The Life of Language: The Fascinating Ways Words are Born, Live & Die
by Sol Steinmetz, Barbara Ann Kipfer (Author)
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Description
"The Life of Language offers fascinating answers to these and many other questions. From baby talk and back-formations to neologisms and nonce words, this often humorous guide to word formation chronicles the many paths words take into-and out of-the English language. An exciting journey through a constantly-changing sea of words, The Life of Language will expand your vocabulary and help you gain a deeper understanding of the development and use of words. Book jacket."--Jacket.Tags
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Member Reviews
This book was both too specific and too general at the same time. The chapters were incredibly short and breezed through concepts and examples. Which might be fine for someone with linguistic knowledge but I needed more to sink my teeth into.
Read 56 pages (per Nancy Pearl's rule).
Read 56 pages (per Nancy Pearl's rule).
This book wasn't quite what I was expecting but I still found it somewhat interesting. There was a lot about verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc. and how they are formed from one another and many lists of examples of the different ways in which English acquires new words. The authors are writing for the nonspecialist and they try to cover their subject in an entertaining manner. However, i will be returning to this book only when I want to look up a specific area of word formation. Included is a list of books consulted and a suggested reading list.
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Author Information
10 Works 817 Members
Barbara Ann Kipfer is an archaeologist, lexicographer, hiker, former sportswriter, and author of more than 65 books and calendars.
Some Editions
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2006-07-11
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 52
- Popularity
- 585,704
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (2.33)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 1
- ASINs
- 1
