Yes, it’s a couple of days late for Batman Day — but that’s OK.

I was astonished to learn that there are not just one but two episodes of School of Batman in which linguistics plays a major role.

First we have The Case of the Mysterious Message, in which Lauren Gawne explains what evidentiality is and why it’s important. (You could get the official definition of evidentiality here, but the moment you see the phrase “epistemic modality” you will probably want to listen to Gawne instead.) Is Alfred actually dead? Batman will need to understand evidentiality…

Then we have Bruce’s Language Jailbreak, in which Hannah Gibson explains what linguistics is and how Batman can use it to help decipher the language of his cellmate in order to escape from prison.

Don’t expect a whole lot about Batman.

Categories: Linguistics