Overview

Language is the most human invention. Spontaneous, unruly, passionate, and erratic it resists every attempt to discipline or regularize it--a history celebrated here in all its irreverent glory. Language is a wild thing. It is vague and anarchic. Style, meaning, and usage are continually on the move. Throughout history, for every mutation, idiosyncrasy, and ubiquitous mistake, there have been countervailing rules, pronouncements and systems making some attempt to bring language to heel. From the utopian language-builder to the stereotypical grammatical stickler to the programmer trying to teach a computer to translate, Lane Greene takes the reader through a multi-disciplinary survey of the many different ways in which we attempt to control language, exploring the philosophies, motivations, and complications of each. The result is a highly readable caper that covers history, linguistics, politics, and grammar with the ease and humor of a dinner party anecdote. Talk on the Wild Side is both a guide to the great debates and controversies of usage, and a love letter to language itself. Holding it together is Greene's infectious enthusiasm for his subject. While you can walk away with the finer points of who says whom and the strange history of buxom schoolboys, most of all, it inspires awe in language itself: for its elegance, resourcefulness, and power.

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9781610398336

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Reviews

Lane Greene has succeeded in penning a book on language that will answer absolutely any question anyone in 2018 has about language, where it was and where it's going. Of course, if you want to know about some specific word, then you'll have to consult a dictionary -- but Talk on the Wild Side will even help you do a better job of that!--John McWhorter Lane Greene, like J. McWhorter, is a superb commentator on language & linguistics. --Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct We think alike on language, only Lane Greene knows more. --Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods

Lane Greene, like J. McWhorter, is a superb commentator on language & linguistics. --Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct We think alike on language, only Lane Greene knows more. --Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods

Author Information

Lane Greene is an American journalist, best known for his work for the Economist and his book about the politics of language, You Are What You Speak: Grammar Grouches, Language Laws, and the Politics of Identity.

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