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Wordwatching [electronic resource] : Field Notes of an Amateur Philologist

Burnside, Julian2025

eAudioBook

Summary

We live in a torrent of words – from radio and television, books and newspapers, and now from the internet. But, as Julian Burnside reminds us in this new edition of the bestseller Wordwatching, words are a source both of pleasure and power, and can be deployed for good or for ill.Some of these essays explore curiosities in odd corners of the language simply to remind us of the extraordinary richness of the English language. Other pieces use small matters of language to illustrate larger processes of cultural borrowing and change. Burnside's musings remind us of the instability of English; we should see its wanton borrowings as a source of its strength and vitality. Wordwatching also reminds us of the misuse of language in the service of sinister purposes.With nine new essays, dealing with subjects as diverse as deadlines, fancy words, the problems with 'issue', odd sounds, oxymorons and the fallacy of 'wading in', this revised and expanded edition of Wordwatching is a fascinating demonstration of the power and the pleasure of the English language.