About the explorers

The main Wordly Explorer is me, Gina Walsh.

This blog is my personal exploration of words and things about the world that I find fascinating. 

I'm still working out how much I want to tell you about myself... Demographics: Australian, white, female, middle-class (I guess). Politics: cynical and untrusting. Education: lucky. What else? I'll get back to you ...

The only really relevant thing is that I have had a lifetime of studying and working with words, communication, language and writing. My favourite thing is to choose a specific lens - linguistics, sociology, philosophy, psychology, politics, etc - through which to view the world and explore how we make meaning with words from this perspective. But I get pretty concerned about the misuse and abuse of words, mainly by people who want to manipulate others, so my writing is often about social and political issues where words feature.

The guest explorers

Source

Fred Shivvin is my fuddy-duddy buddy, always ready with a glass of wine and a fascinating story about some obscure aspect of words, etymology, linguistics and classification theory, . Fred is the part of me that was always mocked as weird for her interests in things no one else cared about. Shivvin is a surname based on the old English word shivviness, which means the uncomfortable prickly feeling of wearing new underwear. Fred often gets that uncomfortably prickly feeling about words and meaning. Fred is nerdy, Fred can be obsessive, Fred is fascinated with obscure tiny details, but I love him... er, her.

See all the posts by Fred Shivvin. (Fred also runs the FB page).

Mae Wright is my alter ego (m.a.e, see?) for writing about myself; the posts written by Mae are those about my own personal journey through life where the meaning of words, the use of words, the assumptions and discourse around words, has had a big impact on my experience (both pain and enjoyment) of life. When I write to muddle something out about being an adult, being insecure, being healthy, etc, then I spend time with Mae. 

See all the posts by Mae Wright.

I also have a few (real) friends who provide me with ample ideas, feedback and hints for writing; I do hope to have them as guest writers some day.