If spoken language is the essence of conversation, linguist Julie Sedivy reveals how we grapple with it to make sense of the world, each other and ourselves.
From babies to chatbots, Julie unspools its singular importance by explaining language sounds that bond us, meanings that push us apart, and filler words and the unsaid ambiguities that we regularly navigate in between to chart feeling and thought.
We draw on a lifetime of learning and her latest book, Linguaphile: A Life of Language Love (2024).
Julie Sedivy is professor of Linguistics at the University of Calgary.
Julie recommends…Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal. ‘I re-read it about once a year, and I take it as a manual for how to keep one’s mind and selfhood alive in the face of dehumanizing circumstances.’
Work mentioned:The Power of the Powerless by Václav Havel.
