Episode 85 - Rob Topinka & digital rhetoric

Show notes for Episode 86⚠️🤬⚠️Contains swearing (obvs) and quite a lot of it…handled seriously and with academic rigour (🧐)⚠️🤬⚠️Welcome to episode 86 of Lexis in which we go in mob-handed with 5 (count ‘em!) interviewers and Dr Chris Montgomery, Senior Lecturer in Dialectology in the School of English at the University of Sheffield. Lisa, Jacky, Dan, Amanda and guest interviewer, Neil Hutchinson ask him about his work on dialect and how this relates to his new project on regional swearing. (We treat the subject with delicacy and restraint until about 46 minutes when it becomes something of a swearing free-for-all, in case you’re interested/want to turn it off.) We talk about:Why swearing is interesting from a dialectology point of viewHow swearing varies regionally in terms of the terms that are used and what they meanHow he is going about this research and how it came to happenDifferent methodologies and their pros and consDialect levelling and swearing: what needs to be done to measure thisAttitudes to academic research on swearing The inventiveness of swearingHow you can contribute to this researchAdvice to students about investigating swearingDr Chris Montgomery | English | The University of Sheffield Your contributions can be made here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSef-QCBddaJ9blKczAv_mrV3pWDHIKuPJHzDNHZ7U1IK0Rcdw/viewform (🔞only sorry)Guardian article: From divvy to dinlo: index of insults aims to record Britain’s diverse dialects | British identity and society | The Guardian BBC feature: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78rr219457o Independent article: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/english-swearing-sheffield-university-midlands-merseyside-b2958087.html Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/15/language-linguists-preserve-britain-swear-words-phrases-map/  and http://archive.today/2026.04.15-173308/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/15/language-linguists-preserve-britain-swear-words-phrases-map/ https://moderntoss.com/ Modern Toss explain the project here too: https://moderntoss.com/2/ https://www.urbandictionary.com/ Internet Archive version of Roger’s Profanisaurus; https://archive.org/stream/RogersProfanisaurusPreviouslyKnownAsSwearyMarysDictionaryOfFilth/Roger%27s%20Profanisaurus%20previously%20known%20as%20Sweary%20Mary%27s%20Dictionary%20of%20Filth_djvu.txt Our previous interview with Dr Emma Byrne on swearing is here: https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/K6x7JGgCR2b Our previous interview with Dr Robbie Love on changing swearing patterns in the UK is here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Kq96LDO9jpz0LrcxcBNDr?si=EZVW_Zh0QKGi45XddCdCJw Lexis is on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social ContributorsLisa Casey blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ Dan Clayton blog: EngLangBlog & Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social Jacky Glancey Raj RanaMatthew Butler Music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys 

 Show notes for Episode 85⚠️⚠️⚠️We talk about some topics and forms of language - the language of incels and the manosphere, for example - that might be considered unpleasant and upsetting for some listeners⚠️⚠️⚠️Welcome to episode 85 of Lexis in which Dan talks to Dr Rob Topinka, Reader in Digital Media and Rhetoric at Birkbeck, University of London.We talk about: Why language is important to politicsWhat rhetoric is, its characteristics and what it’s designed to doHow rhetoric works in online spacesThe kind of rhetoric used to promote extremist views onlineIncels, red pills, maxxing and NPCsWhat happened to ‘woke’ The pitfalls of ‘free speech’ and language policing Avoiding reactionary narratives and promoting progressive alternativesWhy being ‘unbiased’ is not really an optionRob’s Birkbeck page: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/our-staff/9151496/robert-topinka Rob’s ResearchGate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robert-TopinkaThe Guardian articles Rob has written: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/22/racist-meme-nigel-farage-cameos-online-far-righthttps://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2025/oct/20/boriswave-fighting-age-men-cultural-marxism-how-the-far-right-is-changing-how-we-speak https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2026/jan/31/digital-politics-the-right-internet-digital-politics-extreme-political-ideashttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2026/feb/01/digital-politics-progressives-internet-the-left-online-worldMore on NPCs: https://www.mentalfloss.com/language/slang/npc-meaning-and-history A report on Clavicular’s interview in Australia: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/clavicular-incel-60-minutes-andrew-tate-looksmaxxing-b2957021.html ‘Are You Mogging Me Right Now?’ https://bsky.app/profile/theserfstv.bsky.social/post/3mjhr6v2lek2r  Lexis is on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social ContributorsLisa Casey blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ Dan Clayton blog: EngLangBlog & Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social Jacky Glancey Raj RanaMusic: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys 

Welcome to episode 84 of Lexis in which we have both an interview and a Lang in the News segment. Amanda and Dan talk to Dr Daria Bahtina, Continuing Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at UCLA about a lot of things, including:Generational slang and online vernacularWhether any slang is ever truly ‘meaningless’The rapid pace of slang generation, diffusion and disappearance in an online worldWhat happens when slang leaves niche communities and gets picked up more widelyMoral panics around slang and online vernacularThe project work Daria does with her students and tips for A level English Language teachers and students about successful projectsGuardian articles Daria is quoted in: The Pentagon says it’s ‘lethalitymaxxing’. Why has ‘incel’ slang crossed into the mainstream? | Language | The Guardian(https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/mar/01/incel-slang-mainstream-government-media)Slang terms like ‘six-seven’ have no definition. But they’re loaded with meaning | Matthew Cantor | The Guardian(https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/30/six-seven-meaning-slang) Daria’s UCLA pages:https://linguistics.ucla.edu/person/daria-bahtina/Daria’s Languaged Life blog:https://languagedlife.ucla.edu/ The book Daria recommends: https://www.cambridge.org/highereducation/books/language-and-social-issues/5C1D0C2F61B4D0ADA69AE7024EF1E1E2#overview Our Lang in the News segment returns too! Lisa, Jacky and Dan talk about stories in the media about slang, appropriation and appreciation, discussing articles from the Mail Online, The Guardian, the Mississippi Clarion Ledger (yes, it is real) and a new paper by two of our previous guests, Christian Ilbury and Rianna Walcott. Articles: https://eu.clarionledger.com/story/news/2026/03/16/new-slang-67-what-does-lowkenuinely-mean-how-to-use-it/89180944007/ Christian Ilbury & Rianna Walcott - Gen Z Language? Y'all Mean AAVE’: The Appropriation of African American Vernacular English as ‘TikTok Language’https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/josl.70024 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/30/six-seven-meaning-slang Lexis is on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social ContributorsLisa Casey blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ Dan Clayton blog: EngLangBlog & Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social Jacky Glancey Raj RanaMatthew Butler Music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys Revealed: The slang words and phrases experts are calling to be BANISHED in 2026 - with '6,7' topping the list 

Welcome to episode 83 of Lexis, another student-led episode, which this time features Oli, an A Level student at the Dubai British School interviewing Dr Sarah Hopkyns, with some help from Dan. Sarah is a Lecturer in TESOL and International Education at the University of St Andrews, Lecturer (Teaching) in Intercultural Communication at the Institute of Education, UCL and Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.We talk about: What we mean by ‘The Gulf’ and the Gulf nationsWhat makes them interesting from a linguistic point of viewThe types of English spoken in the Gulf and whether we can talk about ‘Gulf English’The role of Arabic in the regionTranslanguaging, multilingualism and reconceptualising how we think about doing language in the worldTranslingual practice as a real world manifestation of how people use language resources to communicateAttitudes to English use and English as a threat to local language and identityYou can find Sarah’s university page here: https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/en/persons/sarah-hopkyns/ Her ResearchGate profile is here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah-Hopkyns We discuss some of the following:Nizar Habash and David Palfreyman’s ZAEBUC corpus of Arabic-English: https://aclanthology.org/2022.lrec-1.9/ ‘The Pact We Made’ by Layla AlAmmar https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-pact-we-made-layla-alammar/82be48b15ed150fc Blair Fussell’s 2011 work based on ‘Gulf English’: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231752461_The_local_flavour_of_English_in_the_Gulf Thanks to Oli and his teacher, Sumayya Kazi for making this episode happen and for all the work put into it. Lexis is on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social ContributorsLisa Casey blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ Dan Clayton blog: EngLangBlog & Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social Jacky Glancey Raj RanaMatthew Butler Music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys

Welcome to episode 82 of Lexis, in which Raj, Dan and (guest interviewer and friend of the pod) Amanda Cole talk to Dr Rianna Walcott, Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland, and Associate Director of the Black Communication and Technology (BCaT) Lab. We discuss her 2023 PhD, A Tweet at the Table - Black British Identity Expression on Social Media. We talk about:Black community, identity and self-expression on social mediaBlack TwitterSociolinguistic work on Black British English and MLELanguage online and offlineBlack feminist thought and its influences on this project and moreRianna’s current workYou can download the thesis here (and the most language-focused part is chapter 5): https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/studentTheses/a-tweet-at-the-table Rianna’s website is here and you can find some of the other papers and links mentioned: http://www.riannawalcott.com/ The Black Communication and Technology (BCaT) Lab is here: https://www.bcatlab.org/ Lexis is on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social ContributorsLisa Casey blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ Dan Clayton blog: EngLangBlog & Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social Jacky Glancey Raj RanaMatthew Butler Music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys 

Welcome to episode 81 of Lexis, a special student takeover edition which features Freya and Miles from Eltham Hill School in South London in conversation with Dr Jessica Aiston, postdoctoral research assistant in Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London (and who previously appeared on episode 50 talking about critical discourse studies). The episode is all about the language of, and around, neurodiversity, including:Why this episode exists and why Freya and Miles wanted to record itWhat we mean by ‘neurodiversity’ and other helpful definitionsThe neurodiversity paradigmTerms, labels and the history behind theseThe pros and cons of certain labelsThe importance of autistic people having agency in the terms being used Semantic reclamation and euphemism cyclesPerson-first and identity-first termsThe importance of autistic people centering themselves and being centered in linguistic researchUsing the lens of CCritical Discourse Analysis for exploring discourse around autism and neurodiversityJess’s current work on the Autism in Affinity Spaces projectJess has supplied the following references based on the topics raised in the show:Kenny, L., Hattersley, C., Molins, B., Buckley, C., Povey, C., & Pellicano, E. (2016). Which terms should be used to describe autism? Perspectives from the UK autism community. Autism, 20(4), 442-462. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361315588200 Botha, M., & Cage, E. (2022). "Autism research is in crisis": A mixed method study of researcher's constructions of autistic people and autism research. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1050897 Botha, M., Hanlon, J., & Williams, G. L. (2023). Does language matter? Identity-first versus person-first language use in autism research: A response to Vivanti. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 53, 870-878. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04858-w Cage, E., Crompton, C. J., Dantas, S., Strachan, K., Birch, R., Robinson, M., Morgan-Appel, S., MacKenzie-Nash, C., Gallagher, A., & Botha, M. (2024). What are the autism research priorities of autistic adults in Scotland? Autism, 28(9), 2179-2190. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613231222656  Botha, M., Chapman, R., Giwa Onaiwu, M., Kapp, S. K., Stannard Ashley, A., & Walker, N. (2024). The neurodiversity concept was developed collectively: An overdue correction on the origins of neurodiversity theory. Autism, 28(6), 1591-1594. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241237871  Jess’s paper on the importance of inclusive linguistics research: Aiston, J., Koteyko, N., & van Driel, M. (2025). Discourse-based approaches to autistic focussed interests: Understanding shared focus, mutual accommodation, and multimodal expression, Applied Linguistics https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaf006 The project website for Autism in Affinity Spaces can be found here: https://autisminaffinityspaces.org/ Jess on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jessica_Aiston Jess’s work on CDS featured on this episode of Lexis: https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/6XMKoRtp90b She has written two pieces for emagazine on CDS and the language of the manosphere: https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/emc-magazines/#emagazine Also featured on BBC’s Word of Mouth show with Michael Rosen: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002js96 Big thanks to Freya, Miles and their teacher El Power at Eltham Hill for instigating this episode and for all the work around it. Lexis is on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social ContributorsLisa Casey blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ Dan Clayton blog: EngLangBlog & Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social Jacky Glancey Raj RanaMatthew Butler Music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys 

Welcome to episode 80 of Lexis in which Dan and guest interviewer Ben talk to Dr Matthew Hunt, Lecturer of Sociolinguistics, University of Southampton about voice pitch, including:What it is and how we measure itWhat it ‘means’, including its ‘social meaning potential’The judgements that we make about pitch and why these matterGendered perceptions of pitchHis work on domestic violence cases and the role of pitch in perceptions of ‘victimhood’Gender and football commentariesAdvice to A Level students on exploring pitch and its role⚠️Content warning⚠️We discuss domestic violence and abuse in broad terms in part of this episode. Journal of Sociolinguistics paper on the effect of pitch variation on perceptions of domestic abuse victims: https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.12723The second paper, ‘Gender Penalty? Linguistic Discrimination and Perceptions of Female Football Commentators’ is with Gender & Language and currently in press. We will update the link once it is published. Matthew’s website: https://matthewhuntlinguistics.home.blog/ Matthew’s University of Southampton page: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/626sz2/doctor-matthew-hunt Lexis is on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social ContributorsLisa Casey blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ & Twitter: Language Debates (@LanguageDebates)Dan Clayton blog: EngLangBlog & Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social Jacky Glancey Twitter: https://twitter.com/JackyGlanceyRaj RanaMatthew Butler Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewbutlerCA Music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys

⚠️Content warning⚠️We discuss mental health, self-harm and suicide as part of this episode. Welcome to episode 79 of Lexis in which Raj & Dan talk to Dr Charlotte Entwistle, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in Psychology, University of Liverpool. We discuss:Her path from A levels to researchHow language analysis can be used in psychologyWhat language reveals about our minds and how they workThe linguistic patterns associated with different personality traitsLanguage and mental healthWhy we need to be cautious about making connections between language and personalityThe practical applications of this workThe article in The Conversation that we discuss is here: https://theconversation.com/people-with-personality-disorders-often-use-language-differently-our-research-reveals-how-271109Charlotte’s university page is here: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/people/charlotte-entwistle 

Welcome to episode 78 of Lexis in which Raj & Dan talk to John Kelly, former head of content at Dictionary.com, previous contributor to Merriam-Webster and Oxford Dictionaries, emoji lexicographer for Emojipedia, and school teacher. We discuss:How WOTY decisions were made at Dictionary.comWhether we should celebrate WOTY for getting us talking about words, or be cynical about it as a marketing exerciseWhat makes a WOTY stick aroundWhat qualities a good WOTY should haveThe sketchier WOTYs that we've seen2025’s crop of WOTY nominations - what we’ve seen so far and what might be to comeWOTY as a barometer of the times‘Fascism’ as John’s WOTY/etymology of the year and why an old word is pertinent again. John’s blog is here: https://mashedradish.com/ ‘Fascism’ is here; https://mashedradish.com/2025/11/04/fascism-etymology-of-the-year-2025/ He is also on Bluesky here: https://bsky.app/profile/mashedradish.bsky.social Some of the WOTY choices we discuss are covered in the articles and posts below: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/12/rage-bait-2025-oxford-word-internet-language-defense/685143/?gift=h5ssLVeyARshEXLqfVq5YwEAlKAoVnByCEZqdOsZdV8&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharehttps://theconversation.com/2025s-words-of-the-year-reflect-a-year-of-digital-disillusionment-270769https://time.com/7334730/word-of-the-year-2025-cambridge-collins-dictionary-oxford-merriam/ https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/learning/what-teenagers-are-saying-about-6-7-and-the-era-of-brain-rot.html https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewjxqvqzgyo https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z9xbh4j https://www.bylinesupplement.com/p/brain-rot-what-the-oxford-word-of https://www.bylinesupplement.com/p/the-words-that-define-our-enshittifed https://bsky.app/profile/hooved-mammal.bsky.social/post/3m7ntojukdc2y Lexis is on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social ContributorsLisa Casey blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ & Twitter: Language Debates (@LanguageDebates)Dan Clayton blog: EngLangBlog & Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social Jacky Glancey Twitter: https://twitter.com/JackyGlanceyRaj RanaMusic: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys 

Welcome to episode 77 of Lexis in which Raj & Dan talk to Lynne Murphy, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex about a flurry of recent news stories about children’s adoption of American vocabulary (and even accents). We discuss:What these stories are about and whether we can even tell if this 'Americanisation' is happeningThe main themes in them and their precursors in previous panics about ‘Americanisation’ The discourses within and behind these storiesWhat motivates them and how to approach them critically How British English is also making its way into American EnglishLynne is author of ‘The Prodigal Tongue: the Love–Hate Relationship between British and American English’ , and the Separated by a Common Language blog. You can also find her on Bluesky and other social media platforms under the name Lynneguist. Bluesky here: https://bsky.app/profile/lynneguist.bsky.social The stories we discuss are here:The Times and Sunday Times feature itself: http://archive.today/9UM7W ‘Trash-talking children are sounding like Americans, say teachersGarbage, candy and apartment are Americanisms that are growing more popular among younger pupils’Kristina Murkett’s op-ed for The Telegraph, ‘The Americanisation of British English reveals this dark thing about our societyMany parents are happy to allow their children consume videos made by companies that have no obligation to care for them’http://archive.today/cZ4kF The Telegraph article links to this absolute stinker of a piece by Simon Heffer from 2024 too, ‘Americanisms are poisoning our language’https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/americanism-english-language-simon-heffer/   A more sensible take from Charlotte Crips in The Independent, ‘Mom, can we take the elevator?’ Why I’m fine with my daughter speaking Americanese’https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/americanism-english-children-b2857680.html But some quite mixed responses to that piece from their readers: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/americanisms-english-language-british-b2859043.html We mention Ben Yagoda’s book, Gobsmacked https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/gobsmacked-the-british-invasion-of-american-english-ben-yagoda/7669284?ean=9780691262291&next=t  and the Guardian featured an extract from it here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/26/other-british-invasion-how-uk-language-conquered-the-us A new one (possibly the worst of the lot) was published in The Spectator between recording the episode and publishing it. You can read the archived version here: https://archive.ph/2025.11.24-063603/https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-to-save-the-kings-english/ And we’ve been here before, obviously…Matthew Engel: ‘Say no to the get-go! Americanisms swamping English, so wake up and smell the coffee’ (here, along with some teacher resources and student responses that Jacky and I put together years ago and the actual article: https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-ALEVEL-ENG-HUB-SPR19-PAPER2-BOOKLET.PDF ) Mark Liberman’s response to Engel on Language Log in 2011: https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3290 Lexis is on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social ContributorsLisa Casey blog: https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/ & Twitter: Language Debates (@LanguageDebates)Dan Clayton blog: EngLangBlog & Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social Jacky Glancey Twitter: https://twitter.com/JackyGlanceyRaj RanaMatthew Butler Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewbutlerCA Music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys