Mantex

Tutorials, Study Guides & More

  • HOME
  • REVIEWS
  • TUTORIALS
  • HOW-TO
  • CONTACT
>> Home / Archives for Dictionaries

Specialist Dictionaries

November 5, 2009 by Roy Johnson

Specialist dictionaries have two distinct advantages over conventional reference books. First, they can include far more specialist terms, technical jargon, and explanations of meanings than a normal (average-sized) dictionary. And second, they will help cut down the amount of time you are likely to spend searching for terms. Many of them also include mini-essays on complex topics.

Specialist Dictionaries - Dictionary of AllusionsThe Oxford Dictionary of Allusions is a guide to and an explanation of cultural references commonly found in writing and arts of all kinds. It covers major issues from the classical period to contemporary mass media – including cinema and television. Topics are listed thematically – dancing, danger, darkness – and all entries are cross referenced in an index. This is an attractive new publication.

 

Specialist Dictionaries - Dictionary of CatchphrasesThe Oxford Dictionary of Catchphrases is a compendium of famous sayings and expressions from the world of film, radio, television, and the music hall on both sides of the Atlantic. The sort of thing you might recognise in – Can I do you now, sir?, Shut that door!, Who loves ya, baby?, Bono Estente!, and Eat my shorts!. It offers the original sources for the sayings, as well as fascinating background details about the context and sometimes the history of the performer.

 

Specialist Dictionaries - Dictionary of EuphemismsThe Oxford Dictionary of Euphemisms is much more than a collection of polite expressions. It’s also a detailed inventory of slang, sexual code terms, metaphors, evasiveness, underworld argot, and indecent language. Topics that invoke euphemism are sex, lavatories, drinking, drugs, crime, and death. The not-so-obvious are commerce, politics, warfare, illness, and ideological belief. Written in a scholarly yet very witty style. Packed with goodies.

 

Specialist Dictionaries - Dictionary of FolkloreThe Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore is a compendium of folklore, beliefs, customs, myths, and superstitions. It covers activities such as cheese rolling, Morris dancing, and well dressing; mythical characters such as Robin Hood, Merlin, Beowulf, and father Christmas; what people believe about parts of the body or days of the week; and beliefs associated with simple items such as plants and hedgehogs.

 

Specialist Dictionaries - Dictionary of Foreign Words and PhrasesThe Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Terms lists 8,000 terms, drawn from over forty countries around the world, that have found their way into the English language. From ab origine to mystagogue and zucchetto. What is the plural of fez? How should we pronounce millefeuille? And where would you see a strabismus?

 

 

Specialist Dictionaries - Dictionary of IdiomsThe Oxford Dictionary of Idioms explains the meanings of proverbs, traditional sayings, and metaphorical expressions – such as raining cats and dogs and over the moon. It contains American and Australian as well as UK examples. A date of origin is often given and many entries are supported by illustrative quotations. This will certainly be useful for anybody learning English, as well as for people interested in the oddities of the language.

 

Specialist Dictionaries - Dictionary of the InternetThe Oxford Dictionary of the Internet explains the thousands of new technical terms which have come into use via the Net. Includes newsgroup abbreviations, the language of e-commerce, software technology, security, and the arcane language of hackers, whitehats, and alpha geeks. It gains its strength from concentrating in depth on the Internet and its infrastructure, rather than on general computing terms. Comes with CD-ROM.

 

Specialist Dictionaries - Literary TermsThe Oxford Dictionary of the Literary Terms explains the difference between an epic poem and a tragedy, between classical and romantic, between naturalism and realism. The entries range from definitions of the absurd to zeugma, and it is in fact a guide to a mixture of old-fashioned grammatical terms, traditional drama, literary history, and criticism. It contains over 1000 of the most troublesome literary terms you are likely to encounter.

 

Specialist Dictionaries - Brewer's DictionaryBrewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable is an old classic which lists the meanings and origins of common phrases, sayings, and fables. It also covers both real and mythological people and places. Its unique charm – which has kept it a best-seller for more than a hundred years – is that it is based on a solid foundation of the Greek and Roman classics. Much loved by crossword puzzle fans. Once you start reading, it’s a difficult book to put down.

 

Specialist Dictionaries - Oxford Dictionary of QuotationsThe Oxford Dictionary of Quotations is a compendium of memorable sayings by the witty and famous – from Mae West’s Is that a pistol in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me? to Lytton Strachey’s pithy last words, If this is dying, I don’t think much of it.. Fully cross-referenced. Can serve as a straight work of reference if you are stuck for the source of a famous quotation.

 

Specialist Dictionaries - Roget's ThesaurusRoget’s Thesaurus is a classic and much-loved reference book. It’s a compilation of synonyms and antonyms – words which mean the same or the opposite of a word you choose. Most people use it to find alternatives for words which they wish to avoid repeating. It can save you hours of head-scratching. So popular that it never goes out of print. A great reassurance for anyone who might feel insecure about language matters.

And now, as Monty Python used to say, for something completely different …

Specialist Dictionaries - Roger's ProfanisaurusRoger’s Profanisaurus is a compendium of all the slang words, smut, double entendres, and sex and toilet talk you will ever need – plus a lot more you might not actually want to know. It’s compiled from the pages of VIZ – the very politically UN-correct comic monthly, and it’s hysterically funny. This is DEFINITELY not for the faint-hearted, but if you understand even half the terms, you’ll get full marks for street cred.

 

Specialist Dictionaries - Cassell's DictionaryCassell’s Dictionary of Slang is a guide to ‘unconventional English’ – as slang and swearing is often called. It contains over 60,000 entries covering slang from all parts of the English-speaking world, including Britain, North America, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, from Elizabethan times to the present. It gives definitions for the jargon used by criminals in Victorian London to the drugs culture of the modern world.

 

Specialist Dictionaries - Oxford Writers DictionaryDictionary for Writers & Editors is a specialist dictionary for writers, journalists, and text-editors. It offers rulings on words and spellings which are commonly problematic (Muslim or Moselm, gypsy or gipsy?); the names of people and places; foreign words and phrases we commonly use (petit-bourgeois); abbreviations; capitalization and punctuation. Covers the difference between hyphens and dashes and acts as a potted encyclopedia for historical names.

 

Specialist Dictionaries - Oxford Spelling DictionaryThe Spelling Dictionary from Oxford University Press is a dictionary in which the meanings of words are not included. What you have instead is an account of how the word is spelled (or spelt) any variant spellings it might have, and how it is used in different parts of speech. Each entry also shows where the major and minor words breaks should occur in the case of its being hyphenated.

 

Specialist Dictionaries - Dictionary of Classical Myth and ReligionThe Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion is a comprehensive A to Z reference to the classical world. In addition to Greek myths and Roman festivals, it covers Greek and Roman religious places, monuments, religious personnel, divination, astrology and magic, and contains many entries on Judaism and Christianity in Greek and Roman times. Some of the entries are the length of mini-essays.

© Roy Johnson 2009


More on dictionaries
More on language
More on literary studies
More on writing skills


Filed Under: Dictionaries Tagged With: Dictionaries, Reference, Specialist Dictionaries

The Oxford Dictionary of Music

June 30, 2009 by Roy Johnson

definitions and an encyclopedia of musical matters

Actually this is what should be called (for the want of a better term) a dictionary of classical music, because it does not seek to cover all musical genres. Entries run from the note A to the Polish soprano Teresa Zylis-Gara, and include major (and minor) composers plus their works, famous performers and conductors, characters from operas, musical concepts and genres, musical instruments, and even mini-essays on topics such as ‘Electronic Music’.

The Oxford Dictionary of MusicIt’s as up-to-date as one could expect for a work of reference of this kind. There are 12,500 entries on all aspects of the subject, and topics stretch from music of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to potted biographies of contemporary composers such as Judith Weir and performers such as Cecilia Bartoli. I checked against (for instance) George Benjamin (b. 1960) and Thomas Adès (b. 1970) – and both of them had entries.

Its one nod towards ‘popular’ music is to include mention of song composers such as Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. For anyone interested in music, whether as a student, concert-goer, record collector or Radio 3 listener, it is a welcoming book – in which the author shares his enthusiasm for the obvious as well as the obscure. To give a very typical illustrative example, the section on American composer John Adams runs as follows:

Adams, John (Coolidge) (b Worcester, Mass, 1947). Amer. composer, conductor, and clarinetist. Studies Harvard Univ. and comp. with Kirchner, Del Tredici, and Sessions. Head, comp. dept. San Francisco Cons. 1972-82. Comp-in-res., San Francisco SO 1979-85. One of minimalists, he has deliberately forged an eclectic idiom which borrows from most of the major 20th cent. composers and from jazz. Comps.:

OPERAS: * Nixon in China (1984-7) ; The * Death of Klinghoffer (1990-1); I was looking at the ceiling and then I saw the sky, mus. th. (1994-5); Doctor Atomic (2003-5).

ORCH.: Common Tones in Simple Time (1980); Shaker Loops, str. (1983); Harmonielehre (1984-5); Tromba lontana (1986); Short ride in a fast machine (1986); The Chairman Dances (1987); Fearful Symetries (1988); Eros Piano, pf, orch. or chamber orch. (1989); Chamber conc. (1991); El Dorado (1991); vn. conc. (1993).

VOICE(S) & ORCH. OR ENS.: Christian Zeal and Activity, spkr. on tape., ens. (1973); Grounding, 3 solo vv., instr., elec. (1975); Harmonium, ch., orch. (1980); Grand Pianola Music, 2 sop., 2 pf., small orch. (1981-2); The Wound Dresser, bar., orch. or chamber orch. (1988).

CHAMBER MUSIC: Pf. quintet (1970); American Standard, unspecified ens. (1973).

PIANO: Ragamarole, (1973); China Gates, (1977); Phrygian Gates, (1977).

TAPE ONLY: Onyx, (1975); Light Over Water, (1983).

The entire body text is set in Times New Roman, which for works of reference is a little unfashionable these days – but which I felt was sympathetic to the subject of classical music.

This latest revised edition has been supplemented with 1,000 new entries; lists of composers works have been brought up to date; and the entries now also include musical directors, critics, producers, and designers. Whether we call it ‘classical’ music or anything else, everything you might wish to know about it is covered here. [It’s also now available in a slightly abridged paperback edition.]

© Roy Johnson 2012

Dictionary of Music Buy the book at Amazon UK

Dictionary of Music Buy the book at Amazon US


Michael Kennedy, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, (revised edition) Oxford: Oxford University Press, sith edition, 2012, pp.976, ISBN: 0199578109


More on music
More on media
More on lifestyle


Filed Under: Dictionaries, Music Tagged With: Dictionaries, Music, Oxford Dictionary of Music, Reference

The Oxford History of English

December 24, 2012 by Roy Johnson

academic essays on the development of English language

This is an updated version of The Oxford History of English which is now available with the claim that it’s ‘a book for everyone interested in the English language, present and past’. A reasonable claim – though one might wish to add the caveat: ‘suitable for everyone embarking on detailed academic research into the history and mechanics of English’. Because it is certainly not for beginners. It offers a detailed and scholarly history of the English language, starting as far back as 1500BC.

The Oxford History of EnglishAnd as Lynda Mugglestone’s useful introduction claims, the volume encompasses not only standard forms of English but also varieties stemming from geography, status and culture. The book comprises fourteen chapters, each written by a different linguist and representing a variety of interests, which makes the volume invaluable to students of linguistics up to post graduate level. Time-lines, language maps tables and charts complement the textual information. A phonemic table is also included and this is essential to the understanding of some language development explanations such as the Great Vowel Shift.

Nothing essential to the study of the English language is omitted and this is given zest by frequent examples from literary works or artefacts, and by the implicit enthusiasm shown by the contributors. For example, Marilyn Corrie quotes the original of a Middle English text, along with the translation, showing a homely but avid interest in study skills.

And whoever may wish to write this book out again on another occasion, I ask him that he write it correctly, just as this book teaches him.

This is a neat reminder that books at one time could only be copied by hand, one at a time.

North American English and its formation is dealt with, including citations of additions from Native American terms and usages – such as the native term Skunk. Other examples of English that have acquired semi-detached status are cited and these specifics are used to lead into the universal principles of language change, observable over thousands of years.

Techniques for the analysis of language mechanisms are eloquently explained in the chapter Dialects and Diversity. Reference to rhyme and poetic metre show the development in a quasi graphical manner that is very pleasing to read.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle gets appropriate consideration as do various Anglo-Saxon sermons and poems. The advent of Christianity is used to demonstrate the gradual transition from paganism as reflected in poetry. The establishment of a written vernacular is documented with due reference to King Alfred as possibly the first educator in English, via The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

The volume deals in detail with Germanic influences and the French influence that followed it. Issues such as ‘high’ and ‘low’ languages and the imprint left on a society after the departure of conquering nations are all included in a comprehensive and detailed history.

Considering more recent developments, Tom McArthur traces the status of English during the Twentieth Century with a quaint but comprehensive world map showing English language usage.

In his conclusion David Crystal not only charts the observable influences on English of the Internet and its devices, but he also gives his own prospective notions for the future of the language.

Each chapter is given its own lists of suggestions for further reading, and the book finishes with a huge bibliography. Although the level of detail is on a minute scale, the content is easily accessible, navigable and readable, given some prior knowledge on the part of the reader.

I would gladly give The Oxford History of English to anyone embarking on a language-based programme of study, or to any dedicated amateur student of the English language, its history and its prospects.

The Oxford History of English Buy the book at Amazon UK

The Oxford History of English Buy the book at Amazon US

© Roy Johnson 2013


Lynda Mugglestone (ed), The Oxford History of English, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, pp.600, ISBN: 0199660166


More on dictionaries
More on language
More on literary studies
More on writing skills


Filed Under: Dictionaries, Language, Language use Tagged With: Dictionaries, English language, Language, Reference

Totally Weird and Wonderful Words

July 8, 2009 by Roy Johnson

a dictionary of obscure, unusual, and bizarre terms

Do you know what illecebrous, langsuir, and telematology mean? No – I thought not. They are ‘attractive’, ‘female vampire’, and ‘the study of peat bogs’ respectively. Not a lot of people know that. Of course, you might say that not many people would want to know that. But if you are one of the exceptions – people who are fascinated by etymology, unusual words, and obscure terms – Totally Weird and Wonderful Words is the book for you. It’s a collection of really out-of-the-way lexical items and words you have probably never heard of before. Entries run from abligurition (spending a lot on food) and abnormous (18th century, ‘mis-shapen’) to zoonosis (disease transmitted from animals to humans) and Zyrian (a north Russian language).

Totally Weird and Wonderful WordsThe alphabletised entries are interspersed with mini-essays on various categories of obscure terms, and laced with lots of New Yorker type cartoons. The weirdness of the entries might lie in a word’s obscure meaning, or it might be its unusual orthography – a strange conjunction of letters, as in kalokagathia (nobility and goodness of character).

It doesn’t pretend to be encyclopedic, but I was surprised that one of my own favourite obscure terms wasn’t in there. Borborygmous means ‘rumbling of gas in the stomach’ – and despite its quasi-medical connotations it always brings a smile to my face. But another of my favourites is included. Carphology is ‘the delirious fumbling with bedclothes prior to the onset of death’. Not a word you would need to use every day – but when applied at the right moment, very impressive.

Some which make sense (to a UK audience at least) are terms such as brannigans (the name of a chain of wine bars) which means ‘a drinking bout, a spree, or a binge’. And sometimes the examples are perfectly serious and reasonable – such as steganography, which is ‘the art of secret writing, or cryptography’.

Some are made up, such as igry, which is defined as ‘the way you feel when someone else does something that ought to embarrass them, but doesn’t’. Others are fanciful technical or quasi-scientific inventions.

There’s even a chapter at the end of the book giving you advice on how to create your own weird and wonderful words. However, you should remember that language is entirely democratic. New words will only ever become established if lots of people decide to use them – and that is usually because there’s a need for them. You could struggle for years putting together scientific and Latinate parts of speech – but unless there’s a real need for them, they will die unused. Meanwhile blogging, dogging, and gazumping have caught on because they serve a real purpose – though none are listed here.

Some of the words are clearly deft inventions; others are squeezed out of interpretations of classical terms (it helps if you know Latin and Greek); and others have interesting etymologies, but turn out to be disappointing. It’s interesting to know that there is a word for people who elect to have amputations for the sake of body modification, but somehow disappointing to learn that the word when you get there is only the rather plain nullo.

Some fall into the technical category of what might be called ‘extreme jargon’, as in the following definition of the term contango:

the fee that a buyer of stock pays to the seller to postpone transfer of the stock to the next or any future settlement date. It was also usually paid on a per share or percent basis. The word also has a modern meaning, ‘the condition in which distant delivery prices for futures exceed spot prices, often due to the costs of storing and insuring the commodity’. The antonym of contango is backwardation.

Phew! So now we know.

Many are so obscure it’s difficult to imagine there ever being an occasion when they might be used – either in conversation or in print – such as dromaeognathous, which means ‘having a palate like that of an emu’.

In keeping with its total weirdness, this is a book with three introductions and two forewards. In fact you can open it at any page and be amazed or amused – or both, simultaneously.

© Roy Johnson 2007

Totally Weird and Wonderful Words   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Totally Weird and Wonderful Words   Buy the book at Amazon US


Erin McKean (editor), Totally Weird and Wonderful Words, New York: Oxford University Press, 2007, pp.304, ISBN: 0195312120


More on language
More on literary studies
More on writing skills
More on creative writing
More on grammar


Filed Under: Dictionaries, Language use Tagged With: Dictionaries, Language, Language use, Reference, Totally Weird and Wonderful Words

Treasury of Sayings and Quotations

July 29, 2009 by Roy Johnson

origins of quotes, proverbs, and expressions

This Treasury of Sayings and Quotations is a compilation of phrases, bon mots, and observations from sources all over the world. Some are well known, and others are novelties drawn out of the data-bank of human wisdom from all over the world which you are invited to enjoy or send into further circulation. Oxford University Press do a lot of these quotation dictionaries: their Humorous Quotations, Catchphrases, Idioms, Literary Quotations, and Modern Quotations are all very popular.

Treasury of Sayings and Quotations The distinctive feature in this compilation is that it has multiculturalism writ large in its selection of materials. They range from the folk-like African proverb When the spiders unite, they can tie up a lion, to the more obviously urban Russian maxim, We pretend to work, they pretend to pay us. The categories are arranged alphabetically – from Ability and Africa, through Marriage and Memory, to Women, Words, Writing and Youth. Then the entries under each topic are arranged chronologically – so, under Writing we go from II Maccabees in the Bible, to Derek Walcott in the Guardian of 1997.

I come from a backward place: your duty is supplied by the life around you. One guy plants bananas; another plants cocoa; I’m a writer, I plant lines. There’s the same clarity of occupation, and the same sense of devotion.
Derek Walcott 1930

Shakespeare of course crops up in more categories than you can shake a stick at [which is not listed]: The course of true love never did run smooth (Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance? (Henry IV, Part 2).

It’s been brought up to date with entries such as shock and awe, dodgy dossier, and the mother of battles which cast a chilling light on the people who used them in the last few years.

It includes well-chosen words from Biblical times to the present day, proverbs from around the world, and well-known phrases and quotations, giving their sources and revealing the contexts from which they emerged. There are even explanations of terms as unlikely as this from the world of recreational drug use:

chase the dragon
take heroin by heating it on a piece of kitchen tin foil and inhaling the fumes. The term is said to be translated from Chinese, and to arise from the fact that the fumes and the molten heroin powder move up and down the piece of tin foil with an undulating movement resembling the tail of the dragon in Chinese myths.

More than a thousand new items have been added to the latest (fourth) edition. I am never quite sure what use people make of these compilations, but once you open them, they are very difficult to close. It’s the easy browsing I suppose – plus the fact that every entry is a gem of condensed human experience.

© Roy Johnson 2011

Treasury of Sayings and Quotations   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Treasury of Sayings and Quotations   Buy the book at Amazon US


Oxford Treasury of Sayings and Quotations, Oxford: Oxford University Press (4th edn) 2011, pp.720, ISBN: 0199609128


More on language
More on literary studies
More on writing skills
More on creative writing
More on grammar


Filed Under: Dictionaries Tagged With: Cultural history, Dictionaries, Dictionary of Phrase Saying & Quotation, Language, Phrases, Quotations, Reference, Sayings

Whitaker’s Almanack

July 24, 2009 by Roy Johnson

world-famous one-volume reference and encyclopedia

Whitaker’s Almanack is an easy-to-use and instantly accessible reference book for the home, the workplace or the classroom. It contains the latest information on the social, political, and economic infrastructure of the UK and the rest of the world – all in one single plump volume. It was founded by Joseph Whitaker in 1868, publisher and part time editor of The Gentleman’s Magazine. To help with his work, he compiled a book of newspaper cuttings, extracts from government statistics, astronomical charts, calendars and anniversaries.

Whitaker's AlmanackThis source material became the basis of Whitaker’s Almanack, which was an instant success – and it has been updated annually ever since. Its main curiosity value is that it contains information which would be difficult to locate anywhere else. It’s useful on history and social structure, and it details most of the UK’s institutions with names and contact details. There’s extensive data about every country in the world, as well as maps, recent obituaries, and a run down on last year’s main news stories with pictures.

It’s packed with thousands of facts, figures and statistics plus descriptive and directory information on astronomy, sport, literature, and current affairs. The latest edition also includes hundreds of essential facts and figures on government and politics, the legal system, countries of the world, education, finance, media and communications, religion, royalty and the peerage.

You can look back over the year’s news in month-by-month summaries, check who is the MP for any UK constituency, find out time zones, currencies and exchange rates, or look up laws on births, deaths, marriages, employment, consumer and property rental.

Find contact details for a university, museum or society, and search directory listings of newspapers, magazines and book publishers. The latest edition even has a section on cinema and films.

There’s extensive data on every country in the world including its geography, history, politics, defence, economy, communications, education and culture.

As a bonus, there are expert overviews on a range of subjects from archaeology and broadcasting to Acts of Parliament, sports results and weather.

© Roy Johnson 2000

Whitaker's Almanack   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Whitaker's Almanack   Buy the book at Amazon US


Whitaker’s Almanack, London: A & C Black, 145th revised edition 2012, pp.1200, ISBN: 1408172070


More on dictionaries
More on literary studies
More on writing skills


Filed Under: Dictionaries Tagged With: Dictionaries, Reference, Reference books, Whitaker's Almanack

Word Myths

July 25, 2009 by Roy Johnson

debunking linguistic urban legends and false etymologies

You know that the term posh comes from an acronym formed from the expression ‘port out, starboard home’? And that ‘the whole nine yards’ comes from the amount of fabric needed to make a kilt? Well you’re wrong: they don’t. This is a study of word myths and linguistic urban legends – why they arise, what they mean, who tells them, why they are told, and what they tell us about ourselves in terms of language and common usage. What David Wilton does is subject a series of ‘explanations’ for well known expressions and sayings to close historical scruitiny.

Word Myths As a result he demonstrates that ‘Ring-a-ring o’ roses’ is not about the plague, and that Eskimos – sorry! Inuit – do not have 500 words for snow, where we have only one. The truth is that we have lots, and so do they, but they make compound single words, where we use expressions such as pack ice. The outcome of his scholarship corresponds roughly with that of Michael Quinion, whose Port Out, Starboard Home explores similar territory. The main lesson to be learned seems to be that the more attractive and anecdotally interesting the explanation, the less likely it is to be true.

Disproving legends does sometimes become a little repetitively negative, but along the way there’s a lot of interesting socio-linguistics, language etymology, comparative linguistics, and cultural history. He even includes an instructive note on how to use dictionaries for language searches.

There are also some interesting detours into the realms of acronyms, back-formations, bogus history, ‘Elizabethan emails’, and many other justifications for completely false explanations of the origins of words and expressions.

He gives his opponents the benefit of the doubt from time to time, but takes quite a stringent line throughout:

Another factor in the popularity of the [pre 20th century] AWOL tale is the fact that the Civil War is a topic much loved by hobbyists and amateur historians. Any topic that excites the passions of hobbyists and fans tends to generate false etymologies.

He is certainly very well informed, and evidence for his claims is meticulously sourced. Disputes over the origins of the word jazz occupy several pages. And he deals as well with acronyms, backronyms, and eponyms – ascribing abbreviations, initial letters, or people’s names as the putative origin of a word, as well as the false etymology and political correctness in terms such as picnic, Indian, and gay.

You might think that so much effort in debunking what are often attractive anecdotes would be a dispiriting reading experience – but somehow it isn’t. In fact the opposite is true: it enhances one’s respect for good scholarship and the love of language.

© Roy Johnson 2008

Word Myths   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Word Myths   Buy the book at Amazon US


David Wilton, Word Myths, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp.240, ISBN: 0195375572


More on dictionaries
More on language
More on literary studies
More on grammar


Filed Under: Language use Tagged With: Dictionaries, English language, False etymologies, Language, Reference, Word Myths

Words Words Words

June 13, 2009 by Roy Johnson

how language arises, changes, is recorded, and used

David Crystal is a world-famous authority on language development, lexicography, linguistics, and anything else which concerns the words human beings use to speak and write. Words Words Words is the latest of his many books – an easy-to-read primer in which he attempts to convey his enthusiasm for all aspects of the subject. His intention is to explore the common fascination with all aspects of language and to answer some of the questions we ask about it. How many words are there in the English language for instance?

language development He shows why it’s so difficult to answer this question accurately, but settles for ‘over a million’. He also tries to dispel myths. Does the Sun newspaper really use a lexicon of only 500 words? That’s a much easier problem. The answer is no. A sample he took showed the total was nearer to 7,000. He describes how dictionaries are compiled; the origins and history of words; how words are borrowed (stolen in fact) from other languages and rapidly adopted as our own – despite complaints from conservatives; how new words are created by blending (heliport) lengthening (chewing gum) shortening (demo) or simply changing the use of an existing word (gay).

He traces the history of English spelling and explains why it is so complex and irregular. His discussion of accents and pronunciation covers the way the language is spoken, and his argument is that things are changing all the time. It’s no use writing to the Times complaining that the BBC now pronounces controversy with the stress in the middle of the word, because that’s the way it is going.

He’s very good at conveying his enthusiasm for language. He writes warmly and tolerantly on slang, jargon, and even has a good word to say for cliché, and he is more tolerant of children swearing than I am:

In Caernarfon, in North Wales, you hear people calling each other cunt all the time, quite unconcernedly. It just means ‘mate’.

That might be true in Caernarfon, but it would get you a thick ear if you tried it on in Stockport. He finishes with a series of practical suggestions for those people who would like to take the subject further. He recommends dictionaries (buy two); shows you how to find the meaning of names; how to estimate the size of your vocabulary; lists dialect societies to join; and even encourages you to contribute to dictionary building.

All the points he makes are illustrated with examples from both language history and contemporary usage. He throws in lots of amusing anecdotes, and the pages are decorated with side panels showing how to take each topic further. This approach really brings his subject to life and makes the study of language sound very attractive – and certainly within the grasp of the average reader.

© Roy Johnson 2007

Words   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Words   Buy the book at Amazon US


David Crystal, Words Words Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, new edition 2007, pp.224, ISBN: 0199210772


Filed Under: Language use Tagged With: Cultural history, Dictionaries, English language, Language, Language change, Words

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7

Get in touch

info@mantex.co.uk

Content © Mantex 2016
  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Clients
  • Contact
  • FAQ
  • Links
  • Services
  • Reviews
  • Sitemap
  • T & C’s
  • Testimonials
  • Privacy

Copyright © 2025 · Mantex

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in