Philosophy
by
David Wilton
ISBN-10: 0195375572
ISBN-13: 978-0195375572
Did you ever think that Ring Around The Rosie makes reference to the Black Death of the Middle Ages? Or that the whole nine yards refers to the length of a machinegun ammo belt? Or perhaps that Eskimos have 500 words for snow? If so, then you have been taken in by a linguistic urban legend. Like classic urban legends, these linguistic legends are popular and pervasive. Instead of propagating cautionary tales about the dangers of modern life, linguistic urban folklore propagates stories and “facts” about language.
Word Myths takes on these linguistic urban legends, not just debunking them, but also examining why they are told and what they tell us about ourselves. The book examines the patterns underlying these legends and comes to conclusions about such things as why we attach morbid tales to children’s rhymes, why newspapers keep promulgating false origins for terms like the Windy City, or why so many words have false nautical origins. Word Myths is an entertaining, yet authoritative, look at these and other linguistic legends.
“Most everything you know about word and phrase origins is likely to be wrong, and David Wilton proves it with a light touch and a wealth of fascinating case histories. Absolutely everyone with an interest in language will love this book.”-- J.E. Lighter, Editor, Historical Dictionary of American Slang.
- The Necessity Of Curse Words
The shorter of the short people has become fascinated with curse words. The idea that there are culturally forbidden sounds makes these sounds interesting. As a reuslt, he's invented his own, nork (the sound made by the Siamese elephants in Tim Conway's...
- Novel Statements
One of the most amazing aspects of our linguistic faculties (and I don't mean Spanish professors) is our ability to create and understand entirely novel statements. It is one thing to be conditioned to respond to certain stimuli in linguistic ways....
- Who Owns The Pronunciation Of Names?
The shorter of the short people had a field trip the other day to the Utz potato chip factory (for those not on the east coast of the US, Utz makes the best potato chips in the world). It turns out that the granddaughter of the owner is one of his classmates...
- Evolution And Degradation Of Language
So, at a wonderful BBQ at YKW's place, the conversation turned to language. I mentioned that the short people had discovered MadLibs at the same time I was grading student papers, and this led me to think about parts of speech. I remarked how the...
- When Do You Join The Linguistic Community?
So one of the shorties was relaying with some agitation being told by a classmate that she was being rude when she was in fact being creative with no ill intent at all. She and a friend had developed a secret handshake of their own. They had seen others...
Philosophy
Fun book..."Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends"
Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends
by
David Wilton
ISBN-10: 0195375572
ISBN-13: 978-0195375572
Did you ever think that Ring Around The Rosie makes reference to the Black Death of the Middle Ages? Or that the whole nine yards refers to the length of a machinegun ammo belt? Or perhaps that Eskimos have 500 words for snow? If so, then you have been taken in by a linguistic urban legend. Like classic urban legends, these linguistic legends are popular and pervasive. Instead of propagating cautionary tales about the dangers of modern life, linguistic urban folklore propagates stories and “facts” about language.
Word Myths takes on these linguistic urban legends, not just debunking them, but also examining why they are told and what they tell us about ourselves. The book examines the patterns underlying these legends and comes to conclusions about such things as why we attach morbid tales to children’s rhymes, why newspapers keep promulgating false origins for terms like the Windy City, or why so many words have false nautical origins. Word Myths is an entertaining, yet authoritative, look at these and other linguistic legends.
“Most everything you know about word and phrase origins is likely to be wrong, and David Wilton proves it with a light touch and a wealth of fascinating case histories. Absolutely everyone with an interest in language will love this book.”-- J.E. Lighter, Editor, Historical Dictionary of American Slang.
- The Necessity Of Curse Words
The shorter of the short people has become fascinated with curse words. The idea that there are culturally forbidden sounds makes these sounds interesting. As a reuslt, he's invented his own, nork (the sound made by the Siamese elephants in Tim Conway's...
- Novel Statements
One of the most amazing aspects of our linguistic faculties (and I don't mean Spanish professors) is our ability to create and understand entirely novel statements. It is one thing to be conditioned to respond to certain stimuli in linguistic ways....
- Who Owns The Pronunciation Of Names?
The shorter of the short people had a field trip the other day to the Utz potato chip factory (for those not on the east coast of the US, Utz makes the best potato chips in the world). It turns out that the granddaughter of the owner is one of his classmates...
- Evolution And Degradation Of Language
So, at a wonderful BBQ at YKW's place, the conversation turned to language. I mentioned that the short people had discovered MadLibs at the same time I was grading student papers, and this led me to think about parts of speech. I remarked how the...
- When Do You Join The Linguistic Community?
So one of the shorties was relaying with some agitation being told by a classmate that she was being rude when she was in fact being creative with no ill intent at all. She and a friend had developed a secret handshake of their own. They had seen others...