Word: Shadow pronouns and 'Sweet as'
Word is the name of our new feature on Mondays - exploring everything about the written and spoken word, especially in New Zealand English. We find out how the language is evolving, how it's changing and what new things we are saying. Are kids always the first to adopt new words and phrases into their lexicons and why are the rest of us so keen to resist new ideas? Tonight - some of the things we say we don't even realise we're saying - with linguistics lecturer Dr Andreea Calude from Waikato University. What's a shadow pronoun and how has the term 'Sweet As' changed since it first arrived in the national lexicon. Andreea is working on a book about making English grammar cool called Mysteries of English Grammar - by Rutledge. It'll be out later this year. She contributes to a regular language column published by Stuff.
Dr Andreea Calude Photo: Waikato University
