1 00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:05,960 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to blow your mind from How Stuff 2 00:00:05,960 --> 00:00:15,240 Speaker 1: Works dot Com. Ladies and gentlemen, I am Julie Douglas, 3 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:17,279 Speaker 1: and not with me today is Mr Lamb, who is 4 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:21,120 Speaker 1: out of the country instead. One very brave soul joins 5 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:25,759 Speaker 1: us today, the one the only Alison voice like Silk 6 00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:29,600 Speaker 1: Louder Milk. Thanks Julie. It's a pleasure to be here. 7 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:31,880 Speaker 1: I haven't been in the studio and quite some time, 8 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:35,160 Speaker 1: and I'm glad to be back to be discussing word 9 00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:37,640 Speaker 1: a version. I know we're gonna get into this in 10 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:40,800 Speaker 1: a moment um. This is all your fault this episode today. 11 00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:42,800 Speaker 1: By the way, you want to explain how it came about, 12 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,000 Speaker 1: and I do, I do um? Actually, do you think 13 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:49,280 Speaker 1: you could take us back to one day in July? 14 00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:51,440 Speaker 1: It was like ten o'clock in the morning. There was 15 00:00:51,479 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: a fire drill here at How Stuff Works. We were 16 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:56,840 Speaker 1: all congregated in the parking lot. I can't take it 17 00:00:56,880 --> 00:00:59,120 Speaker 1: from there, so yes, we were congregated in the parking 18 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:01,760 Speaker 1: lot in Georgia. You know, it can be quite a 19 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:05,000 Speaker 1: warm place in the summertime, and it can also have 20 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:08,280 Speaker 1: a fair amount of moisture. So I do believe I 21 00:01:08,319 --> 00:01:11,920 Speaker 1: made the comment that it was feeling a little moist outside, 22 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:15,120 Speaker 1: and Julie of course gave me this look because she 23 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:17,920 Speaker 1: has that aversion to the word moist, which I do not. 24 00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:20,679 Speaker 1: And I am one of those people who enjoys tormenting 25 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:24,199 Speaker 1: people with the word moist clearly because as I said, 26 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:25,880 Speaker 1: it was ten o'clock in the morning, and I said 27 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:28,759 Speaker 1: to you, it's not even noon. It's like drinking before noon. 28 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:31,679 Speaker 1: It was, it was, And so we had this whole 29 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:35,360 Speaker 1: conversation of like, oh, why do we have word a version? 30 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:37,600 Speaker 1: What's it all about? And what's going on in your 31 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:40,160 Speaker 1: brain when you have this word of version? What was 32 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:41,800 Speaker 1: going on in your brain? Like what did you think 33 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:45,319 Speaker 1: when I said that? I thought about the groin area 34 00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:48,800 Speaker 1: and I don't like to say groin either, that's that 35 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:53,720 Speaker 1: oi oi. I thought about just just this unpleasant sort 36 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 1: of you know, mustiness. And this is all out of 37 00:01:57,320 --> 00:01:59,520 Speaker 1: the context of food. By the way, if if someone 38 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:02,280 Speaker 1: is saying that something is you know, there's this cake 39 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:07,279 Speaker 1: and it's moist and redlent um of you know, fruit 40 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:14,320 Speaker 1: trees in may totally because you're reframing. Reframing, that's the key. 41 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:16,919 Speaker 1: That's the keys We're going to find out here. So 42 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:19,480 Speaker 1: it turns out though I'm not alone with this whole 43 00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:23,720 Speaker 1: moist thing. No, no, you're not, definitely not. So there 44 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,720 Speaker 1: was a two thousand twelve Uffington Post entry that I 45 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:29,000 Speaker 1: happened to come across and perhaps some of you saw 46 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:30,840 Speaker 1: as well, and they were trying to come up with 47 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:33,880 Speaker 1: synonyms for moist, and I actually I did like some 48 00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:36,960 Speaker 1: of them. My particular favorite was good crumb. Did she 49 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:39,959 Speaker 1: catch that? I did see that? Like I kind of Again, 50 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:41,600 Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it had a little bit of a 51 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:44,520 Speaker 1: weird association, almost like hey, she gives good chrome, you know. 52 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:46,960 Speaker 1: And this was in the context of food writing, right, 53 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:48,960 Speaker 1: Like they were like, hey, as food writers, we have 54 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:51,960 Speaker 1: to write about moist all the time. What words can 55 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:55,880 Speaker 1: we put in there? So good chrome was one of them. Sure, spongy, 56 00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:59,400 Speaker 1: which I think is fairly descriptive, and a plastic cake 57 00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:01,040 Speaker 1: I would I would of spongey in the in the 58 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:04,960 Speaker 1: realm of cake. And also hydrated, hydrated not dry a 59 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 1: little scientific yeah, yeah, hydrated is good, um, because it 60 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:10,480 Speaker 1: was like, yeah, that's a hydrated piece of cake. I 61 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:12,520 Speaker 1: just ate. And then not dry was another one. But 62 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:13,840 Speaker 1: then I thought, you know what these are all sort 63 00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:15,920 Speaker 1: of paltry. I don't know that there actually would be 64 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:20,519 Speaker 1: a stand in for moist when it comes to culinary writing. Yeah, 65 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:23,560 Speaker 1: I think moist works well, and thus it's prevalence to 66 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: describe cake of all sorts. Nonetheless, moist just continues to 67 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:32,280 Speaker 1: rise as this word that is much maligned. And I 68 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:34,400 Speaker 1: wanted to point out that The New York Or had 69 00:03:34,440 --> 00:03:36,880 Speaker 1: a blog post called words came in Marked for Death. 70 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:40,480 Speaker 1: And this was a Twitter game show that they started 71 00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:44,160 Speaker 1: called Questioning Lee and when the first installments was, hey, 72 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:46,080 Speaker 1: if you were going to remove a word from the 73 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:50,040 Speaker 1: English language, which one would it be? And again moist 74 00:03:50,120 --> 00:03:52,880 Speaker 1: got marked for death. Yeah. I also heard that slacks 75 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:56,240 Speaker 1: came in pretty high on that list. Slacks, yes, I 76 00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 1: might have nominated dungarees myself. Oh, dungarees. I think that's 77 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:01,960 Speaker 1: kind of quaint, though I do. I think it's kind 78 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:04,680 Speaker 1: of quaint, but it's also for me. Slacks and dungarees, 79 00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 1: I kind of they're interchangeable. I saw trousers on one 80 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,600 Speaker 1: list as well. I like trousers. Trouser has an elegant 81 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:12,840 Speaker 1: connotation for me. How yeah, the same thing, And I 82 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:14,760 Speaker 1: think that's what it all boils down to, is that 83 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:16,520 Speaker 1: for me, that seems kind of like a fancy word 84 00:04:16,520 --> 00:04:20,160 Speaker 1: for pants. And everybody has their own, you know, idiosyncrasies 85 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:22,600 Speaker 1: when it comes to these likes and dislikes of words. 86 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 1: And I was thinking about this too. It even probably 87 00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:28,240 Speaker 1: comes up in your profession. So if you're a teacher, 88 00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:30,960 Speaker 1: probably one of the most maligned words for you is 89 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:34,480 Speaker 1: the word like. Oh sure, absolutely. Did you read the 90 00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:38,120 Speaker 1: Vanity Fair post in which Christopher Hitchins railed against the 91 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:41,760 Speaker 1: usage of like as a placeholder and just it's craziness 92 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:43,599 Speaker 1: in the English language. I mean I even hear it 93 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:46,520 Speaker 1: out of my my daughter. Yeah. So it's all well 94 00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:48,800 Speaker 1: and good that we have these grammatical pet peeves where 95 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:52,080 Speaker 1: it's like your regardless, where it's such as like, which 96 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:55,400 Speaker 1: we already discussed, but we're really talking about words that 97 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:57,720 Speaker 1: you have a serious distaste for. And the folks at 98 00:04:57,839 --> 00:05:00,479 Speaker 1: the Language Log, which is an excellent blog run by 99 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:03,800 Speaker 1: a bunch of linguists, um and in particular, there's a 100 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:06,480 Speaker 1: gentleman by the name of Mark Liberman who has written 101 00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:09,480 Speaker 1: and commented and aggregated posts on the subject at length, 102 00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:13,240 Speaker 1: and he kind of has taken on the task of 103 00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:17,040 Speaker 1: defining word a version and it's really this physiological response. 104 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:19,960 Speaker 1: I mean, doesn't make your skin crawl? Yeah it does, 105 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:21,920 Speaker 1: And I think that's the mystery of it, Like how 106 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:26,280 Speaker 1: could a word elicit a physical response and how could 107 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:29,599 Speaker 1: you absorb that into your body like that? And that's 108 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:32,800 Speaker 1: what's so fascinating. Yeah, so we really have to dig 109 00:05:32,839 --> 00:05:36,279 Speaker 1: into the juicy, and perhaps already in territory of associations, 110 00:05:36,680 --> 00:05:39,680 Speaker 1: we will. So you want to give that a start, 111 00:05:39,720 --> 00:05:44,120 Speaker 1: miss Julie. Well, before we dive into Freud and the unconscious, 112 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:46,400 Speaker 1: maybe we should play a bit of this clip from 113 00:05:46,440 --> 00:05:49,720 Speaker 1: Monty Python that you sent me. That is wonderful and 114 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:52,359 Speaker 1: oh oh that could be a word, that could be 115 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:53,880 Speaker 1: a trigger word. We are going to be working in 116 00:05:53,960 --> 00:05:56,960 Speaker 1: these trigger words and awesome. People hate it, they did, 117 00:05:57,040 --> 00:05:59,400 Speaker 1: but now it's so prevalent that people have begun to 118 00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:01,680 Speaker 1: adopt it as like, fine, this is a low level 119 00:06:01,839 --> 00:06:06,400 Speaker 1: world version today. Awesome. Awesome, Um, it's I think it's 120 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:08,599 Speaker 1: in the realm of like you know, in terms of 121 00:06:08,720 --> 00:06:12,320 Speaker 1: pet Peeves. But this Monty Python clip in which there's 122 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:15,760 Speaker 1: a kind of Downton Abbey like congregation of family in 123 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:20,640 Speaker 1: a drawing room commenting on their pastoral, aristocratic life. Uh, 124 00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:27,520 Speaker 1: they begin to talk about certain words and recast and 125 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:32,479 Speaker 1: and they talk about lovely woody words and dreadful tinny words. Tinny. 126 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:38,920 Speaker 1: So let's have a listen there, gone, what's going? Yeah? 127 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:41,279 Speaker 1: I think I think just like a word. It gives 128 00:06:41,279 --> 00:06:47,840 Speaker 1: me confidence. It's got a woody quality about it. School 129 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:58,719 Speaker 1: much better than newspaper or little been peltly dreadful newspaper, 130 00:06:59,200 --> 00:07:11,840 Speaker 1: little been dreadful, titious worry. Al Right. So I love 131 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:14,920 Speaker 1: that clip because it does kind of capture this whole 132 00:07:14,920 --> 00:07:17,160 Speaker 1: thing that we all have of words. And it goes 133 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:20,480 Speaker 1: on and on, it gets even more ridiculous and great. 134 00:07:20,760 --> 00:07:23,160 Speaker 1: And they even bring up the word sausage. That's a 135 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:26,480 Speaker 1: nice woody word. Yes, yes they do. You know what 136 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:28,280 Speaker 1: it made me think of, Julie. It made me think, 137 00:07:28,440 --> 00:07:30,720 Speaker 1: if people have these word of versions and they're listening 138 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:34,120 Speaker 1: to them with different accents, doesn't cause the same response. 139 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:36,400 Speaker 1: I mean, would it be okay for you to hear 140 00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:40,400 Speaker 1: somebody say moist with an English accent as opposed to 141 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:45,960 Speaker 1: just a flat out American English Southern accent. No? I 142 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:49,080 Speaker 1: still yeah, even I think it might even be worse 143 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:52,560 Speaker 1: if it is pronounced in a British accent. Okay, So 144 00:07:52,640 --> 00:07:55,600 Speaker 1: accents have no impact on this word of version for you. 145 00:07:55,760 --> 00:07:59,320 Speaker 1: And of course it's anecdotally anecdotal. And as will just 146 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:02,400 Speaker 1: disc this word of version is not well studied. It 147 00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:04,560 Speaker 1: probably should because it would be fascinating to know if, 148 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:06,640 Speaker 1: like a thousand years ago, if there are certain words 149 00:08:06,680 --> 00:08:09,320 Speaker 1: that you know, got on people's nerves and wine and 150 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:14,320 Speaker 1: how contextual cultural that was. Research's our battering around some ideas, 151 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:16,160 Speaker 1: and we'll get to that in a little bit. Yeah, 152 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:19,960 Speaker 1: but first we gotta go into Freud and all things 153 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:22,360 Speaker 1: that are sort of grizzly and awful. You have to 154 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:26,040 Speaker 1: turn to Grandpa Freud here um. And when we talk 155 00:08:26,080 --> 00:08:28,400 Speaker 1: about Freud and unconscious, we're talking about the division of 156 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:32,480 Speaker 1: the mind and psychoanalytic theory containing elements of psychic makeup. 157 00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:37,360 Speaker 1: We're talking about memories, repressed desires um, things that are 158 00:08:37,400 --> 00:08:41,480 Speaker 1: not consciously perceived by us or controlled, but they do 159 00:08:42,040 --> 00:08:44,720 Speaker 1: affect our conscious thoughts and how we behave in the world. 160 00:08:45,040 --> 00:08:47,720 Speaker 1: And so Freud, through all of the therapy that he 161 00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:49,920 Speaker 1: was doing with his patients, was trying to tease these 162 00:08:50,160 --> 00:08:53,280 Speaker 1: hidden mental processes from his patients through their dreams or 163 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:55,960 Speaker 1: even word associations. And that's where it gets really interesting 164 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:58,760 Speaker 1: when you start to look at language and words. And 165 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:02,439 Speaker 1: I was even thinking about this in terms of embodied cognition, 166 00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:06,600 Speaker 1: those studies that talk about how if you have a 167 00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:10,880 Speaker 1: cup of warm coffee as opposed to a couple of 168 00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:13,720 Speaker 1: iced tea. When you have that warm coffee in your hand, 169 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:15,920 Speaker 1: you're going to think more warm thoughts about the person 170 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:18,719 Speaker 1: that you're talking to as opposed if you had that 171 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:22,400 Speaker 1: iced coffee. Okay, So here's an example for you. Say 172 00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:25,559 Speaker 1: somebody were to serve you a slice of cake, and 173 00:09:25,679 --> 00:09:28,400 Speaker 1: on that plate that the cake was served on, there 174 00:09:28,559 --> 00:09:32,400 Speaker 1: was the word moist written on that plate indelibly. Fine, 175 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:36,719 Speaker 1: really fine, it's the cake and then I know this 176 00:09:36,760 --> 00:09:38,200 Speaker 1: is not gonna be a dry cake, and I'm all 177 00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:41,760 Speaker 1: for it. But even if it was written on the plate, 178 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:45,160 Speaker 1: that would not know, Okay, as long as there weren't 179 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:50,239 Speaker 1: any strange, like, you know, depictions of groin areas accompanying 180 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:52,720 Speaker 1: it depicted on the plate. I don't think they have 181 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:55,520 Speaker 1: those kinds of there's not some sort of Greek you'ren 182 00:09:55,640 --> 00:10:00,600 Speaker 1: somewhere with a piece of cake and groinage. But but ye, 183 00:10:00,679 --> 00:10:03,480 Speaker 1: they have done studies like that in which people who 184 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:05,960 Speaker 1: are freaked out by rats they wrote the word rat 185 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:07,720 Speaker 1: on a plate and then they put a piece of 186 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:10,760 Speaker 1: food on it whatever they were giving the poor test subjects, 187 00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:13,600 Speaker 1: and the people did have an issue with eating the 188 00:10:13,640 --> 00:10:16,080 Speaker 1: food on the plate that had rat written on it. 189 00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:17,720 Speaker 1: So that was kind of interesting. So I was just 190 00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:20,000 Speaker 1: wondering if that might hold truth for you as well. Well. 191 00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:21,439 Speaker 1: If it said rat, I have to say, then I 192 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:24,000 Speaker 1: would probably not be as keen to eat that piece 193 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:26,760 Speaker 1: of cake. Yeah. And and this has come up before 194 00:10:26,800 --> 00:10:28,439 Speaker 1: in the podcast before too, like if you have a 195 00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:31,800 Speaker 1: chocolate cake and you write cloeaca on the top and 196 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:35,400 Speaker 1: pretty cursive frosting, is someone going to eat it when 197 00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:37,880 Speaker 1: they know what a cloeaca is? I think maybe if 198 00:10:37,880 --> 00:10:41,199 Speaker 1: it were purple frosting, all right, So for you, purple 199 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:46,440 Speaker 1: cloeaca fine. But I wanted to point out that David 200 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:49,800 Speaker 1: Eagleman talks about this this suggestibility a lot in some 201 00:10:49,880 --> 00:10:52,239 Speaker 1: of his work. In fact, it's in his book Incognito, 202 00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:54,760 Speaker 1: and this question of free will is being part and 203 00:10:54,760 --> 00:10:58,520 Speaker 1: parcel of the conscious mind hanging out at the sidelines 204 00:10:58,920 --> 00:11:01,680 Speaker 1: while the unconscious, and he says, kind of does all 205 00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:05,600 Speaker 1: the heavy lifting for us, and ultimately it sort of 206 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:10,600 Speaker 1: delivers that burp of consciousness that we perceive, which I 207 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:12,400 Speaker 1: think is really interesting because he says, you know, with 208 00:11:12,480 --> 00:11:15,240 Speaker 1: some things that we have those aha moments, that those 209 00:11:15,280 --> 00:11:18,480 Speaker 1: moments could have been in the works for weeks, months, 210 00:11:18,559 --> 00:11:21,240 Speaker 1: or even years, and that all this stuff is going 211 00:11:21,320 --> 00:11:24,880 Speaker 1: on under the cover of unconscious and so these word 212 00:11:24,880 --> 00:11:29,040 Speaker 1: of versions are manifestations of what you know, we find 213 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:32,000 Speaker 1: delightful or disgusting in our lives, and so it would 214 00:11:32,040 --> 00:11:35,840 Speaker 1: stand to reason that words which also embody symbols would 215 00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:39,480 Speaker 1: come to represent ideas unconsciously for us. And then I 216 00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:43,319 Speaker 1: started to think about Young, who branched off from Freud, 217 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:47,080 Speaker 1: and he had the whole collective unconscious thing going on, right, 218 00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:49,559 Speaker 1: So he's saying, yes, there's this deal about the unconscious 219 00:11:49,559 --> 00:11:52,600 Speaker 1: and all this hidden meaning, but collectively we all sort 220 00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:56,000 Speaker 1: of signed into this or signed onto this um system 221 00:11:56,040 --> 00:11:59,040 Speaker 1: of symbols. And so then I thought, well, that's really 222 00:11:59,080 --> 00:12:03,760 Speaker 1: interesting because that's perhaps how words like moist rise to 223 00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:07,640 Speaker 1: the top of our consciousness from the unconscious or the 224 00:12:07,640 --> 00:12:11,280 Speaker 1: collective unconsciousness, right, And our podcast isn't going to do 225 00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:17,680 Speaker 1: anything to help it. Now we're gonna continue to heat 226 00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:24,079 Speaker 1: up the flames under under moisture. There, that's an interesting analogy. Yeah, 227 00:12:24,240 --> 00:12:28,600 Speaker 1: now now I'm thinking about sweating buttocks. Sorry about that. So, Julie, 228 00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:30,960 Speaker 1: what do you think about bilingual and multilingual folks. Do 229 00:12:30,960 --> 00:12:33,440 Speaker 1: you think they have such word a versions? Well, I 230 00:12:33,520 --> 00:12:37,400 Speaker 1: know for a fact that they do have an emotional distance. 231 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:40,240 Speaker 1: And I have talked about this before, but there's a 232 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:43,680 Speaker 1: study in which participants were asked to assess a financial risk. 233 00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:45,920 Speaker 1: And now we already know that when it comes to 234 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:48,440 Speaker 1: finances and trying to figure out what's a good choice 235 00:12:48,440 --> 00:12:51,120 Speaker 1: and a bad choice, that we're really messy thinkers about this. 236 00:12:52,080 --> 00:12:55,480 Speaker 1: And um, what they did, these participants they were asked 237 00:12:55,520 --> 00:12:58,080 Speaker 1: to think about this risk not in their mother tongue, 238 00:12:58,280 --> 00:13:01,360 Speaker 1: but in a second language that they were fluent him. 239 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:04,640 Speaker 1: And the study is called the foreign language effect. Thinking 240 00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:07,600 Speaker 1: in a foreign tongue reduces decision biases, which I think 241 00:13:07,640 --> 00:13:11,800 Speaker 1: just gave away the results. Yeah, and the it was 242 00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:14,319 Speaker 1: a series of experiments more than three people from the 243 00:13:14,440 --> 00:13:17,200 Speaker 1: US and Korea. And what they found is that people 244 00:13:17,240 --> 00:13:20,400 Speaker 1: have two different modes of thoughts when they are trying 245 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:24,880 Speaker 1: to process information and emotions, and one is really systematic 246 00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:29,360 Speaker 1: and analytical and cognitive intensive, and the other is fast, 247 00:13:29,520 --> 00:13:33,160 Speaker 1: unconscious and emotionally charged. And so what they found is 248 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:37,320 Speaker 1: that when people were processing these risks in a second language, 249 00:13:37,360 --> 00:13:41,439 Speaker 1: they were not weighted with the emotion of the experience 250 00:13:41,480 --> 00:13:44,800 Speaker 1: of those words that might color their perception and the decisions. 251 00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:48,800 Speaker 1: So they made far more rational choices because they weren't 252 00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:52,640 Speaker 1: freighted with all of this uh emotion of language, and 253 00:13:52,679 --> 00:13:55,360 Speaker 1: it gave them that distance that they needed. And we 254 00:13:55,400 --> 00:13:58,720 Speaker 1: do tend to linger over negative emotions. And I think 255 00:13:58,720 --> 00:14:00,679 Speaker 1: that this is related to a word a version, and 256 00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:03,360 Speaker 1: that you think about these words really making you mad 257 00:14:03,720 --> 00:14:07,080 Speaker 1: or instilling some sort of feeling in you that is 258 00:14:07,160 --> 00:14:11,240 Speaker 1: not pleasant, and your brain kind of pauses longer over 259 00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:16,199 Speaker 1: the negativity. It's true because it turns out that we humans, 260 00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:21,080 Speaker 1: we remember far more negative words than positive ones. Yeah. 261 00:14:21,080 --> 00:14:24,040 Speaker 1: There's a study about emotion where it's correct. Yeah. Is 262 00:14:24,520 --> 00:14:27,560 Speaker 1: conducted by Dr Robert W. Schroff, He's the associate professor 263 00:14:27,640 --> 00:14:30,880 Speaker 1: of a POD Linguistics Penn State, and Julia Sanchez, a 264 00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:34,680 Speaker 1: graduate student psychology at the Chicago School of Psychology UM 265 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:38,320 Speaker 1: and she they asked groups of people in Mexico City 266 00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:40,520 Speaker 1: in Chicago. This is important because they wanted to see 267 00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:43,920 Speaker 1: if there were any cultural differences in two age groups 268 00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:47,440 Speaker 1: twenty years old in sixty five years old to just 269 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:50,120 Speaker 1: you know, list as many emotions as they could just 270 00:14:50,200 --> 00:14:52,800 Speaker 1: off the top of their head, and then those emotions 271 00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:57,280 Speaker 1: were categorized as negative, positive, or neutral. And it turns 272 00:14:57,320 --> 00:15:01,080 Speaker 1: out that people, um really did know many more of 273 00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:04,240 Speaker 1: these negative words and positive. We're talking about a proportion 274 00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:10,360 Speaker 1: of words that it's fifty percent negative, positive and neutral. Now, 275 00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:12,960 Speaker 1: in terms of differences between the age groups, it was 276 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:17,760 Speaker 1: found that older folks had more of a diversity of words, 277 00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:20,800 Speaker 1: which makes sense because they have more life experience and 278 00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:25,160 Speaker 1: perhaps have dabbled in more word choices. But in terms 279 00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:27,840 Speaker 1: of proportion of negativity, it didn't matter what age you are. 280 00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:31,600 Speaker 1: You were still going to use or think of more 281 00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:35,400 Speaker 1: negative words. You know, depend no matter what your age was, 282 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:39,480 Speaker 1: And it didn't matter if you were from Mexico or 283 00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:44,080 Speaker 1: excuse me, Mexico City or Chicago, you still again had 284 00:15:44,840 --> 00:15:48,720 Speaker 1: the memory available to you that was associated with negative words. 285 00:15:48,760 --> 00:15:50,640 Speaker 1: So I wonder if that's why we focus more on 286 00:15:50,760 --> 00:15:54,080 Speaker 1: word a version whether than word attraction. Do you have 287 00:15:54,160 --> 00:15:59,400 Speaker 1: attraction towards oh, I do, I do. I'm winking out 288 00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:02,720 Speaker 1: one of them, are it now? You know? It came 289 00:16:02,800 --> 00:16:05,120 Speaker 1: up and I was reading this over it was a 290 00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:09,680 Speaker 1: lot of people love the French word for grapefruit. Do 291 00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:11,440 Speaker 1: you happen to know it? I don't. What is it 292 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:16,240 Speaker 1: forgive me? French speakers? Pump the moose? It's quite nice. 293 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:20,960 Speaker 1: I think it sounds excellent, especially as compared with grapefruit. Well, yeah, 294 00:16:20,960 --> 00:16:22,880 Speaker 1: grapefruit is kind of heavy with the g right, and 295 00:16:22,920 --> 00:16:25,080 Speaker 1: we'll talk about that. It's one of those plosive words 296 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:28,880 Speaker 1: and it does have impact, but it's not impactful. Just 297 00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:32,760 Speaker 1: for the record, impactful. I knew, I see, I knew, 298 00:16:32,840 --> 00:16:34,480 Speaker 1: I knew that would be on your list there. I 299 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:37,680 Speaker 1: also hate impact as a verb, but that's a holy different, 300 00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:40,880 Speaker 1: that's a whole other ball. And you're an editor, so 301 00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:42,600 Speaker 1: by law, I think that you kind of have to. 302 00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:44,360 Speaker 1: So you would think that I would have a lot. 303 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:45,760 Speaker 1: And I mean, you work with words all the time 304 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:49,240 Speaker 1: as well, and I really don't have too many word 305 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:51,400 Speaker 1: of versions. But again, I'm not quite ready to speak 306 00:16:51,440 --> 00:16:54,440 Speaker 1: to that. No, no, no, maybe maybe I'll save that 307 00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:58,320 Speaker 1: for the end. You mean, you're like centerpiece of word aversion. 308 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:01,040 Speaker 1: The one word that gets you. So one word, all right, 309 00:17:01,080 --> 00:17:02,520 Speaker 1: we'll get to that. I think we all are going 310 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:05,800 Speaker 1: to have to build up to this one. Yeah yeah. Um. 311 00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:10,000 Speaker 1: Let's talk about lists of aversion words and attraction words here. 312 00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:14,080 Speaker 1: A Mississippi State University survey found that among the student 313 00:17:14,119 --> 00:17:17,159 Speaker 1: population who submitted their least favorite words, these were the 314 00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:19,639 Speaker 1: ones that that rose to the top. And this is 315 00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:24,520 Speaker 1: in order of their level of hatred. Vomit, moist, puke, 316 00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:28,320 Speaker 1: phlagm in my nose right now, as you guys can 317 00:17:28,400 --> 00:17:32,119 Speaker 1: hear slaughter, snot ugly, damp, and mucus and then a 318 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:36,399 Speaker 1: damp damp really yeah huh, I like damp, and I 319 00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:40,280 Speaker 1: like dank um oh, dank thank is a nice descriptor, right. 320 00:17:40,760 --> 00:17:43,480 Speaker 1: A two thousand and eleven follow up survey found moist 321 00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:46,680 Speaker 1: pulling into the number one slot, though, So it's really 322 00:17:46,720 --> 00:17:49,120 Speaker 1: a cultural phenomena, and that's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking 323 00:17:49,160 --> 00:17:53,000 Speaker 1: that this is a zeitguys moment for moist in the world, 324 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:54,560 Speaker 1: and it would be very interesting to see if it 325 00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:56,720 Speaker 1: takes a turn, because, as we know, language is ever 326 00:17:56,800 --> 00:17:59,719 Speaker 1: evolving and and and takes on new meaning depending on 327 00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:03,320 Speaker 1: the sort of experiences that we have with it culturally. 328 00:18:03,800 --> 00:18:06,000 Speaker 1: So I have to share with you this product that 329 00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:09,560 Speaker 1: I found. I can't hold back anyone. So when I 330 00:18:09,600 --> 00:18:12,359 Speaker 1: was researching for the podcast, I came across a line 331 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:16,040 Speaker 1: of skin care products and it was called Moist Diane. 332 00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:22,040 Speaker 1: And sometimes there is a comma inserted between moist and 333 00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:24,960 Speaker 1: Diane as if the more as if we were addressing 334 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:27,280 Speaker 1: Diane directly. Sometimes the comma was taken out. So I 335 00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:30,400 Speaker 1: found this all very curious. Um it seemed to be 336 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:34,600 Speaker 1: a line of beauty products from Japan, So I think 337 00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:38,360 Speaker 1: obviously that can cause some problems just as far as 338 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:43,159 Speaker 1: naming products and then extending those product names to other languages, 339 00:18:43,280 --> 00:18:46,439 Speaker 1: and you know, what are the connotations here? That's really 340 00:18:46,480 --> 00:18:49,199 Speaker 1: tricky territory. Yeah, and we'll talk more about you know 341 00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:53,159 Speaker 1: how corporations use language to manipulate in a moment. But 342 00:18:53,200 --> 00:18:56,160 Speaker 1: you're right, there's like if you don't have the correct like, oh, 343 00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:58,119 Speaker 1: this is not a word that you want to necessarily 344 00:18:58,200 --> 00:19:00,439 Speaker 1: use with common then put someone's name that X to it, 345 00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:03,520 Speaker 1: then you just don't know that moist Diana right now 346 00:19:03,720 --> 00:19:06,560 Speaker 1: is making my tear ducks in my eye really active. 347 00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:10,960 Speaker 1: But alright, so those are some aversion words. Let's splip 348 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:14,920 Speaker 1: over to the beautiful, that the attractive words. I don't 349 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:19,360 Speaker 1: know why I'm talking like that. Let's luxuriate in these words. 350 00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:24,040 Speaker 1: According to Ben Zimmer, writing for Visual Source, the words 351 00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:30,600 Speaker 1: selected the most oftenest favorite is love. Oh really yeah? Okay, 352 00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:33,399 Speaker 1: but I thought, okay, that's that's sweet. We should have 353 00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:36,359 Speaker 1: more words for love. I agree, you know it should 354 00:19:36,359 --> 00:19:37,960 Speaker 1: be you know how there's the whole thing of like 355 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:41,520 Speaker 1: the you know, seventy words for snow and love should 356 00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:43,600 Speaker 1: be so important that you should have one million, right 357 00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:47,400 Speaker 1: or you know, we should probably ask our our listeners 358 00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:50,040 Speaker 1: to let us know some of the words that they 359 00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:53,360 Speaker 1: use instead of love for love? Is there a standing? 360 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:55,439 Speaker 1: Is there not? Because I would be really interested enough 361 00:19:55,480 --> 00:19:58,760 Speaker 1: from you guys. Um. But this word is then followed 362 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:03,960 Speaker 1: by the really it feel good term serendipity. Serendipity does 363 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:07,280 Speaker 1: come up a lot, yeah, grace and peace and other 364 00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:10,840 Speaker 1: favorites are polk ertude, although I have seen polkartudinus on 365 00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:13,960 Speaker 1: the other list and word of versions you collected the Guardian, 366 00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:17,720 Speaker 1: I think they railed against polkertude and polkartudinous. Yeah. I 367 00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:20,359 Speaker 1: didn't really get um, other than it sounds like a 368 00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:24,480 Speaker 1: mismatch from what it means, which is beautiful, schaden freud, perspicacious. 369 00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:30,440 Speaker 1: I like that one. Mellifluous, oh yeah, and discombobulate. Discombobulates 370 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:33,160 Speaker 1: a big one. It has so many satisfying syllables in there, 371 00:20:33,440 --> 00:20:35,280 Speaker 1: it does. That's one that you can really kind of 372 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:37,600 Speaker 1: garbble around in your mouth like a bunch of marbles. 373 00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:40,600 Speaker 1: And that's what some people like, I mean, and and 374 00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:43,040 Speaker 1: that's also what some people hate, right, So that's the sense. 375 00:20:43,240 --> 00:20:46,480 Speaker 1: It's not just the association, it's the way it sounds, 376 00:20:46,480 --> 00:20:48,920 Speaker 1: the way it feels to pronounce the word. We'll see. 377 00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:51,520 Speaker 1: That's the interesting part of it, right, because um, it's 378 00:20:51,520 --> 00:20:54,480 Speaker 1: not Yeah, it's like a physical response. And that's the 379 00:20:54,560 --> 00:20:58,760 Speaker 1: whole embodied cognition that if you do something physically, then 380 00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:01,560 Speaker 1: your your brain will fall low and have those sort 381 00:21:01,560 --> 00:21:04,320 Speaker 1: of patterns. So if you have discombobulated in your mouth, 382 00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:07,879 Speaker 1: then you feel sort of like you're luxuriating in language. 383 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:11,679 Speaker 1: That's nice, RELI, that's very nice, thank you. So for 384 00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:15,399 Speaker 1: some reason, the oi diphthong has gotten a bit of 385 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:19,720 Speaker 1: a bad rap well, because it shows up in moist 386 00:21:20,440 --> 00:21:25,719 Speaker 1: and groin goiter gitter. I love giter I just love it. 387 00:21:26,040 --> 00:21:28,920 Speaker 1: Should we discuss what an oral dipthong is? Go ahead, 388 00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:32,399 Speaker 1: all right, Well we're talking about our gliding vowels in 389 00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:36,840 Speaker 1: a one syllable word, so it uh diplong actually translate 390 00:21:36,880 --> 00:21:40,199 Speaker 1: literally to two voices or two sounds, so it's not 391 00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:44,880 Speaker 1: just like your straightforward um clip right, it's cow ow cow. 392 00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:48,840 Speaker 1: That's nice. Yeah, you can't see eventually it's making a 393 00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:51,600 Speaker 1: lovely face that she pronounces. And it's too bad we 394 00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:54,920 Speaker 1: don't have a video accompaniment of this. We'll see when. 395 00:21:54,920 --> 00:21:57,800 Speaker 1: When this brings up this this idea too of um, 396 00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:00,600 Speaker 1: you know, these dipthongs and how words feel on our mouth. 397 00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:05,560 Speaker 1: It brings up this idea of synthsia, right, and synath 398 00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:09,080 Speaker 1: asia is a perceptual condition in which information between the 399 00:22:09,119 --> 00:22:12,280 Speaker 1: senses is blended. So if I see a word, I 400 00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:14,879 Speaker 1: might see a color as well, or here are sound 401 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:17,840 Speaker 1: podcast about this before we have we've definitely touched on 402 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:21,560 Speaker 1: this before. So this this becomes the question is is 403 00:22:21,560 --> 00:22:24,680 Speaker 1: the word a version or word attractions simply something that 404 00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:28,680 Speaker 1: is being processed in our brains so that the other 405 00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:31,680 Speaker 1: senses are are not just tacking on connotations to it, 406 00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:37,080 Speaker 1: but actually trying to take that symbol and reinterpret it 407 00:22:37,119 --> 00:22:40,920 Speaker 1: in different modes. Right, And so this is a hypothesis 408 00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:44,040 Speaker 1: that David Eagleman and his lab are testing out over 409 00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:47,320 Speaker 1: at Baylor. And what they're doing, I mean they basically 410 00:22:47,359 --> 00:22:49,119 Speaker 1: if you guys are interested in taking the survey, and 411 00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:50,800 Speaker 1: I'm sure they would appreciate it. I took it the 412 00:22:50,800 --> 00:22:53,520 Speaker 1: other day interparation for this podcast, and it takes about 413 00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:56,480 Speaker 1: fifteen minutes. Although it didn't for me because I don't 414 00:22:56,480 --> 00:23:01,000 Speaker 1: think that I have this condition unfortunate, uh so it 415 00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:03,680 Speaker 1: didn't really lead me any farther. But this is a 416 00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:06,480 Speaker 1: hypothesis that they have out there because nobody really knows 417 00:23:06,680 --> 00:23:09,400 Speaker 1: why do we why do we have these word of versions. Yeah, 418 00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:11,560 Speaker 1: and I kind of got a couple of clues from 419 00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:13,560 Speaker 1: taking in the test. I have to say, oh, you 420 00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:16,960 Speaker 1: did take it, Yeah, I did. And some of the 421 00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:21,240 Speaker 1: questions were, um, like, you know, did you have migraines 422 00:23:21,280 --> 00:23:23,840 Speaker 1: as a child, did you have any hearing loss as 423 00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:27,160 Speaker 1: a child, Um, did you have here ear infections? Someone? 424 00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:28,720 Speaker 1: And so forth. So I think they're trying to see 425 00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:30,720 Speaker 1: whether or not there have been some things crossed in 426 00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:34,560 Speaker 1: the brain initially and then um, of course they talk about, 427 00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:38,160 Speaker 1: you know, some other continus like a d D and 428 00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:40,920 Speaker 1: I don't know if they talk specifically about schizophrenia, but 429 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:42,919 Speaker 1: they're trying to get to the bottom of this, like 430 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:46,440 Speaker 1: what is driving this senestia, this idea that you're looking 431 00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:50,159 Speaker 1: at a word and feeling something. In fact, one of 432 00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:53,439 Speaker 1: the questions and the questionnaire was do certain words trigger 433 00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:56,439 Speaker 1: a taste in your mouth? Example? Does the name Derek 434 00:23:56,680 --> 00:24:00,120 Speaker 1: taste like ear wax? I saw that. I love that. 435 00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:05,200 Speaker 1: It's so great, Poor Derek. I know all the Derek's 436 00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:07,879 Speaker 1: out there, sorry about that. I don't. For me, I 437 00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:11,600 Speaker 1: don't the taste of ear waxes not inhabit My mouth 438 00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:15,920 Speaker 1: tasted ear wax, definitely, scabs fried chicken, but I don't 439 00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:18,399 Speaker 1: have you ever tasted your wax? No, but how do 440 00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:21,040 Speaker 1: you just throw off scabs and fried chicken? Like, yeah, 441 00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:24,280 Speaker 1: scabs and fried chicken. I know that. Well, Yeah, because 442 00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:28,200 Speaker 1: you know, I conducted an experiment when I was younger. Okay, 443 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:32,720 Speaker 1: no longer, this is no longer. I'm just saying, yeah, 444 00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:34,720 Speaker 1: I think i'd be really interesting to be a lexical 445 00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:39,800 Speaker 1: acoustatory type of sinnis feat. That's right, That's that's the category, right, 446 00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:41,880 Speaker 1: it is. Indeed. Yeah, I think I had a bit 447 00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:44,320 Speaker 1: of a visual sinnis feet, but I was low on it, 448 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:45,760 Speaker 1: you know, And I think it was more like, hey, 449 00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:47,840 Speaker 1: you like to dream up things in your head? There. 450 00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:52,639 Speaker 1: All right, let's take a quick break, and when we 451 00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:56,160 Speaker 1: get back, we're going to talk about the corporate scrabble 452 00:24:56,200 --> 00:25:01,520 Speaker 1: strategy of trying to manipulate language and words to make us, 453 00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:11,720 Speaker 1: uh do their bidding. All right, we're back. Did you 454 00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:15,240 Speaker 1: do you catch any of the flagged words from either 455 00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:18,960 Speaker 1: of the lists in there? Yeah, gossamer, I'm fetching, fetching. 456 00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:22,640 Speaker 1: Also very nice, belieguer. What do you think about the leaguer? Okay, 457 00:25:22,680 --> 00:25:26,040 Speaker 1: that wasn't in the advertisement, but I like the leaguered. 458 00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:28,879 Speaker 1: I like the leaguered better than be leaguer. You're feeling 459 00:25:28,880 --> 00:25:32,000 Speaker 1: beliaguered by all the podcast research you had to do. 460 00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:37,720 Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's more impactful. But squab squab was on 461 00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:40,520 Speaker 1: the list squib squab, scipt squab. So squab is a 462 00:25:40,600 --> 00:25:43,760 Speaker 1: kind of bird, right, and uh, for years I've been 463 00:25:43,760 --> 00:25:46,080 Speaker 1: saying squibt squab. I didn't realize that that was a 464 00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:50,600 Speaker 1: word that had risen to the top of maligned words. Also, cornucopia. Yes, 465 00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:52,919 Speaker 1: And in fact, we we have a little thing we're 466 00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:54,560 Speaker 1: going to do at the end here, We're going to 467 00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:58,440 Speaker 1: construct our own sentences of of words. Oh okay, I 468 00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:02,119 Speaker 1: copia shows up in my sentence, by the way. And 469 00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:05,040 Speaker 1: I invite listeners to do this as well. Yes, do 470 00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:07,360 Speaker 1: do send us your crazy word of vision sentences. Yeah, 471 00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:09,359 Speaker 1: because the the idea is, let's see if we can 472 00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:13,600 Speaker 1: really make people um sort of wins here. Um all right, 473 00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:19,239 Speaker 1: so manipulating language. We've got corporations, h masters at this, 474 00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:21,520 Speaker 1: masters at this. And you brought this up the other day. 475 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,200 Speaker 1: You were like, you know what, the letters X and Y, 476 00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:27,639 Speaker 1: they're used in a lot of products. Excuse me, X 477 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:29,800 Speaker 1: and Z you want to go for those big scrabble 478 00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:33,200 Speaker 1: jackpot letters to make them stand out other I don't 479 00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:35,399 Speaker 1: know that it does anymore. I just due to the 480 00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:40,760 Speaker 1: preponderance of X and z um in particularly pharmaceutical names. Yeah, 481 00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:42,840 Speaker 1: and that was the idea right at first, that they 482 00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:44,800 Speaker 1: were being used so that they would stand out in 483 00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:49,880 Speaker 1: the market. Yeah. I mean think xan X, think Zertech, Zoloft. 484 00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:54,160 Speaker 1: What other ones you got, Julie, Um, I don't know 485 00:26:55,640 --> 00:27:04,359 Speaker 1: a lot. Zufia are you making that up zinias zium. Yeah, 486 00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:07,879 Speaker 1: so it seems like linguists and working in tandem with 487 00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:10,639 Speaker 1: corporations could wait into a whole world of trouble. So 488 00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:12,720 Speaker 1: you do want to consult the linguists when you're figuring 489 00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:16,880 Speaker 1: out what you're gonna name your venerable product. And so 490 00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:19,199 Speaker 1: m A lot of corporate corporations have gone with the 491 00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:21,800 Speaker 1: X and Z strategy. But I mean there's also just 492 00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:25,440 Speaker 1: the word itself. Okay. For example, do you remember when 493 00:27:25,600 --> 00:27:29,640 Speaker 1: that tablet called the iPad came out? What is it? 494 00:27:30,280 --> 00:27:32,800 Speaker 1: Have you heard of this thing called the yea? Yeah, 495 00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:35,240 Speaker 1: that was the thing. Yeah, yeah, that thing where you 496 00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:37,480 Speaker 1: do the thing and the thing and then your kid 497 00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:41,040 Speaker 1: just takes control of it. Yeah, I know that. Yeah. 498 00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:43,879 Speaker 1: So I remember when iPad first came out. I was thinking, huh, 499 00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:47,560 Speaker 1: that's really odd that they would name something after you know, 500 00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:52,679 Speaker 1: female product, thinking of pads. I was thinking sanitary. I 501 00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:56,720 Speaker 1: was thinking of sanitary pads, thank you. And then eventually 502 00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:59,280 Speaker 1: the iPad did its iPad thing and took over the 503 00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:04,960 Speaker 1: world and is running for you know, world dictatorship, and uh, 504 00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:07,960 Speaker 1: the iPad kind of left my brain with its association. 505 00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:10,440 Speaker 1: So I think that there's very much a case, again 506 00:28:10,480 --> 00:28:14,800 Speaker 1: anecdotally in terms of words ever evolving and in terms 507 00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:17,720 Speaker 1: of our own personal associations with those words changing, because 508 00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:20,080 Speaker 1: tell you, the truth is kind of flipped now. So 509 00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:23,640 Speaker 1: hygiene products I almost think of as sort of sleek, 510 00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:27,400 Speaker 1: like an iPad. It's weird the way that works. I thought, 511 00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:30,399 Speaker 1: I saw you on on the train the other day, um, 512 00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:32,800 Speaker 1: just flipping out a pad and then just kind of 513 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:35,360 Speaker 1: typing on it and looking around and looking like very 514 00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:39,720 Speaker 1: self satisfied there. Yeah, I wasn't sure that was a pad, 515 00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:42,800 Speaker 1: but now I know, Um, all right, so that that's 516 00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:45,640 Speaker 1: this idea, right, that you can reframe and you can 517 00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:49,120 Speaker 1: retrain your brain. Um. But I did want to point 518 00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:51,240 Speaker 1: out before we talk a little bit more about that, 519 00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:56,680 Speaker 1: is that advertisers and linguists who are consulting with them 520 00:28:56,960 --> 00:28:59,960 Speaker 1: can also give advertisers a jump by using a little 521 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,680 Speaker 1: ation and rhyme where love it. Yeah, I mean we're 522 00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:05,960 Speaker 1: talking about you know, when we talk about a literation 523 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:11,400 Speaker 1: and rhyme, nutter butter YouTube on amanopeas right, like Twitter. Absolutely, 524 00:29:11,480 --> 00:29:14,640 Speaker 1: these are things that stick in the brain and close 525 00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:18,400 Speaker 1: of consonants. These are really important in advertising too, because 526 00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:21,840 Speaker 1: these plosive you can already hear plose of consonants cause 527 00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:25,240 Speaker 1: the airflow to stop during pronunciation because there's an inclusion 528 00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:27,480 Speaker 1: in the mouth, So we're talking about the glottis in 529 00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:29,960 Speaker 1: the back of the throat or the tongue, and what 530 00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:33,480 Speaker 1: happens is that the pressure of that air builds up 531 00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:37,600 Speaker 1: against whatever it is that's including the airway, and then 532 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,520 Speaker 1: when it's releases that the air is allowed to pass, 533 00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:45,240 Speaker 1: you get a more forceful sound. So okay, so if 534 00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:49,040 Speaker 1: it's a more forceful sound, is it a more memorable sound? Well, yeah, 535 00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:51,280 Speaker 1: because you're giving a little bit more emphasis to it. 536 00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:54,800 Speaker 1: So if I'm you know, close up B or hard 537 00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:58,800 Speaker 1: see like or A D A G K A p 538 00:29:58,920 --> 00:30:03,600 Speaker 1: R T, there's it's just more powerful powerful, right, No, definitely, 539 00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:08,640 Speaker 1: which leads this idea that some words, when they are said, 540 00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:13,200 Speaker 1: are going to have you want to say impactful again, 541 00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:15,520 Speaker 1: I was going to say more of an emotional impact. 542 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:17,440 Speaker 1: I really was. I wasn't going to do that to 543 00:30:17,440 --> 00:30:19,560 Speaker 1: your third time. You're you're kind enough to come on 544 00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:24,080 Speaker 1: and hang out with me. So but this kind of 545 00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:26,960 Speaker 1: gets this idea of there might be the word that 546 00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:29,600 Speaker 1: that you really really dislike, that that could be one 547 00:30:29,640 --> 00:30:32,240 Speaker 1: of the reasons why you dislike it besides the cultural 548 00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:35,440 Speaker 1: connotation that it has, And I don't know if you're 549 00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:37,520 Speaker 1: ready to talk about it or if you want to, 550 00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:40,920 Speaker 1: So it's worth pointing out that there's no surprise then 551 00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:43,520 Speaker 1: why moist kind of reigns supreme because it has the 552 00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:46,000 Speaker 1: connotation for a lot of people, a lot of I 553 00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:48,320 Speaker 1: think women in particular, I would be curious to hear 554 00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:53,760 Speaker 1: from men if they have the moist word a version. Um. 555 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,600 Speaker 1: So it has the connotation like we talked about, and 556 00:30:56,640 --> 00:31:00,720 Speaker 1: it also has that that always sound that we don't 557 00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:04,479 Speaker 1: really like to say apparently, although I still maintain that 558 00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:09,960 Speaker 1: goiter is awesome. It goiter is awesome. But when when 559 00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:11,800 Speaker 1: we talk about closives, and I'm not going to make 560 00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:13,520 Speaker 1: you say your word, by the way, because it's not 561 00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:15,000 Speaker 1: a good word, and I see that you don't want 562 00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:17,040 Speaker 1: to say this word, So I'm going to say another 563 00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:19,640 Speaker 1: word that is a forceful word, and I'm going to 564 00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:22,360 Speaker 1: say it in the context of that movie Dick Tracy. 565 00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:24,960 Speaker 1: There are some words that you can just lob around 566 00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:27,600 Speaker 1: and they are going to have more of an impact. 567 00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:30,719 Speaker 1: I can do this, Julie, I don't have to. This 568 00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:33,400 Speaker 1: is an awful word. My my word a version is 569 00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:37,800 Speaker 1: to the word that the C word um for women. 570 00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:40,120 Speaker 1: It's hard for me to even say. It's hard for 571 00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:41,920 Speaker 1: me to talk about. This is the only connection I 572 00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:43,560 Speaker 1: have to word a version. I can type all day, 573 00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:45,360 Speaker 1: I can type all sorts of things, I can type 574 00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:48,160 Speaker 1: weird stuff, I can type impactful over and over and 575 00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:51,240 Speaker 1: not have any reaction. But the C word, for me, 576 00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:54,520 Speaker 1: it's just it's just one of those words. It's it's 577 00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:56,400 Speaker 1: the only word for me that that I have that 578 00:31:56,520 --> 00:31:59,280 Speaker 1: reaction to. Yeah, and again this is you've got so 579 00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:01,240 Speaker 1: many mean Actually, if you went through the list, you 580 00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:03,240 Speaker 1: could just take off everything right. You could say it's 581 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:08,080 Speaker 1: got the closeft consonance two of them, right, and um, 582 00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:12,720 Speaker 1: it's got the cultural associations and it's just mean spirited. 583 00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:15,760 Speaker 1: So when you lab it at someone, it's got a 584 00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:19,120 Speaker 1: lot more force than another word. It's worth noting, though, 585 00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:25,160 Speaker 1: that people have attempted to reclaim the word, as I 586 00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:27,120 Speaker 1: don't know whether they would be successful. I think there 587 00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:29,480 Speaker 1: are a lot of people like me out there or 588 00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:32,520 Speaker 1: have this crazy relationship and just a really averse to it. 589 00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:37,720 Speaker 1: But I admire the attempt to reclaim Yeah, I do too, 590 00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:39,280 Speaker 1: and I understand you that in other parts of the 591 00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:42,720 Speaker 1: world that it's not a big deal. In Australia, yeah, 592 00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:45,680 Speaker 1: I think it's in Australia, maybe in Britain to you guys, 593 00:32:45,760 --> 00:32:47,320 Speaker 1: let me know out there, but it's sort of thrown 594 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:50,160 Speaker 1: around is in a more playful sense. But I think 595 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:53,520 Speaker 1: for for you and obviously women in the United States, 596 00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:55,239 Speaker 1: it's one of those things. It's like taken out at 597 00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:59,720 Speaker 1: a K forty seven, Julie, Yes, Aliston, have you run 598 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:07,120 Speaker 1: out of creamy? Oh, moist, the putrid, oh, crepuscular? Word 599 00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:10,040 Speaker 1: diverse topics for today? I think we have we have. 600 00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:12,719 Speaker 1: The only thing I wanted to mention is that not 601 00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:15,720 Speaker 1: only you know, is it gonna differ from language the 602 00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:20,320 Speaker 1: language what words are are word diversive, word attractive, but 603 00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:24,040 Speaker 1: also tonal aspects of it. You didn't get to the 604 00:33:24,040 --> 00:33:27,000 Speaker 1: tonal language. Yeah, so if you're speaking in Vietnamese, one 605 00:33:27,040 --> 00:33:29,840 Speaker 1: word could mean five different things depending on the way 606 00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:32,280 Speaker 1: that you pronounce that word, which then brings up this 607 00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:35,840 Speaker 1: whole idea of the musicality of language and how it 608 00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:38,760 Speaker 1: affects emotion and how we process. But I think for 609 00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:40,840 Speaker 1: the time being, I think it's worth saying that it's 610 00:33:40,960 --> 00:33:44,120 Speaker 1: we can all agree that words have emotion, and then 611 00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:46,440 Speaker 1: our brains are processing it in a certain way and 612 00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:49,760 Speaker 1: everything is pretty much codified. So you take a word 613 00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:52,480 Speaker 1: like moist and you start to tease it apart, and 614 00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:55,560 Speaker 1: you see that it means a lot of different things 615 00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:58,040 Speaker 1: to a lot of different people, and then maybe nothing 616 00:33:58,080 --> 00:34:01,760 Speaker 1: to some people. It's pretty fascinating stuff. And gelogists I 617 00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:04,960 Speaker 1: would love more talking about the soil, but they're used 618 00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:06,840 Speaker 1: to it because they're dealing what they're dealing with soil. 619 00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:09,840 Speaker 1: They're dealing with moist soil, so they're dealing with that 620 00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:12,840 Speaker 1: bong all day. They probably are like, what's what's up 621 00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:14,480 Speaker 1: with moist? I love it. I'm also only going to 622 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:17,319 Speaker 1: describe this. We're taking something valuable away from me when 623 00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:19,560 Speaker 1: you say that we should take moist away from the 624 00:34:19,600 --> 00:34:23,439 Speaker 1: English language. So do you have your sentence of word 625 00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:26,120 Speaker 1: a version or did you already laid on me? I 626 00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:29,560 Speaker 1: may have laid it on you with that putrid, crepuscular 627 00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:32,600 Speaker 1: business that we were just discussing. Okay, so here's what 628 00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:36,400 Speaker 1: I got, here's mine. When the slack wearing, squab loving 629 00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:39,799 Speaker 1: man thrust his pinky into his moist, naval and extracted 630 00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:44,439 Speaker 1: and impressive amount of crud. He was inspired to create 631 00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:47,440 Speaker 1: a new design for bandage, featuring a cornucopia of scaps 632 00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:52,040 Speaker 1: the color of fudge. Wells a Julie, well done, Thank you, 633 00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:55,200 Speaker 1: thank you. Sorry. If it kind of freaked everybody out 634 00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:59,560 Speaker 1: or anybody out, I think we should probably leave it there. Okay, 635 00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:03,040 Speaker 1: we'll do yeah, all right. Let us know you guys, 636 00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:06,360 Speaker 1: do you have word of versions? Do you have a 637 00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:09,239 Speaker 1: sentence of word of versions you'd like to share with us? Oh, 638 00:35:09,239 --> 00:35:11,120 Speaker 1: we'd love to hear them. We would really really love 639 00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:14,040 Speaker 1: to hear them. And you know, do you have any 640 00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:17,359 Speaker 1: thoughts on how we overlay words with intended or unintended 641 00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:20,719 Speaker 1: meaning based on our experiences in the world, And did 642 00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:23,520 Speaker 1: we leave anything out? Surely we did. Let us know 643 00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:26,480 Speaker 1: on Facebook, Twitter, or you can send us a handcrafted 644 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:30,280 Speaker 1: email at blow the Mind at Discovery dot com. Allison, 645 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:34,279 Speaker 1: thank you for counterbalancing my my flemmy tones today with 646 00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:37,600 Speaker 1: your dulcet ones and hanging out with us. Julia, is 647 00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:44,960 Speaker 1: a pleasure to be here. Oh dude. For more on 648 00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:47,440 Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, Is that how Stuff 649 00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:53,960 Speaker 1: Works dot Com