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Linguistics

A Word On Words by Pam Peters & Away With Words by Ruth Wajnryb

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October 2005, no. 275
Fred Ludowyk reviews 3 books about language

Books on language have been immensely popular in recent years. Simon Winchester’s The Surgeon of Crowthorne (1999) was a study of the relationship between James Murray, the editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, and the insane citation collector Dr Minor. Winchester followed this with The Meaning of Everything (2003), a history of the Oxford English Dictionary project. In Australia, the reception of Don Watson’s Death Sentence: The Decay of Public Language (2003) and of Watson’s Dictionary of Weasel Words (2004) demonstrated the general reading public’s interest in language matters.

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It’s Always Been Basic

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June 1979, no. 11

So much has been written about Language One in various English teaching journals that there is little to add. What has been written has usually been critical – often very critical – ranging from ‘not only is it a bad book, but it is misleading’ (Idiom) to ‘buy one for your barbeque. soon’ (Opinion). Language Two will doubtless produce a similar response – from theorists, book reviewers, and the occasional highly competent teacher.

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