Because Practical Neurology is meant to be “practical” we do not usually publish rather speculative review articles, preferring to leave speculation mainly in the editorials. And we have never published any article by a linguist. However, I thought the notion of studying scientifically what we all do intuitively all the time, and so improving on it—judging people by how they say things as well as by what they say—was well worth an airing in the context of making a diagnosis, specifically of non-epileptic attacks. …