the opposite of mean is not nice but rather kind
to be mean is to not just ignore the feelings of others but to also using sincere unguarded moments as an opportunity to pass judgement
being nice is to do what's socially acceptable, whereas being kind is where you do it out of the goodness of your heart to have empathy and celebrate in sincerity
kindness begets more kindness, creating a kind world is possible and it starts with you and me
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Occasionally people ask me the specific difference between Wizards and Sorcerers.
This is how I see it.
Most people oversimplify wizards by saying they learn their magic from books. While the spells and techniques they use are often passed down through writing, the true quality of a wizard is their method of interaction with magic. Wizards, as far as I have deduced, use magic like a tool. They wield magic and use it to enact their will.
Sorcerers are different, and the difference again lies in the method of use. Sorcerers do not wield magic like one would a sword or hammer, but rather we channel magic as a natural conduit for its energies. We act as receptacles for magic, allowing it to live inside us so our will becomes intertwined with its own.
Wizards are the hands that make and mold. Sorcerers are the cups that contain and dispense.
This difference is subtle but important. While a wizard may abandon a magical goal at any time, sorcerers risk becoming consumed by it until completion. Wizards on the other hand are limited by their resources, knowledge, and ability; while a sorcerer needs only the magic they have stored within their heart, or otherwise a reasonable source to draw from.
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It's super convenient for trolling purposes that nearly every game that's popularly claimed to be the Best Game Ever is part of a massive, endlessly serialised franchise, because it means you can always derail a discussion by playing the not-even-the-best-X-in-the-Y card (e.g., "Ocarina of Time isn't even the best game in the Legend of Zelda series", "Symphony of the Night isn't even the best game in the Castlevania series", etc.), but I have to give special recognition to Final Fantasy VII for making it possible to argue with a straight face that Final Fantasy VII isn't even the best Final Fantasy VII.
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Lingthusiasm Episode 87: If I were an irrealis episode
Language lets us talk about things that aren't, strictly speaking, entirely real. Sometimes that's an imaginative object (is a toy sword a real sword? how about Excalibur?). Other times, it's a hypothetical situation (such as "if it rains, we'll cancel the picnic" - but neither the picnic nor the rain have happened yet. And they might never happen. But also they might!). Languages have lots of different ways of talking about different kinds of speculative events, and together they're called the irrealis.
In this episode, your hosts Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne get enthusiastic about some of our favourite examples under the irrealis umbrella. We talk about various things that we can mean by "reality", such as how existing fictional concepts, like goblins playing Macbeth, differ from newly-constructed fictions, like our new creature the Frenumblinger. We also talk about hypothetical statements using "if" (including the delightfully-named "biscuit conditionals), and using the "if I were a rich man" (Fiddler on the Roof) to "if I was a rich girl" (Gwen Stefani) continuum to track the evolution of the English subjunctive. Finally, a few of our favourite additional types of irrealis categories: the hortative, used to urge or exhort (let's go!), the optative, to express wishes and hopes (if only...), the dubitative, for when you doubt something, and the desiderative (I wish...).
Read the transcript here.
Announcements:
Thank you to everyone who shared Lingthusiasm with a friend or on social media for our seventh anniversary! It was great to see what you love about Lingthusiasm and which episodes you chose to share. We hope you enjoyed the warm fuzzies!
In this month’s bonus episode, Gretchen gets enthusiastic about swearing (including rude gestures) in fiction with science fiction and fantasy authors Jo Walton and Ada Palmer, authors of the Thessaly books and Terra Ignota series, both super interesting series we've ling-nerded out about before on the show. We talk about invented swear words like "frak" and "frell", sweary lexical gaps (why don't we swear with "toe jam!"), and interpreting the nuances of regional swear words like "bloody" in fiction.
Join us on Patreon now to get access to this and 80+ other bonus episodes! You’ll also get access to the Lingthusiasm Discord server where you can chat with other language nerds.
Here are the links mentioned in the episode:
'Irrealis' entry on Wikipedia
'How do you get someone to care about Shakespeare? Two words: Goblin Macbeth' on CBC
xkcd comic 'Conditionals'
'Pedantic about biscuit conditionals' post on Language Log
'The pragmatics of biscuit conditionals' by Michael Franke
Lingthusiasm episode 'This time it gets tense - The grammar of time'
'Realis and Irrealis: Forms and concepts of the
grammaticalisation of reality' by Jennifer R. Elliott
'If all the raindrops' on YouTube
'If I Were a Rich Man (song)' entry on Wikipedia
'Rich Girl (Gwen Stefani song)' entry on Wikipedia
'Louchie Lou & Michie One' entry on Wikipedia
'Louchie Lou & Michie One - Rich Girl' on YouTube
'Semi-Toned - Rich Girl (acapella)' on YouTube
'Subjunctive mood' entry on Wikipedia
'Céline Dion - Pour que tu m'aimes encore' on YouTube
WALS entry for 'Feature 73A: The Optative'
Lingthusiasm bonus episode 'How we make Lingthusiasm transcripts - Interview with Sarah Dopierala'
Lingthusiasm episode 'Listen to the imperatives episode'
'Dubitative' entry on Wikipedia
'A grammatical overview of Yolmo (Tibeto-Burman)' entry on WikiJournal of Humanities
You can listen to this episode via Lingthusiasm.com, Soundcloud, RSS, Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also download an mp3 via the Soundcloud page for offline listening.
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You can help keep Lingthusiasm ad-free, get access to bonus content, and more perks by supporting us on Patreon.
Lingthusiasm is on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, and Tumblr. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com
Gretchen is on Bluesky as @GretchenMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic.
Lauren is on Bluesky as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.
Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, our production assistant is Martha Tsutsui Billins, and our editorial assistant is Jon Kruk. Our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.
This episode of Lingthusiasm is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license (CC 4.0 BY-NC-SA).
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