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About the 3LC 

The Language Lovers' Lunch Club (3LC), founded by Aoife Holmes-Rein, Kathrin Kircili and Sandra-Götz-Lehmann, is an ideal platform for everybody who is passionate about language and / or linguistics and who would like to discuss questions like how or why new words take root in a language, or why some language features take off and others vanish, why grammar and linguistics share lots of the same ideas and then diverge entirely on others or whose interest in language (structure) has always gone beyond the content of their classes, and who would enjoy discussing interesting and fun topics over lunch in a relaxed atmosphere. 

Kick-off - Our First-Ever Meeting on May 04, 2023 

Good food, great company and an engaging discussion of questions like whether the word "prepone" exists in English, whether "sisu" or "shithousery" are English words and what's going on with "should of", "could of" and "would of" - the first meeting of the Language Lovers' Lunch Club on May 04 was a great success, and we want to thank all the participants (some of whom can be seen in this picture) for joining us.

We are already looking forward to the next meeting on June 6th, 2023.


Second 3LC on June 6, 2023 - Linguistic Myths and Lying... or: Things that Make You "Cringe"

The second meeting of the 3LC was dedicated to the discussion of linguistic myths and hoaxes (including the so-called "Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax" and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis;check out our flyer for more information) as well as lies and lying. We enjoyed a fruitful and versatile discussion and obtained a lot of new impressions of, and insights into, your takes on these topics, your opinions on how these myths have developed or how and why we potentially make use of lies when communicating with other people. 

And - just as we had hoped when starting the 3LC - our exchange also resulted in spontaneous discussion of an entirely unrelated but highly interesting topic - namely the evolvement of the word "cringe". From plain "to cringe" to "making someone cringe", "being cringe-worthy", "cringe-making" or "to be cringe" - the word is gaining popularity (especially among teenagers and young adults to the extent that even learners of English code-switch and use it in their interactions with German peers) and its meaning and areas of application seem to be quite diverse/ever changing. 

Fascinating stuff - and we are already looking forward to our next 3LC which will take place on 6 July at 12 in 08D04. Additional information will be provided here in due course.