’Slang’ on Trial Part 2: My Killy and Other Friends

* Warning: Today’s episode contains descriptions of murder, gang violence, and knife crime. * 

 

 STOP! This episode is the final part of a special two-part episode. Make sure to listen to part one before enjoying this episode. 

 

In part two of this special on Urban British English (UBE), Dr Nicci MacLeod and Professor Tim Grant discuss Nicci’s role in a 2021 murder case involving the suspect’s use of the term ‘killy’. Despite the prosecution’s expert defining the term as “the feeling of wanting to kill,” Nicci’s deep dive revealed a more common meaning of the term: ‘close friend’.  

  

  

For a list of our sources and more information about this case, please visit https://www.aston.ac.uk/writing-wrongs   

  

Have a question for Nicci or Tim? Email us at writingwrongs@aston.ac.uk and we may answer it during an upcoming episode!  

  

Check out the official AIFL blog for more forensic linguistic goodies here: https://medium.com/@AIFLblog   

  

If you have been affected by any of the themes in this week’s episode, please contact one of these free sources:  

  

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/   

https://www.helpguide.org/find-help   

  

Production Team: Mark Round, Jordan Robertson, Neus Alberich Buera, Karolina Placzynta  

Sound: Mark Round, Sam Cook  

Visual design: George Grant  

Additional Voices: Frankie Vu, Aston Students 

  

  

Resources  

  

Professor Tim Grant’s home page: Tim Grant - Aston Research Explorer  

  

Dr Nicci MacLeod’s home page: Nicci MacLeod - Aston Research Explorer  

  

Johnathon Green’s Dictionary of Slang: https://greensdictofslang.com/   

  

Linguistic experts as semantic tour guides by Dr Larry Solan: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250014956_Linguistic_experts_as_semantic_tour_guides