Being an incorrigible word geek, I can’t help but share these items…
TOP OF THIS LIST: My new hero is Steven Pinker, a linguist and psychologist (or “cognitive scientist”) from Harvard. About a month ago I picked up his 1994 book The Language Instinct: How the mind creates language just as I was sorting through a thorny style guide revision for a client. I began to see language, and the role of grammar, in an entirely new way. What timing! Pinker’s work helped me puzzle through some tough stylistic issues, which I’ll be writing about later.
All editors should read Pinker’s work! The to-read book pile next to my bed currently features his titles The Blank Slate, How the Mind Works, and Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language. In Spring 2005 he’s teaching a course called The Human Mind.
His work is a bit controversial, but controversy is good – it forces you to think for yourself. I like how he thinks so much that I even forgive his occasional lapses into pedantic tongues.
Read the rest of this list…
- WordCount, a project by Jonathan Harris which bills itself as “an artistic experiment in the way we use language.” It’s simple and intriguing, although not especially useful. Basically, Harris displays data from the British National Corpus (a linguistic resource) in a slick, clean Flash interface. It’s information design meets word salad. From the about page: “The goal is for the user to feel embedded in the language, sifting through words like an archaeologist through sand, awaiting the unexpected find. Observing closely ranked words tells us a great deal about our culture. For instance, ‘God’ is one word from ‘began,’ two words from ’start,’ and six words from ‘war.’ Another sequence is ‘america ensure oil opportunity.’”
- Online Etymological Dictionary by Douglas Harper. I’m such a word geek, I find this incredibly fun. I keep looking up stray phrases. For instance, haywire: “‘poorly equipped, makeshift,’ 1905, Amer.Eng., lit. ’soft wire for binding bales of hay,’ from hay + wire. The extended sense being of something only held together with this, particularly said to be from use in New England lumber camps for jerry-rigging and makeshift purposes, so that haywire outfit became the term for a logging camp chronically ill-equipped and short on supplies. Its springy, uncontrollable quality led to the sense in go haywire (1929).”
- Long Words in German: Man, am I glad I chose to study Italian in college! Oberammergaueralpenkräuterdelikatessenfrühstückskäse? Give me a break!
- …Not that English is much better. The highly idiomatic nature of English, especially US English, is confusing and annoying to people all over the world. Need help? Check out English Idioms: Sayings and Slang by Wayne Magnuson. What I like is that this searchable online guide not only lists meanings but examples. It even includes phrases I wouldn’t immediately consider idiomatic, but which in fact are – like “up to date.” (Thanks to Nancy White for this link.)
- Merriam Webster Words of the Year 2004: The most-looked-up word in 2004, says the famed dictionary company, was blog. I’m amazed that defenestration made it into the top 10. Hmmmm, that’s a little scary…
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