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The Human Hands behind Dictionaries (The Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins, #3)

0/5 ( ratings)

Go behind the scenes of the world's dictionaries and see the very human decisions that go into creating them. Lexicographers tend to take a descriptive approach to language and study how we use words, including slang. But as readers, we turn to the dictionary for a prescriptive guide on how we should use words.

It's a human impulse to play with language and to create new words and meanings - but also to worry about the decay of language. But by studying how and why language changes and the story behind the everyday words in our lexicon, we can learn a lot about ourselves - how our minds work and how our culture has changed over the centuries.

Language: English

Format: Audiobook

Release: January 01, 2012

The Human Hands behind Dictionaries (The Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins, #3)

0/5 ( ratings)

Go behind the scenes of the world's dictionaries and see the very human decisions that go into creating them. Lexicographers tend to take a descriptive approach to language and study how we use words, including slang. But as readers, we turn to the dictionary for a prescriptive guide on how we should use words.

It's a human impulse to play with language and to create new words and meanings - but also to worry about the decay of language. But by studying how and why language changes and the story behind the everyday words in our lexicon, we can learn a lot about ourselves - how our minds work and how our culture has changed over the centuries.

Language: English

Format: Audiobook

Release: January 01, 2012

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