Conlangery #94: Face and Politeness

Conlangery #94: Face and Politeness

Published: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 04:00:02 +0000 \

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Transcript

utterance-id1 <unk> <unk> <unk> [noise] [noise] will come to con learning <unk> language is the people who create gordon really with me now the roadways is william man that's hello and uh over in maine we have like one team hello how are you guys done and i haven't been talking for fifteen minutes already <unk> weather <unk> <unk> like low seventies [noise] comfortable i haven't been very nice you know what you're doing good mhm all right well uh there's not much uh we can really start out with too much uh we uh already we're talking about all sorts of uh uh nasty radiation stuff before the show i might pick some some in the <unk> ah short it already lick radiation that anyway so we're going to talk about face and politeness now we've touched on the subject of politeness a little bit before way back in <unk> nine we did formality in registered which sort of inner sex with politeness systems and how do you address different people and such but um this is a little bit more of a uh syria oriented not so much linguistics syria is social and pragmatic scary yeah so um well you mean you have a whole bunch of notes on this and i think we can sort of go through all these different sort of definitions and stuff if we if we just sort of get started on it so sure so back in the eighties um brown and loving and i don't know their first name offhand um developed a politeness theory that really focus is on the concept of state um and they used the word faced indicate someone's personal integrity and so on and so what is actually pretty widely spread in human language and not just um something from east asia and in the really simple view you have positive face which is pretty simply the wants to be like twenty people or respected by people mhm and so the phrase positive politeness refers to things we do to help others save positive <unk> uh and then we get to the negative ones and the terminology is a little confusing unless you've been exposed to philosophy before but negative face is the wants to maintain personal territory and freedom from position so negative space is what's um challenged when someone asks you to help them [laughter] and so and this is really confusing negative politeness is not in politeness negative politeness is strategy is used to just try and strategy's we used to help others avoid a threat to their negative things huh so instead of simply out and out asking people to do things we hedge it and do all sorts of things to make it easy for them to get out at least theoretically mm mhm um and certain kinds of speech um are inherently face threatening uh request complements invitations all sorts of obviously things like insult are but that's pretty obvious talked too much about that day mhm and that's the basic framework of the theory we are going to be talking about today you don't need to you know if you're inventing <unk> you don't need to sit down and do a <unk> negative things <unk> you don't need to do that but i find it useful wages organize your thoughts or whatever you want to do and you're coming to do this and certainly as in any linguistics theory um not everyone thinks there's theory is very good they're based languages included things like <unk> and <unk> which is a variety of mine so i think we can for sure that they're not simply european languages mhm they do all of these things [noise] um [noise] but <unk> it's a useful tool yeah so basically you have the sort of to opposing forces and are not i think the positive and negative was sort of a way of them saying that these are two things that are opposing each other in a way yeah right right i mean it's a standard sort of philosophical terminology to use but at the uh first bless especially the way that we use the word negative to describe someone met um port attitude [noise] um you can <unk> confusion yeah but you know the idea of you want people to like you but you also want to maintain personal space right now so <unk> their missile climbing um we're a towel on ah what was the other one so too so too um do these strategies a mean level the positive or negative things vary greatly <unk> during the pretty much like english she might say you know oh would you ask me now but if you said that in spanish or another language for no word for word but it's still have that see saving feature no probably not there are different i mean what we're talking about here an example you gave is sort of an indirect um strategy mhm and there are lots of different ways to do that not just english english is technique which is to ask questions [noise] um that we don't actually want the answers to the <unk> we ask questions when we can commands in english to be play by the way these lose researchers are ah <unk> brown and stephen <unk> okay and there are there are other ways to do that to be indirect yeah like in um <unk> one way to be polite is she [noise] do some complicated thing where you make something a cognitive and then <unk> transit divided again and that sort of ads uh there's a distance in direction to what you're saying [noise] [noise] so there are different <unk> lots of different ways to do this um we're just gonna be talking about i mean when i'm using a lot of english examples 'cause it's easier to find um but there are different ways you can take it right when we talk about taking an indirect strategy there's lots and lots of ways to do that okay besides just asking questions alright let's talk a little bit about [noise] there are a lot of different aspects that are um are considered face threatening yeah and depending on whether it's positive or negative also and uh we have the <unk> the article on this is very good by the way it has a very good summary of the whole thing and uh you can look at things there but a couple of things that may be surprising is like a <unk> a compliment can be a um a threat at the listeners negative face yeah which is seems a little odd to think up but you can think of like your negative faces your desire to be independent of the people it's also your the part of of you that doesn't want to care what other people think [noise] and there's the issues that certain kinds of expressions <unk> might be culturally inappropriate right being complimented in some cultures you may need to back out of that pretty quickly whereas in other cultures it might be more tolerated so there's cultural issues as well right um so i mean you have to consider that as well well there are a lot of cultures where a compliment <unk> <unk> where you're supposed to try to bake off a cop and like <unk> so even even our in our own culture and there's some kinds of compliments that can be considered like offensive but that's a little bit more that's something we should get more into when we get into like um uh some some gracie allen principals applying to this and such sure [noise] [noise] so it seems just a quick run down of various kinds of things that might threaten peoples face so various kinds of threats to positive face our expressing disapproval disappointments complaints um obviously making fun of someone right isn't that what disapproval isn't it to negative face no that's uh <unk> <unk> when positive face it the desire to be like to have a good <unk> that's really what i'm saying so uh <unk> <unk> yeah <unk> okay simple disagreements um really inappropriate we strong emotions um inappropriate topics um non cooperation that sort of stuff mhm uh other threats are for a negative face our orders and demand threats promises candy 'cause they might um impose um reciprocal requirements um that sort of stuff and remember that difference you've got the speaker and you've got the here and you have both of them having to deal with face so if i'm offering an apology that threatening my negative fake uh by make nothing something for me that's also a threat of negative phase especially in cultures where that could pose it reciprocal expectation right so i was thinking about both both people in the conversation have <unk> central threats to above positive and negative face when these sorts of <unk> uh conversations are happy that's actually um you sort of lost over it but a good point is you know what obligations do you <unk> do you end up having from accepting something or so you know or uh in a culture that has uh uh a strong gift economy accepting a gift might be a lot more face threatening than accepting a gift in our culture so you ah have to think about very a lot of very different sort of cultural things when you're when you're working with the sort of thing <unk> yeah i mean <unk> yeah this is the strongly calm really topic the more you started digging into mhm mhm um all right do you want to just talk about a few of the basics the for basically the strategy so we really haven't gone to that yeah we can we can talk about that um so the first one which is funny that it's called the politeness strategy because it typically the least plate is called the bald on record that means you just say what's going on and the two main circumstances where you could do this are when the face threat is still mild it hardly matters or when the uh urgency of the situation demand that you not going through the effort to be like right things like things like watch out [noise] um probably doesn't need to be touched and break collect language most of the time if there's a fire and you need to evacuate nobody's stands on ceremony [laughter] right exactly [laughter] exactly you just you you can give direct orders to the king yeah if there's a fire so yes [laughter] move your but the way yeah or when it's something like very very mild right asking someone to pass you insulted dinner may not require very much in the way politeness dances 'cause that is yeah that's just something you expect to happen to dinner and most circumstances right <unk> i mean i do remember one thing that it's always interesting is the story about the guy who the american who was in china who's studying chinese and the local kids called him she <unk> mr thank you mhm 'cause he was saying thank you for all sorts of stuff which is <unk> an american english but the chinese were like well that's just basic courtesy why on earth are you thinking someone for that right right so uh that that's that's something that comes up that's something that came up and are very old episode but yeah it's <unk> sort of different cultures will have different views on what these things are there are there are a few things that are probably universal right my guess is that people who are in a foreign country learning a foreign language or probably over polite for fear of doing something stupid or their talk that way because dollars to make them or they're still <unk> right right and people do expect sometimes different things for foreigners than from locals yeah yeah i think with a certain amount of goodwill devoid was problems but yeah i think learners might overdo it well i mean there's there's sort of an aphorism of non native speakers should avoid using swear words we were just because it's very complicated when you get to say those things yeah all right so that's the ball on record it's usually for things that are trivial or more entertaining very urgent yes so positive play and this is where we said you know help people will say positive face and their various ways you can do that you can claim that some sort of solidarity between the speaker into listener mhm that they're cooperate or is that they have some sort of common ground um or you can do something to uh fulfill desire that the person you're posing on <unk> right you know this is when you compliment someone than as to borrow some sugar [laughter] yes sort of make make the uh the the ah listen or feel good about themselves right right or um uh one in here the twisted here is include both speaker and listener yep in the activity so um let's you know let's go to the movies or let's let's uh get this cleaned up that's sort of thing sort of sure if you if boats are included the net lessens the the threat yeah um [noise] for you can express interest neutral you might exaggerate thing you know what an amazing how do you have that sort of stuff mhm uh one is dangerous strategy is to use in group language um this can blow up in your face at least an english because i always know when a telemarketer is on the phone because they call me bill [laughter] right they're trying to use ah hey we're just mates kind of language when i don't ever answer to that name yeah this this this can be really awkward and i think in england phone culture this is very very sort of <unk> this sometimes people end up getting a little bit too friendly i <unk> i've i've remembered working in jobs where you had to wear nay tag and people would call me if my the first my first name because it was on the main pack and it's like that you don't know me like right [laughter] no me <unk> just are reading my name [laughter] it it it so that's a little bit of a pragmatic thing sometimes like these things are politeness strategies that are meant to reduce face threats but in a way sometimes if you do them in an inappropriate circumstance or wind or like overdo them they can't actually uh make more of a taste for it i think i i think not necessarily more but yeah i can go wrong <unk> if you're overuse we're used to strongest strategy it might not be effective because first of all right people will be like why the hell you're talking to be this way [laughter] you might you might be exaggerating the actual face threat involved um by using an overall strategy mhm um and that can go ride a ride to just sort of you know make people uncomfortable rather than doing anything useful but um there's there's a few more of these things you can you can promised somebody something uh which is it's it's it's very much a social thing less than a language thing where yeah you you offered to do something in exchange for something um or um you can try to minimize disagreements right and uh or you can make a joke which is interesting that's another one that could backfire on ya yeah yeah that [laughter] i uh remember um asking uh coworkers wife um she's chinese and we're talking about funny things i said i always enjoyed when i asked a teacher a question um and i got that inhale through the teeth [noise] um and her said oh yes chinese don't like to say no [laughter] yeah right [laughter] that that inhale through the teeth is like oh [laughter] have to spend some time to avoid disagreeing with you overtly and they're thinking of things to say but yeah uh-huh so yeah a buddy disagreement or you know edging things a little bit quite a way to do that [noise] all right um so let's talk a little bit about the the i guess the next one is in the negative politeness strategies this was to uh to <unk> to lessen the impact on someone's negative <unk> yet the m uh there you're sort of weight native face is want to maintain personal territory freedom yep and we already talked about being indirect with some yeah yeah that's uh uh the uh fairly common thing is is in english we we address a command or <unk> uh more indirect question right what's funny about that in english is we've gotten so accustomed to giving orders with question that we can say truly appalling <unk> things that are phrases question right well you put that more <unk> more on <unk> uh why won't you shut up you know that sort of stuff um pretty funny well that's that's probably just sort of a historical ah yeah <unk> the thing becomes so routine but the way you make request that people just ask questions that even impolite ones um get pushed into that for um <unk> if i'm remembering <unk> i think it's hindi um where their way of being indirect is to use <unk> so you don't ask people to do things you asked for them to call to be done mhm [noise] um or you can be extra polite by using a double cause they sort of implies do you have an army servants running around yeah sure i can call um so we're usually because english as the convenient example using questions as ways to be indirect but there are lots of ways to be indirect um called the names are one um options as well um you can uh use funny and things like passive where no one is responsible at all [noise] [laughter] yeah you you know see i'm trying to think of a good example where you want to say that something is done right you know gentleman wear ties [laughter] well that's not a passive but that is a a uh that's that that's just generally sort of an indirect mess thing yeah <unk> <unk> um you can minimize the imposition so you know if you if you are saying um who we compete example is like if it's not too much out of your way just a couple of blocks that sort of thing is you know it sort of sort of suggest that it's not really a big favor that you're right right minimize the threat [noise] um one of my favorites is to be pessimistic yes you know you're not available tonight right right right give them you're you're giving them away out by suggesting that they're not available to do the speech threatening thing you're about to request to them but which is money because they're a positive politeness strategy is to be optimistic about something right and then a native is to be pessimistic about something so you can go either way in different situations oh i think also the negative one is um letting them how do you got chopped or con outline <unk> by agreeing with you or balancing the playing field but we're like oh you're probably really busy so i you you wouldn't be able to do this well ju <unk> pan of not have to be the one who brings up with their busy you've already and jump on that little bit of my way out right and hopefully you won't be accused of being passive aggressive [laughter] [noise] um at one one thing is too again being doing that than the negative politeness was uh apologize for asking them <unk> or something uh i think another one is it sort of within both sort of apologizing in being pessimistic kids um sort of like uh excuse me or or you know um [noise] is it what it bother you if i asked a question things like that right right mhm um and another one is <unk> go ahead oh no no in in chinese food you can you can start a request with my son which means like literally like bother or annoyance okay sort of as a way of saying like it is it is it too much trouble for you to yeah yeah um when talking about things that are going on and that's just not necessarily making demands a request you can use impersonal constructions like things just happened you could say it broke rather than you broke it mhm um you know so many ways to make indirect <unk> i'm in third one <unk> that happens a lot at least for english speakers where um i <unk> <unk> you you actually brought up like gentleman wear ties this sort of uh phrasing it as a general thing of politeness in order to get someone to do something you know it's like to an extent it's another one of those things they end up uh sometimes ends up being deliberately over done such that you say it in such a way that it offends people or [noise] <unk> right i mean we've not brought up the ghost of grace yet who talks about implicate you are right and their rules about how we say things you know be <unk> relevant be appropriate [laughter] don't say more than is necessary and yes being excessively plight in the wrong circumstance is going to come off as hostility or possibly passive aggressive constantly but um certainly can be misinterpreted um or if you're doing it on purpose you could be interpreted perfectly directly i guess mhm [noise] but yeah it's always possible that overdoing it is going to cause problems around and [noise] you can use these planning to strategies to communicate additional message right if you switch immediately from one politeness register or strategy to another one <unk> conversation you might be telling somebody something that right like um you know could be ah even telling them that you're distancing yourself from them right right um so yeah um <unk> again another way to do was negative <unk> it's just too state outright than you are incurring a debt like making middle class mhm yeah but also but also if someone doing something on their own [noise] that is threatening their negative face you could also you know <unk> as well right and i think one we've been what we've been talking about a little but <unk> is the last politeness strategy here which is off record indirect which is like that you know gentleman wear ties or sort of making a statement ah one example is it's getting cold in here which and sit in a certain <unk> in the with the sort of implicit goal of getting someone to do something about it <unk> yes i need more people to help me move [laughter] but you don't need you just say that without asking anyone directly right yeah i'm saying when you have to <unk> awesome by herself screen when you can have you know some helpful and come home and helped me around three p._m. [laughter] well [laughter] now do you say something like you know are you cold and you're like you know it's just me or is it cold here does that kind of been offered offered indirect request because obviously you know you're requesting that they um they turn their the heater on or something yeah and it's kind of pessimistic too in the sense that you're giving people in out by suggesting it might only be you mhm yeah yeah we done with the strategy yeah i think i think we're done with the actual strategies so there are various other things that play into this one is just social intimacy people you see every day friends um and even family members for whom you have a high degree of respect and are expected to play suit can tolerate less high levels of lighten the strategy mhm um the other thing is the dominant situation are you talking to your boss or you're talking to friends so in that situation um what a boss is allowed to get away with in terms of especially negative things it's quite different from what an employee um or a friend is and this is a little bit um uh most of the social and them seeing the dominance how much they count for things does sort of depends on culture we've talked about before with uh polite uh unfamiliar personal pronouns that some cultures considered the parents dominant over the children and their dominance of the children is more important than the familiar <unk> and other cultures like our own don't consider it that <unk> that important right right um and right you get weird different kinds of business cultures where some make a move to be more intimate which aren't necessarily so yeah it can get pretty complicated um once you add the extra elements mhm and we talked about more of that in sort of registered that long long ago episode mhm [noise] um what else i've talked a little bit about grace and the greatest in conversational <unk> which we don't need to go into now but you know one of the things is be relevant and communicate the right amount of information you can say things that look like face preserving behavior but it might be very aggressive things like well bless her heart sounds flight but might not be depending on the circumstances yeah and we could do a a um uh so grace came up with sort of a series of sort of some of the early work a pragmatic yes and what we're talking about with rice is uh uh a couple of different rules william was talking about the maximum of quantity say exactly as much as you need to say uh the maximum quantity rather and then maximum of relation which is uh say stuff that's relevant to conversation right when the point of the maximum is not like that were following rules i mean we normally follow these using conversation by not following these rules we communicate in additional message which grace called click it sure right for example if somebody asks you know my boss for a job or for about me and my boss says that i'm always on time mhm [noise] that may not be [laughter] um the ah reference i want yeah and we could do it also right it breaking the maximum of quality it saying something that um is true but is not entirely relevant didn't hardly sufficient to the task of getting a job recommendation yeah [noise] and we could spend a whole episode on right right but the the whole idea was uh just to distill it down is assuming that everyone is being co-operative that is everyone's being truthful and trying to help each other [laughter] conversation yeah we follow these rules and if we up here not to be following these rules then it's some sort of hit message <unk> uh which is what we how we get conversational pictures but anyway that's something for another <unk> cash out yet to crisis maxims just so people know like the basic for rules but there are um there are some fairly but they're it's it's fairly um obvious what <unk> when when you're violating the maxims or when you're uh actually um doing some sort of hit and miss insurance thing right and i only bring it up because [noise] flooding to maxims and causing it <unk> it can also play interesting ways with them various of these strategies now an interesting thing here is like if you are using like not necessarily your colleagues but different cultures and a fictional setting mhm in a great sort of way to cause some like you know hillary ensues situations or some some odd misunderstandings is having cultures that choose different uh pay statements strategies now is it is not is it just would require so um and then also like for example in some cultures commenting on someone weight is considered impolite or taboo agriculture is is fine that's another that's another sort of thing that's another yeah that's another positive face threat yes if you if you're you're you're <unk> if you mentioned someone well in our culture if you mentioned someone gaining weight it's a positive face threat right but in some other cultures it wouldn't be in some other cultures that would be complementary <unk> um yeah talking about anyone's personal qualities <unk> regardless of what they are um it's some sort of face throat or another yeah is potentially a drunk fixture um one thing that we haven't talked about at all and which in my understanding of the state of the art politeness theory and its various you know the work but it's followed on his and commented on an argument and so and so far is how did the audience fit into things right you can have these these face threats going on between two people talking but how does the person or people around them interact with this as well you might need to move to yet another strategy or treat your strategies depending on who's around mhm that's true and it's it's sort of part of it is like the audience might be offended on the listeners be half right sort of thing right or they might be implicated in the face threat if they're related to one or the other ripple or closely aligned with them in some way right um ah one thing that sort of comes up is um uh something that has sort of recently bubbled up is like in our own culture is uh for a long time it has been sort of customers it you know in any situation whatsoever it's perfectly appropriate to complement a woman on her appearance but more recently with with different feminist movements more and more people are sort of offended by that and it's often like audience being offended on the listeners behalf sometimes it's it's listener directly offended but right or if you pick the wrong strategy for someone who deserved it better when you know that yeah there's many possibilities yeah um for the audience not in the conversation to still um be implicated somehow right i'm in uh the hulk lightness system they stress right um [noise] and i'm really bring it up without offering any solutions <unk> i don't know how deeply that's been thought about mm that's that's an interesting thought yeah um [noise] and that's what we have other things to talk about i want to have one last warning poor people especially those who are coming up with lightened systems for fiction don't over read or over reach right um some politeness formulas quote unquote are simply routine right one critique of their theory is that it sees nearly all interactions is potentially face threatening in some way that's probably excessive anyone who's [noise] anyone who's read the doing books knows all about the <unk> and sometimes you wonder how they can get anything done in a day because they're constantly squeezing every last drop meaning an implication and some sort of vast cosmic importance to every single words head <unk> right it's exhausting um and i blame the people who write about the <unk> sometimes knows had very complicated obscure blame the system or whatever you know the <unk> are in your science fiction universe [noise] and so there's there's sort of something that would be said for um oh i see a lot of in in sort of science fiction and fantasy um a lot of situations where people don't sort of take into account like the the the uh the effect of giving giving the poorer pass or something like that and thinking making very sort of minor politeness things into a huge deal because this this particular culture if you do this thing a certain way it's it's a serious offense but usually that's not what happens in inner comb real situation yeah it's usually some sort of negotiation because people are aware of the fact that cultures differ and [noise] that these other people might not see things really that that ah that same way i know that we upon mentally long mouth language also body language who down this like <unk> <unk> <unk> <unk> culture i think you off or something to him not just one you see both both hands and you were to just like talk something someone that might be <unk> <unk> [laughter] <unk> right i think in some cultures he's lost his job soldier your feet or your shoes or something to people you know like when you're sitting down so that people are writing about <unk> writing stories to go to these tom cultures there are lots of based on not non non verbal <unk> great um you know interaction between panthers or con cultures or at least a stern talking to buy your dancing master yeah it's it's probably more likely for you to get a stern talking too in those sorts of things like the offering yes in in in <unk> way or something then to really like seriously causes problems unless like it's someone who is in some like imperial power position that's like super full of themselves [laughter] but like you know you hear all sorts of warnings when people go deal with other cultures and things like you know if you go to asia you're not you don't ever like stick your chopsticks into the rice and leave it there because of implications of that's how you offer things and altered to the dead but i don't think many people are going to be like seriously offended if an obvious quarter is making that mistake they might just mentioned it and say you don't do that right but they're not going to like throw down there they're chopsticks and and walk out the door or anything right and you just mentioned <unk> indirect a strategy which is you don't say you don't do that you just say that's not dumb [laughter] right people don't do that you avoid the direct you just stayed a general rule um is a it's a good <unk> somewhat indirect way of uh when he gets <unk> <unk> it's not like you're the one where the problem that society so i'm just lessons [laughter] [laughter] yeah it just is just mentioned okay well <unk> yeah yeah it's it's not like you don't have a problem it's just i need to teach you something <unk> yeah that's the sort of thing that is more likely to happen in that situation [noise] but i agree with that some science fiction uses obscure and sometimes opaque and laughable politeness requirements of another culture as the engine for a story that's a little yeah and that that's that's actually in the <unk> yeah that's that's the biggest thing is when these obscure and bizarre cultural practices are like so <unk> oh so incredibly richard that they'd cry the plot yeah so it's it's it's a little annoying sometimes i agree but anyway i think that's all we can really say about that and um [noise] that is i feel like that's a very good overview of how face kim sort of involved it's all in your con culture not we didn't talk so much about language so much a little bit i mean all of these things are media did by language so it's something to think about <unk> thinking about ways that you're going to handle in direction yeah my english <unk> questions but other languages might prefer impersonal or weird uh transit authority things like the positives you know they're <unk> <unk> yeah uh i think uh in the last <unk> the way back when you mentioned now watch law has this thing of having a positive or a click you live and then uh reflects of too like negated or <unk> there there can be all sorts of things and sometimes if it's <unk> to a degree it kind of mostly only matters where it came from and not so much what it is now just you know when when we ask those sort of request questions in english we almost we don't really think of them and ask questions anymore no we didn't know um [noise] but then there's all off and things that are <unk> different and like i said in fiction you can have like little characterization moments where someone uses a politeness strategy from their own culture that's more prevalent for them but less preference for another group or you can have them over to a politeness strategy or something like that yeah yeah so anyway i think that about does that uh our next episode if i can't find it the ah thing let's actually take a look at our next [noise] <unk> [noise] is saying one is going to be [noise] own weird ideas for <unk> so it's sort of a con like either but [noise] i saw a bunch of odd little thing that we [noise] we don't necessarily want to spend <unk> episodes on [noise] that [noise] so things like bliss symbolic <unk> soul in all the [noise] the things that are sort of our slang that hard drive from paws or than usual reason [noise] part of it [noise] so forward to that [noise] in two weeks [noise] to me and [noise] ah i will say four william and my [noise] and [noise] all the guys listening or [noise] <unk> [noise] thank you for listening to con lying or you could find our our cars ensure knows that <unk> you can send questions comments or topic more features language suggestions to con lying or e. i. g. e. mail dot com [noise] to submit icon langhorn outline greedy for the top of the show see our contribute paid for detail [noise] web space <unk> provided by the language creation society and our team music is by no device [noise] don't lick the radiation [laughter] yeah pretty much [laughter] that seems like good advice that reminds me of us for i read about like early on when they had women uh working in factories painting radium dials on watches and stuff i've heard about that yeah and like they would lick their paint rushes to wet them mhm so they were looking looking radioactive materials and that and like paint their nails with radio 'em and stuff it's like mm and then that basically they all ended up with severe cancer and several of them had to have jaws amputated

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Conlangery Podcast/Conlangery 94 Face and Politeness (last edited 2017-09-09 09:42:27 by TranscriBot)