Journal Entry 3- Lingthusiasm Podcast–Love and Fury at the Linguistics of Emotions

                                                                     Fig. 1. Still from Lingthusiasm.              
     Lingthusiasm is a podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics and is hosted by Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch.  According to Lingthusiasm, “Emotions are a universal part of the human experience, but the specific ways we express them are mediated through language.” 

   

 

 

Gawne and McCulloch then share how different languages express emotions, although the expression of love is the most interesting. Some languages like in Spanish or Greek, have particular words to describe a particular type of love such as familial, platonic, romantic love, or a love of things (like ice cream). However this isn’t seen in English as love is just love, which creates some problems. Additional words must then be added to the English word “love” to classify it.
   

 

 

n contrast, in Spanish, it distinguishes between the less intense type of love in the word “querer” and the stronger type of love in “amar”.

 

 

nother topic Gawne and McCulloch tackle in this particular episode deals with how emotions impact our language especially in the case of how the tone in which we speak not only changes our message but how others react to our words. For example, Gawne and McCulloch practiced saying the same phrase, but smiled in one instance versus the other. The smile was easily heard in someone’s voice and the message was better received.
       

  

imilarly, when the message was said angrily, people tended to not even hear the message and only reflected on the tone of anger directed towards them. This effectively shut down their listening process and instead activated their emotions.
     

   

 

   found Lingthusiasm to be a fun, delightful, and very informative podcast whose hosts both have a great enthusiasm for the topics they handle. I also enjoy how they provide a transcript to each of their podcasts to ensure everyone receives their message correctly.

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Works Cited:

Gawne, Lauren and Gretchen McCulloh, hosts. “Love and Fury at the Linguistics of Emotions” Lingthusiasm,  Dec. 2022, https://lingthusiasm.com/post/703740969788522496/episode-75-love-and-fury-at-the-linguistics-of. Accessed 19 Sept. 2023.

Geleynse, Joyce. “alphabet-6916985_1280.” Pixabay, 22 Jan. 2022. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/alphabet-letters-decorated-letters-6916985/. Accessed 5 Sept. 2023.

Hulsov, Alexey. “a-heart-2004021_1280.” Pixabay, 23 Jan. 2017. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/a-heart-red-comet-design-2004021/. Accessed 19 Sept. 2023.