wordwatching

At the crossroads of language and culture

Dedicated to the study of language variation and change in American English, with special regard to the West, pop lyrics, and social media.

a brand-new year!

January 01, 2016 by Lamont Antieau in music video essay

To commemorate the new year, I present a series of music videos featuring songs from the Billboard year-end Top 10 charts (1951-2015) that include the phrase "brand-new."

Not your father's drinking song

December 31, 2015 by Lamont Antieau in corpus analysis, lyric analysis

An analysis of variation and change in terms used for alcoholic beverages in American popular music (1951-2014).

I'll follow the sun

December 28, 2015 by Lamont Antieau in music video essay

A selection of songs from the Billboard year-end Top Ten charts (1951-2014) in praise of the sun, one per decade in chronological order

Pop songs that refer to winter, just in time for the solstice

December 22, 2015 by Lamont Antieau in music video essay

A series of videos featuring popular American songs (1951-2014) that refer to Old Man Winter, to celebrate the solstice

Revisiting the age-old question (this time, in the Middle Rockies): Soda or pop? →

December 21, 2015 by Lamont Antieau in dialectology, corpus analysis

In this post, I look at variation in the use of generic terms for soft drinks in the Linguistic Atlas of the Middle Rockies.

"i got me a twitter dog": Personal datives in tweets (2013)

December 21, 2015 by Lamont Antieau in corpus analysis

Personal datives, as in "I got me a new raincoat," as they were used in tweets in 2013.

"I got me a fiddle": Personal datives in pop music (1951-2014)

December 18, 2015 by Lamont Antieau in corpus analysis, music video essay

In this post, I look at personal datives in American popular music (1951-2014) and provide videos of several songs that feature personal datives.

Personal datives in the Middle Rockies

December 16, 2015 by Lamont Antieau in dialectology, corpus analysis

In this post, I examine the use of personal datives, as in "I got me a new girlfriend," in the Linguistic Atlas of the Middle Rockies.

The rise (and fall?) of "y'all" in pop music (1951-2014)

December 08, 2015 by Lamont Antieau in music video essay, corpus analysis

Here, I examine the use of y'all in American popular music (1951-2014).

Broaching the subject of war in American pop music (1951-2014)

December 07, 2015 by Lamont Antieau in music video essay, corpus analysis

The post looks at how the subject of war has been addressed in American popular music (1951-2014)

a-prefixing in pop music (1951-2014)

December 04, 2015 by Lamont Antieau in corpus analysis, music video essay

An analysis of a-prefixing (e.g. in a-laughing and a-singing) as it occurs in American pop music (1951-2014), with accompanying videos featuring songs in which it is used

a-prefixing in the Rockies

December 03, 2015 by Lamont Antieau

In this post, I examine a-prefixing (as illustrated by such terms as a-coming and a-going) as it occurs in the Linguistic Atlas of the Middle Rockies.