Kate Burridge profile image

Kate Burridge

Professor of Linguistics

24 Posts

Core expertise

Grammatical change in Germanic languages
History and structure of English language
Linguistic taboo
Linguistics

Biography

Kate is a prominent Australian linguist and the current Chair of Linguistics.
Kate completed her undergraduate training in Linguistics and German at the University of Western Australia. This was followed by three years postgraduate study at the University of London. Kate completed her PhD in 1983 on syntactic change in medieval Dutch.

Amongst other things, Kate is also the author of many books, a regular guest on ABC radio and has presented a TED talk in Sydney on Euphemisms in English.

Babblers, cops and quacks: The sometimes dark – but often amusing – origins of nicknames for jobs post image
Politics and society

Babblers, cops and quacks: The sometimes dark – but often amusing – origins of nicknames for jobs

by Kate Burridge
201 ways to say ‘f*ck’: What 1.7 billion words of online text shows about how the world swears post image
Politics and society

201 ways to say ‘f*ck’: What 1.7 billion words of online text shows about how the world swears

by Kate Burridge
Is Australian English under threat from the Americans? It’s not as simple as you might think post image
The history and evolution of Australian slang

Is Australian English under threat from the Americans? It’s not as simple as you might think

by Kate Burridge
How the US election turned ‘weird’ – and why it’s working for the Democrats post image
Politics and society

How the US election turned ‘weird’ – and why it’s working for the Democrats

by Kate Burridge
Are you ready for it? ‘Yeah-nah’ comes back stronger – with a little help from Taylor Swift post image
The history and evolution of Australian slang

Are you ready for it? ‘Yeah-nah’ comes back stronger – with a little help from Taylor Swift

by Kate Burridge
How ‘witch-hunts’ and ‘Stockholm syndrome’ became part of political language (and what it has to do with wrestling) post image
Politics and society

How ‘witch-hunts’ and ‘Stockholm syndrome’ became part of political language (and what it has to do with wrestling)

by Howard Manns
From ‘technicolour yawn’ to ‘draining the dragon’: How Barry Humphries breathed life into Australian slang post image
Politics and society

From ‘technicolour yawn’ to ‘draining the dragon’: How Barry Humphries breathed life into Australian slang

by Howard Manns
Brekkies, barbies, mozzies: Why do Aussies shorten so many words? post image
The history and evolution of Australian slang

Brekkies, barbies, mozzies: Why do Aussies shorten so many words?

by Kate Burridge
Digging deep on Aussie nongs and drongos post image
The history and evolution of Australian slang

Digging deep on Aussie nongs and drongos

by Kate Burridge
‘No worries’ looks to be a simple little expression – but it’s anything but post image
The history and evolution of Australian slang

‘No worries’ looks to be a simple little expression – but it’s anything but

by Kate Burridge
Slang, mixed idioms, and the monster mash of language post image
The history and evolution of Australian slang

Slang, mixed idioms, and the monster mash of language

by Kate Burridge
Orright you spunkrats, here’s where all our Aussie summertime language came from post image
The history and evolution of Australian slang

Orright you spunkrats, here’s where all our Aussie summertime language came from

by Howard Manns
More Posts