Words, Words, Words C

Title: Words, Words, Words C

Author: David Crystal

Binding: Hardcover

EAN: 9780198614449

Condition: Good

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Condition descriptions:
- As New: Hardly any signs of use, almost as new.
- Good: May show minor signs of use, such as some discoloration or a name on the endpapers, but generally no underlining or notes in the text.
- Fair: Book in fair condition. May show signs of use, such as discoloration, reading creases in spine, underlinings, notes, light soiling at edges, dog-ears, or a crooked spine.
- New: Book is new.

Description:
''Lexicography is not just an exercise in linguistic accounting,'' writes preeminent English language scholar David Crystal in this exceptionally lively and erudite little book. ''It is a voyage of lexical exploration and discovery.''
In Words, Words, Words, Crystal takes readers on a fascinating linguistic adventure, exploring the English language in all its oddity, complexity, and ever-changing beauty. Traveling from word origins and word evolution to wordgangs, wordrisks, wordplay, wordgames and beyond, Crystal shares his immense knowledge of, and equally immense delight in, language. He celebrates new words, old words, words that ''snarl'' and words that ''purr,'' elegant words and taboo words, plain English words and convoluted gobbledegook, eponyms and antonyms, spoonerisms and malapropisms, and a host of other written and spoken forms and variations.
Words, Words, Words offers invaluable insight on such subjects as


·how to estimate the size of your vocabulary


the functions of jargon


·when clichés are necessary


the value of slang words (''the chief use of slang/is to show you're one of the gang'')


·how to create your own ''semantic field''


·dialect humor


·how to become a word detective


·how to keep a record of your child's words


·and much more!
With illuminating sidebars featuring everything from common word origins and sample definitions from the dictionaries of Samuel Johnson and Ambrose Bierce to a passage fromFinnegan's Wake and the winning entries of The Guardian Text Message Poetry Competition,Words, Words, Words will both satisfy and spark the curiosity of anyone who has ever been intrigued, befuddled, or awed by words and myriad ways we use them.