We live in a torrent of words - from radio and television, books and newspapers, and now from the internet. But, as Julian Burnside reminds us here, words are a source both of pleasure and power, and can be deployed for good or for ill. Some of these essays explore curiosities in odd corners of the language simply to remind us of the extraordinary richness of the English language. Other pieces use small matters of language to illustrate larger processes of cultural borrowing and change. Burnside's musings remind us that we should not be alarmed at the instability of the language; rather, we should see its wanton borrowings as a source of strength and vitality. Word Watching also reminds us of the need to be aware of the misuse of language in the service of sinister purposes - whether political, ideological, social or personal. An ear well tuned to the nuances of vocabulary inoculates the hearer against this epidemic of deception. Citing everyone from the ancient Greeks to Samuel Johnson, George Orwell, Ned Kelly, George W. Bush, and John Howard, Word Watching is a fascinating demonstration of the power and the pleasure of the English language.

Reviews

Julian Burnside, a barrister who specialises in both commercial litigation and human rights work, is a passionate, erudite and witty man. His dissection of the vagaries and bastard history of the English language is worthy of his illustrious predecessors, Johnson and Fowler. His ‘field notes’ comprise essays loosely based on themes, through which he explores how words develop, how their meanings drift, how they are invented, uncovering strange connections, lost words, and gaps in the language. Why does English have no equivalent to schadenfreude? And how did shibboleth, an ear of corn in Hebrew, become a tool for discerning social class? Burnside writes elegantly and with enormous relish. One of the great pleasures of this book is his exposure of political ‘doublespeak’. Similarly, the misuse of words in the press, corrupting their meaning, draws his fire. His chapters on ‘naughty words’, ‘haitch’, and ‘terminal prepositions’ reduced this reader to tears of excruciation and delight. As for slang, while we may embrace ‘blamestorming’, ‘going postal’ and other apt neologisms, golden oldies like ‘berk’ and ‘poppycock’, their origins revealed, should not be countenanced in polite society! This is a book for any lover of language, and of ideas. Kathy Hope is a former trade editor who now works in medical communications C. 2004 Thorpe-Bowker and contributors