Words and Actions

Let's tuck into the language of food! We discuss advertisements for plant-based food and for meat and dairy, look at cookbooks with our interview guests, and find out how different descriptions of one and the same dish can make it cost more than twice as much in one place than another. Along the way, five people tell us about their work on everything from multilingualism in Korean coffeehouses to...

OMG!! A new Words & Actions episode has landed and we couldn't be more excited! In this start to a six-part series, "The language of…", we look at the language of emotion: in the workplace, in advertising and in online selling. There is a fair bit of swearing, our interview guest tells us about emotional labour, and in the end, your hosts get hit in the feels about a charity ad. Join us for a roll...

How do you talk money without losing trust—or your audience? From quarterly earnings calls to investor pitches, the world of financial communication is a tightrope walk of clarity, persuasion, and credibility. What makes numbers sound good? When does transparent/positive become too transparent/positive? And why does jargon sometimes feel like the best financial armour? Tune in for a lively dive in...

Wait a minute. Why does 'corporate consultant' sound more prestigious than 'business consultant'? Or does it? Do they mean the same thing? How does organizational communication differ from corporate or business communication? And what topics, genres and text types should textbooks on communication in these settings tackle when the genres themselves are blended? Welcome to the challenges of three a...

Raves, poker nights and Marvel movies – no costs or effort were spared in this final episode on CSR to raise awareness about one of the most pervasive manifestations of discrimination: accentism. In the presence of experts, we uncover what is hidden beneath the surface, and just when we thought we would never judge someone based on the sound waves they produce, we dare(d) ourselves and you to eat...

ChatGPT & company are here to stay. And so are linguists. Find out why in our exploration of the capabilities and shortcomings of generative AI and how it will affect the competences of lecturers, students and practitioners in business communication and beyond. Via tricks and tips on how to integrate these powerful text production tools in and outside the classroom, W&A once again underscores...

Prepare to meet some ignorant pigs and silly cows in our second episode on CSR... Together with an expert in ecolinguistics, we will explore the discursive construction of our ideology-laden relationship to nature (and animals in particular!) via the analysis of presuppositions and metaphors, going from tepid COP27 implementation plans on global heating to Chinese self-serving CSR reporting. It wi...

All good things come in threes. Or more. Add a Chief Sustainability Officer, a body positive Barbie doll,  a purple inclusive M&M and an actual expert in applied ethics and you get a lively discussion on true colours, washings and genuine CSR efforts in the first episode of our new mini-series (it comes in threes) on corporate social responsibility. Have a listen and find out more, including how e...

Are you one of those people who is always tricked into doing or buying things you don't want? Do you want to find out how they do it or how to do it yourself? You're in luck! If you listen to this episode, you will find out all about it! You will even get free access to all the other W&A episodes on language in business, politics and beyond and you'll discover that your current annoyance and reluc...

Your identity is a right old mess. As is ours, mind you… and don't get us started on Marcus Rashford! In this episode we delve into the different layers and facets of identity construction in digital space. Via small stories, solo selfies and networked narratives, we offer ways to inspect different senses of selves as they are created in online environments. The journey will take us past talking d...

Yesterday's sci-fi has become today's reality. Join us as we venture our way into the ever-growing domain of Language Technology in which we discover and discuss current and future developments in speech recognition, automated literary translation, opinion mining and open domain chatbot applications. Not only do we find ourselves having cheeky chats with clever cars and critical conversations with...

We eavesdrop on police interrogations, wire-tapping and immigration interviews, and sneak on a Keolis bus (on board entertainment: The Interpreter) to explore the complex processes of translation and interpreting in high stakes contexts. Joining us are a forensic linguist, an expert in asylum seeking procedures and a researcher on multimodal translation, who illustrate the pervasive impact of tran...

"I'm not hungry. One egg is an oeuf". Is the author funny? Debatable. Is the author multilingual? Ça dépend. In this multi-voiced episode on multilingualism we tackle different interrelated aspects ranging from translanguaging over accommodation to effectiveness and proficiency and we cast more light on multilingual settings and the role of BELF in them. In the process, we make Bernard eat humble...

For more info and a transcript please head over to www.wordsandactions.blog . In the introduction to this episode on negotiations, we mention the haggling scene in the Monty Python film Life of Brian (1979). Treat yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=-2iZjxSGca8 On a more serious note, we mention this academic definition of negotiations:  Roloff, M.E., & Jordan, J.M. (1992). Achieving negoti...

Are you suffering from zoom fatigue, meeting migraines or the occasional shark bite? Have a listen to our next episode and find out more about office diary sweet spots, biochronology, meeting categorizations and how to deal with sharks in conflict resolution. As always, we bring in the expert advice of an academic and we'll discuss the added value of the Quaker peace testimony with a workplace med...

In this episode we talk about creativity in language and visual communication. We published many of the images and logos we mention on our website, http://wordsactions.blog . Here you can find the full transcript, too.  In the first part of the episode, Erika mentions the following study on how colour influences investment decisions:  Chan, C. R., & Park, H. D. (2015). How images and color in busi...

Yes, we are glad to see the back of 2020. But so much happened over those 12 months that we think it warrants a special New Year's episode. We invited four guests to come with us on a tour of the year, from Brexit Day to university strikes, Black Lives Matter and the US elections. Oh, and we also mention that pandemic that just went and upended everyone's lives. Please visit our blog, www.wordsand...

In the second part of our mini-series on the language of entrepreneurship, we enter the dragon's den, meet an angel and look for gold among the crowds. Episode 15 is all about business pitches and how (not) to use language to find investors. We talk to an expert about how to pitch across cultures, get helpful advice from a venture capitalist and analyse a crowdfunding video. For further details an...

From Steve Jobs strutting the stage at Apple to that hairdresser with the quirky name on your local high street: in this episode, we start a new mini-series on the language of entrepreneurship. We look at intrapreneurs, social entrepreneurs and mumpreneurs, talk to an entrepreneur with a background in linguistics and analyse how language is used in a business plan. Whether you're thinking of start...

In this first episode of the new series we talk about change management and the role of language in successfully bringing this change about.    In the introduction, we underscore the importance of language in terms of its potential to construct and mold reality (which was also addressed in episodes 1 and 2 of season 1), especially during sensemaking processes of a reality that does not exist yet....

As always, you can find our longer notes on our blog: wordsandactions.blog. In this episode, we discuss job interviews. In the introduction, Bernard mentions the finding that employers give lower ratings to candidates who interview on video. This is reported in  Blacksmith, N., Willford, J. C., & Behrend, T. S. (2016). Technology in the employment interview: A meta-analysis and future research age...

This episode of Words and Actions starts with Veronika mentioning that the chief adviser to the UK government, Dominic Cummings, used his blog to ask "weirdos and misfits with odd skills" and "true wild cards" to apply for a position as his personal assistant. We also made the point that how much time recruiters spend on filtering CVs is a matter of seconds. These two studies provide evidence for...

At the beginning of this part of a miniseries on finding a job, Erika sets the scene by referring to a very recent study on the specific challenges faced by people who start their careers in times of crisis:   Arellano-Bover, J. (2020). The effect of labor market conditions at entry on workers' long-term skills. IZA Discussion Paper No. 13129. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract= 3573299...

  Episode 9 is a co-production by the Words & Actions and en clair podcasts, sponsored by the Aston Institute of Forensic Linguistics. For further info, references and a full transcript please visit our blog https://wordsandactions.blog . The way we decided to work together is by having the usual parts of a W&A episode ‒ introduction, interview and analysis ‒ bracketed by the en clair host, Claire...

In the first part of the episode, we start by talking about the gendered connotations of leadership and Erika mentions the results she got when searching for images of a "boss". We also mention the advertising campaign that pen maker BIC (see also episode 5 on customers talking back) ran for International Women's Day 2015 and for whose sexism they later had to apologise. Listeners can find the ima...