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Like clothes, words wear out. How can we not feel that “I love you” is losing its meaning? By “remotivating language” but also by using metaphors. How are metaphors constructed? What are their “source” and “target” domains? And what does that say about our habits? To answer these questions, Laura Raim calls on linguist Julie Neveux. Starting from the principle that we speak our language as much as our language speaks to us, Julie Neveux analyzes the new words, language tics, emojis and metaphors that populate our daily lives. She notes a dual linguistic movement that seems paradoxical at first glance: the mechanization of our bodies and our affects (we are “in fashion”, we have “bugged”), and exacerbated sentimentalization (the French are the world champions in the use of heart emojis). Also with Maxime Bertoux, neuroscience researcher. References cited in the episode (in order of citation): Julie Neveux, I Speak as I Am. What Our Words Say About Us, Grasset, 2020 Marc Allégret, Entrance of the Artists, 1938 William Shakespeare, Sonnets, 1609 Ferdinand de Saussure George Lakoff Penelope Brown and Stephen C. Levinson, Politeness. Some Universal in Language Usage, Cambridge UP, 1987 John Wilkins