You know what I mean
Subtitle: words, contexts, and communication
By: Ruth Wajnryb.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 225
ISBN-13: 9780521878852; 9780521703741
Subjects: English language -- Idioms; English language -- Usage; Lexicology; English language -- Spoken English
Description: "Does a word mean what it says? Sometimes - but not always. Everyone thinks that meaning is contained within words - like sardines in a tin, or milk in a bottle. After all, words are nice stable things that you can look up in a dictionary aren't they? But dictionaries only take us so far ... If you eavesdropped on a teenage conversation, rushing to a dictionary - with its definitions frozen in time - wouldn't help much. Who's using a word and to whom, in what context, for what purpose - all these influence the meaning of the language we use. The word's origins and history (its 'genetics') also help. Try teaching yourself another language from a phrasebook and you'll soon learn that you can be correct, in the formal sense, but still way behind the times in reality. In this book Wajnryb considers these and other questions to explore how and why our language works the way it does."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Nuts and bolts; title: Word behaviours; title: Between the lines; title: Political; title: Inspired by books .lms and media; title: Gender; title: Text-types; title: Fields of discourse; title: Word biographies; title: World Englishes.