Words on Words: Quotations about Language and Languages (Hardcover)

~ (Editor), Hilary Crystal (Editor) "1:1 Colours speak all Languages, but Words are understood only by such a People or Nation..." (more)
Key Phrases: intended second part, mid loth century, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Jerusalem Bible (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"I hate quotations," said Emerson in his Journals. "Tell me what you know." Poor Emerson. He didn't realize how very much could be known by browsing a book of quotations. Words on Words provides a sort of crash course in the history of thought about language and languages. Sure, what you get here are just snippets--nearly 5,000 of them--but those snippets will send you back to countless original sources. The result is a sort of Bartlett's for word lovers, language enthusiasts, and linguists. (As in Bartlett's, a generous portion of the text--nearly half--is devoted to indexes.)

Editors David Crystal and Hilary Crystal culled (and frequently corrected) quotations from elsewhere; they also read widely, gathering quotations from original sources. They were often surprised, they say in the book's introduction, by which texts rendered the most quotations: the works of Laurence Sterne, for example, were "unexpectedly fruitful"; Pepys's Diary, on the other hand, "yielded next to nothing." In their reading, the editors sought, among other qualities, "succinctness and autonomy of expression." They found this with abundance in the works of Oscar Wilde, as well as in those of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Montaigne, Emerson, Samuel Johnson, Dickens, and Ambrose Bierce (his unequaled Devil's Dictionary is widely quoted). The quotations have been sorted into 65 categories, focusing on such topics as language origins, usage, multilingualism, verbosity, slang, and the language of politics. One might think, given David Crystal's renown as a linguist, that professional linguists might have made a strong showing here. No go. "On the whole," the Crystals say, "linguists are remarkably unquoteworthy." --Jane Steinberg

Product Description

From Homer ("winged words") to Robert Burns ("Beware a tongue that's smoothly hung") to Rudyard Kipling ("Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind"), writers from all over the world have put pen to paper on the inexhaustible topic of language. Yet surprisingly, their writings on the subject have never been gathered in a single volume. In Words on Words, David and Hilary Crystal have collected nearly 5,000 quotations about language and all its intriguing aspects: speaking, reading, writing, translation, verbosity, usage, slang, and more. As the stock-in-trade of so many professions—orators, media personalities, writers, and countless others—language's appeal as a subject is extraordinarily relevant and wide-ranging.

The quotations are grouped thematically under 65 different headings, from "The Nature of Language" through the "Language of Politics" to "Quoting and Misquoting." This arrangement enables the reader to explore a topic through a variety of lenses, ancient and modern, domestic and foreign, scientific and casual, ironic and playful. Three thorough indexes—to authors, sources, and key words—provide different entry points into the collection. A valuable resource for professional writers and scholars, Words on Words is for anyone who loves language and all things linguistic.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 587 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (October 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226122018
• ISBN-13: 978-0226122014
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #874,931 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty, wonderful and wise words, December 2, 2000

By	Peter J. Silzer "AKA Dr. Language" (Monterey, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Everyone seems to have something to say about words. The wise, the not so wise; the educated, the less-educated; writers, poets, politicians. What would it be like to hear them all tell us what they thought about language? In Words on Words the compilers provide us with 5000 quotations from a wide range of sources.

The book is very well organized: about one half of the book (300 pages)is a systematicly organized collection of the quotations, the remaining pages (280) provides indices to sources and topics. You should be able to find any quote of interest quite easily.

David Crystal is a very familiar name in linguistic circles and has extensive editing experience. This new volume exhibits his same care for detail and provides yet another useful volume for students (and teachers) of language.