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Larpers and Shroomers: The Language Report
This new edition of The Language Report covers all aspects of contemporary English as an evolving and mutating language. Slang, text, music, politics, idioms, and the media all contribute to changing the English we speak. This volume aims to chronicle this shapeshifting language over through
its recent history, and with a special emphasis on 2004.
A collection of some of the most intriguing facts and observations on spoken and written English today, this volume makes for excellent browsing. The fascinating development of euphemisms is covered, from sacking to halving the footprint, by way of making redundant and downsizing. New words are an
essential part of this book, from the brand new 'intextication' to 'sexiles' and 'gangmasters'.
Larpers and Shroomers examines the newest words in the language, and looks at the influence of current events, politics, and the media on everyday vocabulary, explains trends in grammar, and includes memorables quotes of the year.
its recent history, and with a special emphasis on 2004.
A collection of some of the most intriguing facts and observations on spoken and written English today, this volume makes for excellent browsing. The fascinating development of euphemisms is covered, from sacking to halving the footprint, by way of making redundant and downsizing. New words are an
essential part of this book, from the brand new 'intextication' to 'sexiles' and 'gangmasters'.
Larpers and Shroomers examines the newest words in the language, and looks at the influence of current events, politics, and the media on everyday vocabulary, explains trends in grammar, and includes memorables quotes of the year.
174 pages, Hardcover
First published November 5, 2004
103 people want to read
About the author
Susie Dent
24 books524 followersDent was educated at the Marist Convent in Ascot, an independent Roman Catholic day school. She went on to Somerville College, Oxford for her B.A. in modern languages, then to Princeton University for her master's degree in German.
Dent is serves as the resident lexicographer and adjudicator for the letters rounds on long-running British game show Countdown. At the time she began work on Countdown in 1992, she had just started working for the Oxford University Press on producing English dictionaries, having previously worked on bilingual dictionaries.
Dent is serves as the resident lexicographer and adjudicator for the letters rounds on long-running British game show Countdown. At the time she began work on Countdown in 1992, she had just started working for the Oxford University Press on producing English dictionaries, having previously worked on bilingual dictionaries.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 3, 2013
If you’re interested enough in the English language to be spending your time reading a review of this book, you already know everything I’d normally put in the lead paragraph: that any language changes over time; that English – far from being an exception – is a premier example; and that writers and speakers of English are exuberant inventors, promiscuous borrowers, and shameless repurposers of words. Suffice it to say, then, that Larpers and Shroomers is a testament to all of that: A study of a language in the process of becoming, and a snapshot of what it looked like at a particular moment in time.
Larpers and Shroomers is one in a short-lived series of such annual snapshots, collectively titled (after the first one) “The Language Report.” It inventories new words and expressions from the worlds of computers, advertising, politics, teenage slang, and other fertile areas – documenting their meanings and the nuances attached to them, tracing their emergence, and inventorying their inventors (if known) and early adopters. Published by Oxford University Press -- the people who brought you the Oxford English Dictionary – it’s intended (and reads) as a serious attempt to document the evolution of English. Bright is, in effect, an anthropologist loose among British (and, to a lesser extent, American) users of English: Observing and recording, building a richly detailed mosaic of observations one carefully placed fact at a time.
The serious intent of the project doesn’t, however, mean that the execution is dull. Far from it. The cover design of the book is whimsical, the writing accessible, and the humor – present throughout the short chapters – subtle but abundant. Larpers and Shroomers is neither prescriptive (like William Safire’s On Language and its many sequels), nor interpretive (like Geoffrey Nunberg’s Going Nucular), but it offers similar pleasures to readers who’re fascinating by the richness and diversity of English. If you’re in that category, give Bright a try . . . and know that there are four more volumes where this one came from.
Larpers and Shroomers is one in a short-lived series of such annual snapshots, collectively titled (after the first one) “The Language Report.” It inventories new words and expressions from the worlds of computers, advertising, politics, teenage slang, and other fertile areas – documenting their meanings and the nuances attached to them, tracing their emergence, and inventorying their inventors (if known) and early adopters. Published by Oxford University Press -- the people who brought you the Oxford English Dictionary – it’s intended (and reads) as a serious attempt to document the evolution of English. Bright is, in effect, an anthropologist loose among British (and, to a lesser extent, American) users of English: Observing and recording, building a richly detailed mosaic of observations one carefully placed fact at a time.
The serious intent of the project doesn’t, however, mean that the execution is dull. Far from it. The cover design of the book is whimsical, the writing accessible, and the humor – present throughout the short chapters – subtle but abundant. Larpers and Shroomers is neither prescriptive (like William Safire’s On Language and its many sequels), nor interpretive (like Geoffrey Nunberg’s Going Nucular), but it offers similar pleasures to readers who’re fascinating by the richness and diversity of English. If you’re in that category, give Bright a try . . . and know that there are four more volumes where this one came from.
July 31, 2011
This book is an interesting and thoughtful look intot the current state of our language (well, it is ca. 2004, but this is the first edition of these that I am reading). This book is a fascinating look into the language that is creeping into our vocabulary almost monthly as well as the etymology of the terms that we have begun to use overall. I have to say that this one is much more in depth than the etymology provided by a standard dictionary (well, to be honest, it covers the modern etymology) and it is definitely a thoughtful and reflective narrative on the origins of modern confusing vocabulary in such a way that I can happily explore words that I use and know where they first landed on the scene of English. Much more helpful than any annotated modern dictionary, this book (from what I understand is one of the firsts of Oxford's series) is a lot of fun, and it definitely explores the dynamism of Modern English in a way that has never been attempted before. Pick it up!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews