture, and its history,
therefore is part of LGBTQIA+ history. A coded language, it was a way for gay people to survive, to
safely signal to one another their sexuality, and to skirt around the UK's strict anti-gay laws that
were in place at the time the language was being used.

The word Polari, which is also sometimes spelt Parlare, Parlary, Palare, Palarie or Palari, was taken
from the Italian word 'parlare, meaning 'to talk'. It is a form of Cant slang or secret coded language,
much like the better known Cockney Rhyming slang. Polari was used in Britain by actors, travellers
and people who worked in circuses and fairground shows, professional wrestlers, merchant navy
sailors, criminals, sex workers, and people from the LGBTQIA+ community during a time when
being homosexual was illegal.

The secret language of Polari was developed using a mixture of different languages including the
'Romantic' language of Italian, London slang, Romani due to its use by travellers, backslang (coded
language in which the written word is spoken phonemically), rhyming slang, sailor's slang and
thieves' Cant slang. It was a constantly developing form of language that later expanded to also
contain words taken from the Yiddish language and slang from the 1960s drug culture.

An almost identical language called, Parlyaree, has been spoken by people who work in fairgrounds
since the 17th Century and continues to be used today by show travellers in England and Scotland.
Due to the fact that theatrical booths and circus acts were once a common part of the European
Fairs it is thought that the roots of the Polari and Parlyaree languages stem from a time in history
before theatre and circus became separate from fairgrounds.

The language had a small core lexicon of around 20 words which were the most used within the
Polari language, and a further 500 lesser-known words. Examples of words and their meanings
from the small core lexicon include;

'Bona' - Good
'Ajax' - Nearby
'Eek' - Face
'Cod' - Bad, in the context of something being tacky or vile
'Naff' - Bad, in the context of something being drab or dull. This particular word has found its
way into the modern, mainstream British English slang, maintaining its meaning.
'Lattie' - A room, house or flat, e.g. used the context of a flat to let.
'Nanti' - Not, no
'Omi' - Man
'Palone' - Woman

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
14 | FOURTEEN

'Riah' - Hair. This word uses the backslang.

'Zhoosh or Tjuz' - To smarten up or stylize. This is another word that has found its way into
mainstream British slang. E.g. 'Tjuz yourself up.' In fact, Zhoosh has even been used
internationally, including on the U.S. TV series ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’ featuring the
original Fab Five in 2003.
'TBH' - 'To be had' meaning someone was sexually available.
'Trade' - Sex. Those who watch the popular TV competition, Ru Paul's Drag Race will know that
this is a word that remains in the lexicon of the LGBTQIA+ community. The word has
developed slightly and is now popularly used to describe the most sexually attractive man in
the competition.

The Polari language has been used since the 19th century in London, by people working in fish
markets, theatres, fairgrounds, and circuses, which explains why the language borrows heavily from
Romani. During the time of its use, many homosexual men worked in theatrical and entertainment
industries and it therefore became used within the gay subculture to disguise LGBTQIA+ people
from hostile attackers and undercover police at a time when homosexual activity was against the
law. Polari was also used extensively in the British Merchant Navy as a result of many gay men
joining ocean liners and cruise ships to work as waiters, stewards and entertainers.

Examples of Polari in use include this taken from Parallel Lives, the memoirs of a renowned gay
journalist, Peter Burton: “As feely ommes...we would zhoosh our riah, powder our eeks, climb into
our bona new drag, don our batts and troll off to some bona bijou bar. In the bar we would stand
around with our sisters, vada the bona cartes on the butch omme ajax who, if we fluttered our ogle
riahs at him sweetly, might just troll over to offer a light for the unlit vogue clenched between our
teeth.”

Which translates as: "As young men...we would style our hair, powder our faces, climb into our
great new clothes, don our shoes and wander/walk off to some great little bar. In the bar we would
stand around with our gay companions, look at the great genitals on the butch man nearby who, if
we fluttered our eyelashes at him sweetly, might just wander/walk over to offer a light for the unlit
cigarette clenched between our teeth.”

The use of Polari amongst the gay subculture fell into decline in the late 1960s. Two key events are
pin-pointed to explain this fall in its usage. Firstly, some of this secret language became public
knowledge following the popularity of the characters, Julian and Sandy, two camp, Polari-speaking
men who were introduced in the radio programme, Round the Horne, in the 1960s, meaning that
Polari was no longer as safe and secretive as it had previously been. Secondly, and most
significantly though, the need for Polari as a secret, coded language declined following the partial
decriminalisation of homosexual acts in England and Wales under the Sexual Offences Act of 1967.

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 15 | FIFTEEN

This act legalised homosexuality under the conditions that the homosexual acts were consensual, in
private between two men and that both men were over the age of 21. It is likely that gay men continued
to use Polari, albeit less than they needed to before, as any act in public was still outlawed and
discrimination and assault of the LGBTQIA+ community was still rife.

While Polari language fell into decline as a coded way for gay men to communicate, many of the
words used by the gay subculture have made their way into mainstream British English slang. As well
as those previously highlighted, there are many other examples of words from our everyday language
that are thought to derive from Polari. For example, bevvy which is still understood to mean drink, a
barney which is still understood to mean a fight, Slap which is still used as slang for make-up, and
mince meaning to walk affectedly are all still commonly used. Meanwhile, words like 'Cottaging', which
referred to the act of seeking or obtaining sexual activities in a public toilet (which at the time in
Britain were built to resemble Tudor cottages), is still an ongoing, albeit still illegal, activity.

The word 'Butch' often used to describe 'masculine' presenting lesbians and women is also thought to
originate from Polari. Similarly, 'Camp' which usually is used to describe an effeminate man and often
used as a slur against gay men is also thought to possibly have derived from Polari. The word camp as
a Polari word is possibly borrowed from the Italian language, like much of the Polari language, and is
thought to be taken from the Italian word, 'campare' which means to "exaggerate or make stand out".

Polari isn’t the only form of queer and LBGTQIA+ slang that has made it to the mainstream. If your
friend is throwing ‘shade’ or you’re spilling the ‘Tea’ and gossiping together, you have the Black and
Latinx trans and queer community from the ball scene to thank for those words. Even words like
‘legendary’ and ‘iconic’ have a history in ball culture. Even though Polari has faded away, and it no
longer has a use it protecting the LGBTQIA+ community, it has left a lasting impression on our
language today.

Recommended further reading:

Book – Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men by Paul Baker
Book – Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang by Paul Baker
Film – Putting on the Dish (2015) by Karl Eccleston and Brian Fairbairn, a short film set
in 1962 in which the two characters speak entirely in Polari.
App – Polari Mission: an Manchester-based project created by Jez Dolan and Joseph
Richardson, incorporating a Polari dictionary app with lectures about the history of the
language.

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
16 | SIXTEEN

FORMAL AND
INFORMAL
PRONOUNS:
BY DAVID WELLS

I love a good pun. Puns can be funny, and even the ones that are not

particularly funny can still be fun (see “dad jokes”). My enjoyment of puns

goes beyond mere humor and entertainment, though. I also enjoy the way

puns can inspire us to think more about how language works. Before I delve

too far into linguistic geekery and spoil the entire concept of “fun,” allow me

to present the pun that inspired this article:

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 17 | SEVENTEEN

As a quick aside, I try to give attribution whenever I can, so I did a Google

image search. The “fancy toucan” illustration appears to be the work of R J

Bailey, an illustrator in the United Kingdom, according to a tweet she sent in

September 2018. The other toucan appears to be drawn in the same style, so

she is probably responsible for drawing it as well. As for who put the two

together in Spanish pun form, that knowledge might be lost to the world. The

combined image has been bouncing around on social media since at least

2019, when it appeared on some Pinterest boards in Mexico. It began

appearing in English-language social media at least as early as March 2020.

A modified version of the pun is also available to be printed on merchandise.

This is, of course, a pun based on the Spanish language, which arguably makes it

even more fun for people who speak something other than Spanish as their first

language. I am a native English speaker, born and raised in Texas, in the United

States. My hometown is only a three-hour drive from the border between the U.S.

and Mexico, though, so we all learned at least some Spanish while growing up. I

am far from fluent in Spanish, but I know enough of it to get the joke.

For those who do not know any Spanish, I shall go ahead and explain the joke: Tu

or tú is the informal second-person pronoun in Spanish, while usted is the formal

pronoun. You might say tu when speaking to a friend, and usted when speaking to

a stranger or someone to whom you wish to show more formal respect. It makes

sense, then, that the second toucan in the image would be dressed in formal attire.

The pun highlights something about the English language that we might not

consider very often. We do not have a distinction between formal and informal

second-person pronouns. If you greet a close friend in English, you call them “you.”

If you greet someone with whom you want to show greater formality, you still say

“you.”

The use of different pronouns to indicate formality is known as the T-V distinction,

named for the Latin pronouns tu (singular form of “you”) and vos (plural/formal

form of “you”). In Latin and some other languages, the plural second-person

pronoun could double as the formal second-person pronoun. (This actually

highlights another interesting feature of English, which is that it lacks an agreed-

upon plural second-person pronoun. Where I live in Texas, we say “y’all.” In other

places, people might say “you guys” or “youse.” That is a topic for a later day,

though.)

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
18 | EIGHTEEN

While the T-V distinction gets its name from Latin, it is not limited to the languages

that developed from Latin, such as Spanish. I have studied two other languages

besides English and Spanish. Neither are in the Romance language family, and

both have a T-V distinction:

Russian, a Slavic language, uses ты as the informal second-person pronoun,

and вы as the formal one.
German is in the Germanic family along with English. It uses the pronouns du

and Sie.

English used to have its own T-V distinction. The word “you” derives from the Old

English pronoun þu. That developed over time into the singular thou and the plural

ye. When used in the predicate of a sentence, they took the forms thee and you.

Ye and you also served, at times, as formal pronouns. As Middle English turned into

Modern English, thou began to fall into disuse, and you began to replace ye. Thou

and thee are now almost entirely archaic, except in a few regions and

communities.

So how did we get from a place where English-speakers had both a plural and a

formal pronoun? There is no single cause, and the change happened over

centuries. It might have begun with the Norman invasion of England in 1066, after

which Norman French became the language of government. French retained the

Latin convention of using the plural second-person pronoun for formal purposes,

though, so that does not explain it.

Words like thou persisted at least into the 17th century. Anyone who has read

Shakespeare or the King James Bible knows that those works are full of thou and

thee, and their possessive forms thy and thine. Even Shakespeare was not very

consistent in how he used the words, though. By the 18th and 19th centuries, they

were no longer a feature of most spoken English around the world.

The fact is that no one knows for certain why the T-V distinction fell out of usage in

most forms of English. Language is constantly changing, and those changes do not

always make sense. For a variety of reasons, people stopped using different words

to mean singular or plural “you” and informal or formal “you.”

An interesting postscript to this comes from J.M. Pressley of the Shakespeare

Resource Center, who notes that now, we mostly only see this form of English in

“Biblical verse and classical literature.” This, Pressley observes, “has completely

reversed thou's original standing.” While thou was once the informal form of

address, we often now see it “as the language of solemn ceremony and formality.”

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 19 | NINETEEN

CODDIWOMPLING
FREE
By Emmeline Burdett

I can’t resist a spot of wordplay, and I don’t usually try very hard to do so. ‘Coddiwomple’
is a word I came across the other day, in a Facebook group called ‘Medieval Jollity’, of
which I am a member.

Apparently, it means ‘to travel purposefully in an as-yet-unknown direction’, and, though

the picture accompanying the definition looked late-medieval or early modern, and showed
a character in a plumed hat travelling purposefully in an as-yet-unknown direction,
accompanied by an enthusiastic-looking dog, there was no other indication of how old the
word might be.

Similarly, no clues were forthcoming from a BBC Bristol film clip, which, on July 26th,
described the so-called ‘Bristol Coddywomple’ as ‘quite a new way of bringing
entertainment that would usually be experienced as part of a festival setting’. Though the
film explained that performers who had found themselves out of work as a result of the
Covid-19 pandemic had decided to dress up and go around entertaining people who were
confined to their homes for the same reason, we didn’t really find out why the event had
been called the ‘Bristol Coddywomple’, or whether the performers were indeed ‘travelling
purposefully in an as-yet-unknown direction’. There also appeared to be some doubt about
whether the word in question should be spelt ‘coddywomple’ or ‘coddiwomple’.

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
20 | DEWEY DACHA
Most dictionaries agree that ‘coddiwomple’ is a
slang word, but they often define the
destination towards which the coddiwompler
is travelling as ‘vague’, rather than ‘as yet
unknown’. Researchers at the Oxford English
Dictionary (OED) suspected that the word
might not be very old at all, having been
unable to find it in printed sources much
before 2016. So, this would suggest that the
post in Medieval Jollity was claiming that the
word has a much longer history than it
actually does.
This is certainly the impression that you get
from reading about how the word has been
taken up by the various groups interested in
outdoor activities. For example, the founder of
an adventure travel blog called The
Adventure Diary wrote a post on 4th
November 2016, entitled ‘Why You Should
Coddiwomple Your Way Through Life’, in
which she (her name is Lauren) described
‘coddiwomple’ as ‘an English slang word which
should easily be added to your vocabulary’.
According to Lauren, this was because the
word was perfect for describing her approach
to life in general, and to adventuring in
particular – though she got withdrawal
symptoms if she didn’t go on adventures
regularly, she had no specific expectations of
what would happen when she went, meaning
that she was always pleasantly surprised by
what actually occurred. She was, in effect
‘travelling purposefully in an as-yet unknown
direction’. She gave the example of having
seen a glacier in Norway, but of not having
gone there with the expectation of seeing it,
and of how, once it came into view, she had
imagined what it would be like to touch it –
and so she had decided to find out. The
readers of the blog who responded to this
October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
particular post also clearly felt that the word
was applicable to their own lives, with two of
the responders commenting that, though they
had actually been coddiwompling for some
time, they had never heard of the word until
they read about in Lauren’s blog post.
As the reaction to this blog post shows, a
word does not have to be old for it to have
meaning for people discovering it for the first
time, but it is interesting that ‘coddiwomple’ is
so often thought to be an old word, when it
would seem that this is not actually the case
at all. This impression was backed up by one
of the people who left a comment on Lauren’s
blog post. The responder’s name was Heather
Sword, and she wrote that ‘On my
coddiwomplings I have considered the
codpiece and a womple engaging in some
kind of union. Hey ho’.
The mind boggles! But although Heather’s
comment was jocular, it does take us back to
the idea that ‘coddiwomple’ is a very old
word, because a codpiece was a garment,
invented probably in the mid-1400s, which
was sewn onto the front of a man’s hose to
hide his genitals from view. ‘Womple’ is
reminiscent of the word ‘wimple’, which,
although it also still applies to the head
coverings worn today by nuns, is probably
most associated with those worn by women in
late-medieval Britain and Europe.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that attempts
to investigate the origins of ‘coddiwomple’
never seem to progress much further than
finding out that it is an English slang word,
which is often assumed to be very old, but in
fact seems to be very new, the word has
become particularly popular with outdoor
types, as the blog post above suggested.
YB
NITNELAV
UOLEDARP 21 | DEWEY DACHA AND UNA

CASES OF FUNNY

POLYSEMY /
HOMONYMY

Photo by Callum Shaw on Unsplash

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
22 | DEWEY DACHA AND DEWEY

Introduction

In two other articles , we have studied cases of funny code switching and then cases of -
funny translations , through small corpora taken from precise French speaking Facebook

groups . These groups aimed at making jokes based on the particular phenomena of code

switching or translation .

Here , ’it ll be a bit different As said before . , there are tons of Facebook groups trying to joke

with memes . I have noticed something , that in certain memes , we can have humor based on

polysemy homonymy/ .

I have selected 5 French speaking memes playing on these theoretical notions , in order to be

.
funny We will try to understand how it works and why this is funny I ll also put the corpus at .’
the end of the article with some annotations in order to be fully intelligible for non French -
speakers . These memes are taken from various -
French speaking groups , called Neurchi

( -
backward slang for Chineur , meaning someone looking for rare and precious things ). These

groups aim at providing fun based on a famous movie a series a character or anything else , , ,
they choose . For example , there are Neurchi de Kaamelott ( famous french series based on

King Arthur ) or Neurchi de Palmashow ( humoristic group creating videos ), or even Neurchi de

Panier-ballon ( literal translation for “ Basketball ”).

In these memes , we have a first sentence setting one context , followed by another one

setting out one hell of a different context This second sentence is followed by a picture of a .
weird face to underscore the situation s absurdness That is why I ll use a colon at the end of' . ’
the second sentence : an image showing a weird shocked face is supposed to follow / . I will

/
also highlight the polysemy homonymy ambiguity in French by showing both possible English

translations for each example .

What is a polysemy homonymy / ?
Before we start with the memes , these two notions have to be clarified . Actually , they are

very close to each other .

In his book from 2014, the French linguist Touratier explains that homonymy is having two

words with different meanings , but written the same way . A known example in English is

“ book ”, meaning something to read as a noun , and the act of making a reservation as a verb :
two heterogeneous meanings gathered in one lexeme .

Polysemy consists of several meanings attached to a word , but related to each other . We

can cite simple examples like “ fish ” meaning the animals we find in the water , and also the

action of catching them ( or at least trying to ).

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 23 | DEWEY DACHA AND TREY

’
This article doesn t aim to discuss these notions , just to use them to better understand the

’
memes we re going to study .
Memes based on a lexical polysemy homonymy /
We first have a category of polysemy based on only one word Let s look at examples . ' 1 to 4.
In the first example (
moi: lave les légumes avant de les étouffer "Me: washes the vegetables

before [ /
suffocating them baking them in a covered pot ]”), this first sentence seems to set a

culinary context , as we think vegetable will mean the things we re supposed to eat ’ . Then we

have a second sentence showing the actual context (

le personnel de la maison de retraite

“ employees of the retirement house ”). We thus understand that “ vegetables ” are some sort

of a nasty word to call the elder people of the retirement house , and étouffer becomes

“ suffocate ” as we thought it was supposed to be “baking in a covered pot ”. This creates a

very weird context aiming at being funny .

The example , 2 is close based this time on the polysemy of baguette (moi: mange mes sushis

avec des baguettes “ Me : eats my sushi with [chopsticks baguettes / ]”. With “ sushi ” we

straightforwardly think that it is going to mean chopsticks . However , the second sentence

(
les autres personnes dans la boulangerie “ Other people in the bakery ”), with “ bakery ”, makes

the reader understand the word baguette as the piece of bread . It then conveys the act of

eating sushi , but picking them up with pieces of bread , weird and funny situation , creating a

clear discrepancy with what happens in real life .

In the third and fourth example , the same structure is used . Here again , we have the first

sentences describing the kiwi ( example 4) or the avocado (example 3) as a fruit , and the

second sentences replacing these words in the actual context of the image . It actually

displays the avocado as an attorney in the court (

avocat meaning “ avocado ” and “ attorney ”
in French ) ,
and the kiwi as a bird in a zoo each in a peculiar context making it funny .
Memes based on idiomatic expressions

Behind these first memes using one word to create an ambiguity , ’

we ll discover one funny

,
utterance this time based on an idiomatic expression in French in the example , 5.

We thus have a famous idiomatic expression displayed (

Moi: Prends mes jambes à mon cou /
Me :[takes my legs to my neck runs for my life / ]). ,
This expression without any context is to be ,
understood as meaning “ run for my life ”. The second sentence utterly changes the

signification with “ the crowd watching my contortionist show ”, proving the idiomatic

expression has to be understood literally as really taking your legs to your neck and not run

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
24 | DEWEY DACHA AND QUARTER

for your life . It is also the only meme in which the picture with a shocked face is not used ,
replaced by a picture of a crowd cheering to go with the particular context of a

contortionist show .
How do these memes work ?
As we have seen , there are several elements to cite First . , the clear feature in all these jokes

is the first sentence . Through a word or an idiomatic expression , it sets a particular context

in which the actual ambiguous piece appears clear .

Then , the second sentence breaks it by replacing the utterance into another context , in

which the word becomes weird and inappropriate even absurd hence funny , , .

We had seen in former articles , that humor can be based on a certain discrepancy with

reality and absurdness .Once again , it seems that these memes are playing on the

absurdness to be funny . ’
It s even clearer with the pictures showing people with weird or

,
shocked faces translating the absurdness of the situation .

Behind the fun , all these examples are showing how rich can be a word or an expression .
Placed in one context or another , it can have a pretty wide range of significations . We just

, ’
saw it in French but it s also the case in numerous other languages .
Conclusion

The article presented here is only based on a small number of memes , selected in various

groups . '
It shouldn t be considered exhaustive , it just shows some features on how polysemy

and homonymy can be used in a funny way .

'
I ve put the examples used at the end of the article with annotations in brackets to

understand the different polysemes homonyms / .

I hope you guys enjoyed this article and thanks for reading , !
Examples Used :
As said in the introduction , each second sentence of these memes is followed by a picture

showing someone with a shocked face , highlighting the absurdness of the situations , except

for example 5 with a picture of a cheering crowd .

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 25 | DEWEY DACHA AND CHINKER

1/ Moi : lave les légumes avant de les étouffer / Le personnel de la maison de retraite:

Me: washes the vegetables before [suffocating them]-[baking them in a covered pot] /

Employees in the retirement house:

2/ Moi : mange mes sushis avec des baguettes / les autres personnes dans la boulangerie:

Me: eats my sushi with [chopsticks]-[baguettes] / other people in the bakery:

3/ Moi : Tâte le cul de l’avocat pour voir s’il est mûr / Le juge d’application des peines:

Me: examines the [attorney’s bum]-[avocado’s back] to see if it’s ripe / The judge for

sentence enforcement:

4/ Moi : mets le kiwi dans le mixeur pour faire un smoothie / les gens dans le zoo:

Me: puts the kiwi in the blender to make a smoothie / People in the zoo:

5/ Moi : prends mes jambes à mon cou / le public regardant mon spectacle de contortionnisme:

Me: [runs for my life]-[takes my legs to my neck] / the crowd watching my contortionist

show:

Photo by Stormy All on Unsplash

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
26 | DEWEY DACHA AND SEY

BY TIFFANY MARCUM

“Say your I’s better,” a friend said, knowing that my “I” sounds like a short A.
“Let’s watch a DVD.”

“What would you suggest? The movie “FIII-EEE-T CLUB?” I replied, halfway
unhinging my jaw to enunciate that short and proper sound. Eastern Kentucky
natives, and many more southerners, add an extra syllable to everything and have a
slow cadence. Our goal is to avoid sounding robotic, like we are still thinking as we
are speaking, or Forrest Gump-like.

Diction coach Jessica Drake is responsible for the often imitated, never duplicated
Alabaman drawl of Tom Hanks in the film. Ms. Drake also taught a British Tom
Hiddleston’s portrayal of Hank Williams in “I Saw The Light”.

Most of her projects appear to include immersion in the environment when

available. Forrest Gump was filmed in South Carolina, where Tom Hanks absorbed a
similar South Carolinian dialect, as it was most similar to the realistic Greenbow,
Alabama accent.

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers

An unforgettable southern accent in
recent pop culture is that of former Sheriff
Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead. He is
played excellently by Andrew Lincoln, from
Bath, England. It bases the series on a
graphic novel by the same name.
Interestingly, the graphic novel started
with Rick and his family in Cynthiana,
Kentucky. Cynthiana is rural and sits just
outside of Lexington, which is central
Kentucky. It’s a popular destination where
people go to lose their eastern accents.
We first meet Mr. Grimes with his friend
Shane on a lunch break in a cop car. Their
authentic southern banter cuts short when
a call comes over their system, needing
backup. Mr. Grimes winds up in the
hospital in a long coma. He awakes to a
nightmare: The Zombie Apocalypse. The
first humans he meets are Morgan and his
young son, Dwayne. It is amazing to see
their scenes together, as Morgan is played
by the actor Lennie James, from South
London, England.
In Season Two, Rick and friends meet the
Greene Family. Maggie is played by Lauren
Cohan, who was born in Philadelphia, and
moved to England as a child.
In Season Three, a major villain appears.
He calls himself “The Governor” of a small
community. He is played by the actor and
director from Liverpool, England, David
Morrissey.
Other than being on the same show, what
else do these actors have in common?
Yep, they also used Jessica Drake for their
authentic Southern American portrayals.
October 2020, Issue #29
27 | DEWEY DACHA AND SETTER
“She spells it out phonetically,” Andrew
Lincoln stated in an interview. “She wrote
it out on cards and I tried to get my mates
to try saying the words.”
My northern friends tease that I sound like
Rick Grimes. I am constantly tagged in
memes, as his popular phrase “STUFF
AND THANGS” and pronunciation of his
son’s name, Carl, “CORAL”. Surfaced. For
Christmas 2013 I received a gag gift of
The Governor figurine. Christmas 2015 I
received the deluxe Rick Grimes. He is still
in the box.
Sonic restaurants have launched a
commercial campaign to show actual
families eating their food, and I’m sure
you’ve seen it. A family in a car, discussing
their food, and slightly roasting one
another. With EXTREME southern accents.
I did a google search to find out who a
particular family were and where they
were from. My attuned ears noticed harsh
attempts at the long I sound in the word
“silence” and “night”. Slang like “ya
know” came across as “yew na-ooo”,
which is used here in eastern Kentucky. In
2013 I spotted a Mississippi accent on a
professor with his omitted R’s (e.g. the
word Understand came out like “un-duh-
stand”), I took an incorrect guess of
western Tennessee or southern Georgia. I
was wrong. The Mississippi based identical
ginger haired triplets are a southern band
known professionally as Taylor Red.
Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
28 | DEWEY DACHA AND SAY DOOE

NATIVE LANGUAGE
HYPOCRISY
By Gil Cohen

We usually don’t like change, and as the saying goes, old habits die hard. And yet,
our languages change all around us, and as we all know, there’s nothing we can do.
Another thing we all know is that language change is neither good nor bad, it just is.
Nevertheless, we sometimes tend to be a bit hypocritical.

Why are we hypocritical? One of my linguistics professors once said that she’s as
descriptivist as they come, but when it comes to Hebrew (her native language), she’s
a prescriptivist. Is that hypocritical of her? Aren’t we all just a tad prescriptivist
when it comes to our native languages?

What makes our native language different in our eyes, in a way that makes us treat it
differently, even though we know that it’s just a language like all languages? I’m
sure it happens to many of us out there: we’re used to speaking our language in a
certain way, and whenever someone speaks it differently, it sounds wrong, even
though it’s perfectly fine, linguistically.

For example, in Modern Hebrew there are two genders; masculine and feminine, and
our cardinal numbers are conjugated according to the gender of their
corresponding noun. That’s not exactly true: many speakers, from all parts of
society, blur the lines and use the numbers without agreement with the noun’s
gender, and they usually use the feminine version of the number.

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 29 | DEWEY DACHA AND SEY TREY

Growing up, my parents and the people around me spoke without any blurry lines:
masculine with masculine and feminine with feminine. Consequently (I assume), I
speak in a similar fashion. At the time, I had thought that there is a “correct”
language, and therefore, I corrected people when they used the number of the
“wrong” gender. Ever since I got into linguistics and understood that languages
change, I understand that this phenomenon is a perfectly natural change in Modern
Hebrew and have stopped correcting people.

Nonetheless, it bothers me. It annoys me. It ticks me. Whenever I hear a speaker use
the “wrong” gender, I wince internally, even if I know in my heart that it’s “right”, or
at least not “wrong”. Actually, for me, the numbers 11-19 have already merged, and I
use the feminine version 99% of the time, so obviously hearing other people use the
“wrong” form doesn’t bother me.

That’s the hypocritical part of me, and I assume that many of you out there feel
similarly regarding a change (or all changes) in your native language. If I were to
hear of the same process going on in a different language, I assume I’d be ecstatic,
reading all about it, and if I’d get lucky and hear a native speaker use the “wrong”
form, I’d be over the moon. That’s how we language enthusiasts feel, but not at the
expense of our own language.

Another example of our (or at least my) hypocrisy, is second person and third person
plural pronouns in Modern Hebrew: for the second person plural, we use two
pronouns: atem for masculine and aten for feminine, and for the third person plural,
we use two pronouns: hem for masculine and hen for feminine. As you can see, the
difference between each set of forms is the last consonant, m for masculine and n for
feminine, very minute.

For some time now, these forms have been going through a merger, with the
masculine form winning the race (I’m sure it’s nature’s way of evening out the edge
the feminine form gains from winning the gendered numbers race. NOT). I’ve
thought long and hard about the reasons for the merger to be occurring, but that’s
not the issue here.

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
30 | TREY DACHA

Most speakers use the masculine pronouns, even when addressing or referring to a
group that contains only females, and yes, even female speakers do that! Ever since I
realized that this merger is occurring, about 4 years ago, I started to notice it
everywhere, in all layers of society. It has naturally reached digital discourse: texting
and social media. Even though I know there’s nothing wrong with this change, I am
adamant about not merging the pronouns myself. I don’t correct any speakers who
use the “wrong” forms of the merger, but I actively try to use the “correct”, unmerged
forms.

This is where my hypocrisy comes to light: I have to actively think about the form
I’m going to use. When I speak, I don’t know the actual words I’m going to use, I just
have a concept in my head and somehow the magic happens and sentences form.
This merger and my adamance against not participating in it, make me more
conscious about the forms I’m using, and I am actually being a prescriptivist against
myself. Ironically, I still use the “wrong” forms sometimes and then I chide myself.
Isn’t that hypocritical of me?

I don’t know why this merger bothers me so, since it has already happened for my
parents and the people I had grown up around, unlike the gendered numbers.
Perhaps it has happened in the last decade or so, after I’ve already gotten used to a
certain kind of Hebrew. Perhaps it has nothing do with that, and this is all a remnant
of the indoctrination of a “correct” language that most of us go through in our lives.

In conclusion, it appears that even though we think we’ve gone over to the good side
(cookies or not) and we’ve stopped being prescriptivists, we sometimes still have a
tendency to be just that when it comes to our own native language.

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 31 | TREY DACHA AND UNA

D ispatc hes
from L in g uists:
When Words
Get Stuck on
the Tip of
Your Tongue
BY INÉS DE LA VINA

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
32 | TREY DACHA AND DEWEY
This month Inés de la Vina explores that frustrating moment when the word you need is stuck on the tip
of your tongue and possible causes for it.
Quiz night! No phones allowed now, no
googling …
1. What is the capital city of Switzerland?
2. What is the Romanian word for “Son of the
devil” or “Son of the dragon”?
3. Who played Queen Elizabeth in the film The
Queen?
There you are in the middle of the Zoom quiz
night and suddenly you draw a blank on
question 2. You know the word, you know you
know it! It starts with D… But you cannot
remember it. Most of us know that frustrating
feeling, when you know a word but you cannot
spit it out, it gets stuck on the tip of your
tongue. It is an annoying mental lapse that
actually reveals a lot about how our brain
organises and remembers language.
Lethologica, Ancient Greek for “forgetfulness”,
is the technical term for this phenomenon,
widely known as the tip-of-the-tongue states
(TOTs). This phenomenon is so common that
most languages have tongue-based metaphors
for it. Germans, for example, say that a word
“liegt auf der Zunge”, which translates into “lies
on my tongue”, while Koreans describe the
word as sparking at the end of it. In Spanish
(“en la punta de la lengua”) or Albanian (“në
majë të gjuhës”) the metaphor is translated
exactly as “on the tip of the tongue” in English.
October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
But, why do TOTs happen in the first place?
Although research is still unclear about what
exactly causes TOTs, all explanations point to a
temporary memory lapse in lexical retrieval,
that is, in remembering the target word or
name. Two major theories have been put
forward to explain TOTs.
The blocking hypothesis theory claims that
alternate and similar-sounding words, known
as blockers, are activated prior to the actually
intended word, inhibiting its recall. In plain
English, words that sound the same come to
our mind first, blocking our access to the target
word.
The incomplete activation hypothesis, on the
other hand, claims that TOTs occur when the
target word is not fully activated in memory,
which causes difficulty in retrieving it.
According to this explanation, our memory is
somewhat aware of the target word, but the
mapping of the semantic and phonological
information is not completed. For example, the
meaning of the word may be activated (“I know
what the word means”), but the corresponding
phonological representation may be only
partially activated (“I fail to get the word out” or
“I remember it starts with D”). The answer to
question 2 is Dracula, by the way.
 33 | TREY DACHA AND TREY

Monolinguals, bilinguals, and multilinguals all
experience tip-of-the-tongue memory failures,
although with varying frequencies. One
consistent finding in the literature is that
bilinguals are more prone to TOTs than
monolinguals. This does not necessarily mean
that bilinguals have poorer lexical knowledge
than monolinguals, but that word retrieval is
harder if you have two languages competing
with one another. To put it in another way,
finding the right word might require a bilingual
about twice as much effort! Moreover, research
also indicates that bilinguals hear words in both
languages less often than monolinguals. Put
differently, the more often you hear a word the
easier to remember it. Having two languages
on the tip of your tongue has its downsides
after all.
Inevitably, TOTs are a common memory
complaint of older adults (that is right, your
granny whining about forgetting words is
scientifically validated).
TOTs can be pretty annoying and frustrating,
but they are completely normal. It might be
reassuring to learn that TOTs are only a
temporary inability to recall information, and
not necessarily a sign that your memory is
fading.
The answers to questions 1 and 3 are: 1. Bern, 3.
Helen Mirren.

Research indicates that TOTs are linked to

speaker-related factors (e.g., age and brain
damage) and word-related factors (e.g.,
frequency of usage of a word, and recency or
how recently it has been used). For example,
evidence suggests that most TOT experiences
occur with low frequency words (e.g.,
“abstemious”) and words that have not been
used recently.

In terms of age, there is evidence that TOTs

increase as we grow older. According to
researchers, whilst young people experience
TOTs once a week, older adults report tip-of-
the-tongue moments as often as once a day.

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
34 | TREY DACHA AND QUARTER

The Poetry of Language:

Word Search
By Rachael Brown
In the second of the series Rachael Brown, in a well wrought and fluidly sonorous poem, evocatively
imagines the process of finding words.

A sleet-beaten armchair on some far-flung hill.

There you are – going between meanings
like they are sheep bleating at you for hay
only to run away again.

You are saying something to a white sky,

kulning,
calling your woolly words to come by,
keep together, to the left, to the right,
as the who what where when why fall
silently on your shoulders—

You wake wethers in the dark,

a Word-Wrangler,
carving clauses from wet vowels
to keep in the strays, tangents, phrases
whose fleeces are fraying, fricatives with foot-rot,
a phoneme you trim with your eyes shut.

You pen them, and when they are still,

delve deep in the flock,
fingers buried in the wool
of the closest word.

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 35 | TREY DACHA AND CHINKER

Leadership is
Language:
A Review
by Holly Gustafson

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
36 | TREY DACHA AND SEY

Author L. David Marquet and I don’t have much in common. He was the top
graduate of the US Naval Academy, was the captain of a nuclear-powered
submarine, and is now a world-renowned consultant on the art of leadership.
I am not. What we do have in common, however, is an interest in the power
of language, and how we use in our relationships with others.

For this reason, I picked up Marquet’s brand new book, Leadership is

Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say – and What You Don’t, even
though, as an artist and a freelance writer, I am not technically in a
“leadership” position, at least in the formal – or business – sense of the word.
But Marquet did promise that the lessons he learned as the captain of the
USS Santa Fe, and shares now in his book, are applicable to anyone – from
the head of a nuclear power plant, to the mom struggling with her kids’
bedtime. I trusted him and dove right in.

And I have to admit right up front that Marquet lost me many times along the
way. While the ideas presented may be applicable to any leadership role –
including parenthood, as Marquet suggests – it does seem to apply best to
the world of business management. Pair this with the fact that he’s chosen to
frame his thesis within the analogy of a football playbook, of which I know
less than I do about executive leadership, I often felt a little lost, or at least,
disengaged.

Thankfully, Marquet frequently interspersed his business-speak and

playbook metaphors with real-life stories of how language helped – and,
more often – hindered leadership, and these actual scenarios continually
drew me back in. Like how Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway ended up
announcing the wrong winner of the Best Picture in front of an audience of
millions at the 2017 Academy Awards. Why, of the fourteen physically
transformed contestants of the reality television show, The Biggest Loser,
only one managed to keep off the weight. How the movie Frozen went from
receiving “unsparingly negative” feedback in test screenings to becoming a
box-office smashing phenomenon. And how, in 1986, the Space Shuttle
Challenger crashed. Marquet proposes that it’s all because of how language
was – and wasn’t – used.

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
 37 | TREY DACHA AND SETTER

The real-life scenario that takes up the most space is the story of the
doomed container ship El Faro; in fact, Marquet’s entire book is sandwiched
between two chapters titled “Losing El Faro” and “Saving El Faro.” In the first
chapter, “Losing El Faro,” Marquet uses the ship’s actual transcripts of the
words spoken – and the actions taken – by the captain and crew on their ill-
fated journey from Jacksonville, Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico, right
through the middle of what turned out to be a Category 3 hurricane. The
existence of the transcripts, which were recovered after El Faro sank,
claiming the lives of all thirty-three hands on board, provide what Marquet
calls an “unparalleled glimpse into the language a team actually used when
faced with life-and-death decisions.” In the final chapter, the author
suggests how things might have been different, how El Faro might have been
“saved,” with the use of the right kind of language – and thus, leadership.

These well-told stories save the book from being uninteresting and out-of-
reach for anyone not immersed in the world of business and management
(like me). Marquet provides plenty of examples of what leadership language
actually looks like, and it’s not terribly hard to see how these would apply in
non-executive situations. For example, one of the “plays” in his “playbook” is
to “give information, not instruction.” As an illustration, he suggests saying
something like “I see a parking spot there,” (which is simply giving
information) versus “Park here!” (a clear instruction). Examples like this are
abundant and, for the most part, prove helpful, even to non-business types
(like me).

In the end, it’s Marquet’s goal to make his readers – whoever they may be,
and in whatever leadership role in which they may find themselves – aware
of the hidden power of the words they choose to use. “I imagine a world in
which organizations are more conscious of how language affects our
behaviour,” says Marquet. Surely, we can all benefit from an enhanced
awareness and appreciation of the power of what we say, and of what we
don’t.

Marquet, L. David. (2020) Leadership is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say
– and What You Don’t. New York: Portfolio/Penguin.

October 2020, Issue #29 Silly Linguistics: The Magazine for Language Lovers
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