- Hardcover: 189 pages
- Publisher: Pocket Books; 1st edition (August 1989)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0671689061
- ISBN-13: 978-0671689063
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 13.5 x 1.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 204 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #767,475 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
One of the most unforgettable moments of my youth was learning the word pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. I was in third grade. So what if Richard Lederer has come up with a chemical compound that consists of 1,913 letters? Owning a word like pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is empowering at any age. If you have ever been completely wowed by the power you can have over language, or its power over you, Richard Lederer is your patron saint. His oft-reprinted introduction to Crazy English, which was originally published in 1989, claims that English is "the most loopy and wiggy of all tongues." And then he demonstrates: "In what other language do people drive in a parkway and park in a driveway? ... Why do they call them apartments when they're all together?" And so on. Lederer's pace is frenetic. He alights on oxymorons ("pretty ugly," "computer jock"), redundancies, confusing words (are you sure you know the meaning of enormity?), phobias, contronyms, heteronyms, retroactive terms (acoustic guitar, rotary phone), and a host of other linguistic delights.
Though English may be one of the crazier languages--Lederer claims that about 80 percent of our words are not spelled phonetically--they are all, he says, a little crazy. "That's because language is invented ... by boys and girls and men and women, not computers. As such, language reflects the creative and fearful asymmetry of the human race, which, of course, isn't really a race at all." --Jane Steinberg --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
From Publishers Weekly
A journalist, teacher at St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H., and public-radio commentator, Lederer ( Anguished English ; Get Thee to a Punnery ) again adroitly mixes instruction with hilarity by showing that English, though the richest and most widely used of all the world's languages, is "crazy." The text is a dazzling collection of anagrams, alliterations, idioms, illogical spelling rules (bough, ghost, honor, rhyme) and larky oxymora (Chaucer's classic "hateful good," today's "military intelligence," "postal service") . Verses, quizzes and anecdotes accompany Lederer's essays on "the antics of semantics," greatly expanding the pleasure of what he correctly claims is "the ultimate joy ride through our language." Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild alternates; author tour.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
English is the most widely spoken language in the history of our planet, used in some way by at least one out of every seven human beings around the globe. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
English is the most widely spoken language in the history of our planet, used in some way by at least one out of every seven human beings around the globe. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Crazy English,
By Jon Huska (Davidsville, PA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Crazy English (Paperback)
Recently I read the book Crazy English by Richard Lederer for a school project. I thought it was a very interesting book and it really did explain why our English language is so crazy. My favorite part of the book was the Tense Times with Verbs secetion. There were very good poems written in this chapter to help explain and give examples of how our language doesn't make sense sometimes. Another good portion of the book is The Sounds of English, it talks about the many different letters that have different sounds and the words that have mute letters, or silent letters. It has a very indepth perspective of many different sounds and why they are spelled and said the way they are. Overall, I thought this was a very educational book and interesting to read.
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you're interested in language, this is a great book.,
By
This review is from: Crazy English (Paperback)
It's not a text book style book on the dusty history of the English language. Mr. Lederer writes an easy to read (pardon the expression) light hearted look at some of the eccentricities of the English language. Overall, a very enteratining read.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Quite a disappointment, really,
By Fabio Rossi (Milano, MI Italy) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Crazy English (Paperback)
As a non-native English speaker (but a reasonably accomplished journalist and translator) I really looked forward to this book. After all, the excerpts I found online and in the readers' comments were wonderful... Unfortunately, I discovered that the reality of Crazy English is that of a quite "normal" textbook on rethorics. The examples are usually funny, but if you're experienced enough with English you don't really need anyone to explain you again what omophonics and "false friends" are. Oh, and the author really tends to be quite logorrhoic in his drive to show us how many words he does know - sometimes failing miserably with his explanations of Latin origin of words. Interesting, mildly fun but quite a disappointment, really.
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