All in a Word : 100 Delightful Excursions into the Uses and Abuses of Words

by COOK, VIVIAN

• ISBN13: 9781935554226
• ISBN10: 1935554220
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2010-11-23
• Publisher: Melville House

Summary

Delve into the hidden nature of words: An irresistible mix of information, curiosity, and fun Linguist Vivian Cook takes us on a brilliant series of excursions into the history and meaning of words: How do we learn words as a child? How are words born, and why do they die? Why do some never get spoken, and others never written? Each chapter is charmingly illustrated-and accompanied by a rich assortment of games, lists, puzzles, and quotes. From polite words to crass words, from p-c words to Shakespearers"s words, from food and wine words to jazz and drug words-the book is an exciting exploration into the abundance and variety of words.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Thinking in Metaphors	p. 5
Gassers and Slashers: Doctors' Slang	p. 7
Beatles versus Stones	p. 9
Making Up Words	p. 10
How Many Words Do You Know? Basic Words Test	p. 11
Car Names	p. 15
Whose Nickname is That?	p. 18
Choosing the Right Adjective: Writers' Words	p. 21
Guessing Games with Words	p. 23
Superheroes in Cyberspace: Science Fiction Words	p. 25
What Does a Word Mean?	p. 26
Cooking with Words	p. 30
Fardling Gwiks: Structure Versus Content Words	p. 33
Gender and First Name	p. 36
Words with Many Meanings: The Case of "House"	p. 39
Words in the Blender	p. 42
Soft, Mellow, Fragrant and Sweet: Alcoholic Words	p. 44
Of Mice and Mouses: English Plurals	p. 48
Common Words	p. 50
Nicknames Rule! The Power of Nicknames	p. 53
Levels of Meaning	p. 55
Proper Names to Words	p. 57
The Shortest Word	p. 60
JetSpeak: What's the Point of Long Words?	p. 61
Divided by the Atlantic: American and British Words	p. 66
Indian Words in English	p. 69
Written Words That are Seldom Spoken	p. 71
Sex and Gender	p. 73
Where in the World Do They Come From? Regional Englishes	p. 75
Atoms of Meaning	p. 77
Word Games with Letter Arrangement	p. 81
Stuff and Nonsense: Phrases with "And"	p. 83
Body Parts in Metaphors	p. 85
English Names for Foreign Place	p. 87
Did Jeeves Speak French? French Words in English	p. 89
Historian or Lawgiver: The Purposes of Dictionaries	p. 91
English Words in Japanese	p. 95
Word Associations	p. 97
Seeing Colors	p. 101
Progenies of Learning: Malapropisms	p. 104
Hanky-panky with Igglepiggle: Reduplicative Words	p. 106
Is the Sea Blue or Do I Just See It as Blue? Linguistic Relativity	p. 108
At a Loss for Words: Aphasia	p. 113
How Old are Your Words? The Vocabulary of Different Generations	p. 115
Birdiest Birds: Prototypes	p. 117
Tasting the Worm: Spoonerisms	p. 118
Tip of the Tongue Test	p. 120
"Can the Can" (Suzi Quatro): Words and Multiple Meanings	p. 124
Can Sounds and Letters Have Meaning in Themselves? Sound Symbolism in Words	p. 126
Concordancing: Finding Out About Words	p. 128
Apes and Words	p. 133
Word Games with Restricted Production	p. 135
Chaucer's Words	p. 136
Igpay Atinlay: Pig Latin	p. 138
Forming New Words	p. 140
Which Words Change Historically?	p. 142
Proper English Food? The History of Food Words	p. 143
What Does Oprah Winfrey Mean to You? The Semantic Differential Test	p. 145
Stressed-out Nouns	p. 148
Dr. Johnson's Definitions	p. 150
Playing with Words	p. 152
The Family Tree of English	p. 153
Do you Understand Shakespeare?	p. 155
A Standard History	p. 157
Syllables: The Structure of Words	p. 158
You Silly Politician! Changes of Meaning	p. 160
Where Do English Words Come from? The Puzzle of Indo-European	p. 163
Majestic Radiance: Shakespeare's New Words	p. 166
Quotations on Words	p. 168
Phrases with Prepositions	p. 171
What is a Word?	p. 173
One English or Many Englishes?	p. 178
From TLV to IKA: Abbreviations for Airports	p. 181
Word Games with Sequences	p. 182
Can you Talk Black?	p. 184
Place Names around the English-speaking World	p. 186
Children's Mistakes	p. 188
Four Hundred and Thirty Sets	p. 190
Baby Talk across Languages	p. 191
Night Night Moo: Children's Early Words	p. 192
Ept and Chalant: Back-Formed Words	p. 193
More Up: Children's Two-Word Combinations	p. 194
Brown Blackbirds and Black Bluebottles: Compound Words	p. 196
How Do Children Learn Words?	p. 199
Choosing Words for Reading	p. 204
How Do You Learn New Vocabulary?	p. 207
Jazzin' around: Jazz Slang	p. 209
Seven Sieves for Learning a Language: The Eurocom Approach	p. 212
The Visions of Passionate People: Slogans of the 2000s	p. 214
Guessing Words in Context	p. 216
Basic English	p. 219
How to Remember Ten New Words	p. 223
General Semantics	p. 224
Piggy in the Middle: Adding to the Middle of Words	p. 226
Simplified Vocabularies: Political Correctness and Thought Control	p. 227
Schizophrenic	p. 232
On First-Name Terms	p. 234
Using Words in Odd Ways	p. 236
Warning, Words Can Damage Your Health: Newspeak	p. 237
How Do You Say "No"? Negation Across Languages	p. 242
How Many Words Do You Know? Advanced Words Test	p. 245
The Longest Word	p. 248
Words for Mother and Father	p. 249
From Pillar to Post: Opposites	p. 251
Breeze of the Death: Film Titles in Translation	p. 253
Does a Méiguì Smell as Sweet as a Rose?	p. 255
Addresses	p. 258
Relatives	p. 260
Pronouns	p. 262
Metaphors in Different Languages	p. 264
Pidgins and Creoles	p. 265
Size Matters: Big Sounds, Big Things	p. 267
Code-switching	p. 269
The Basic Human Words	p. 272
Answers	p. 275
Sources	p. 293
References	p. 295
Index of Themes	p. 301
Acknowledgements	p. 305
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