Words on the Move: Why English Won't - and Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally)

by John McWhorter

Overview

A bestselling linguist takes us on a lively tour of how the English language is evolving before our eyes — and why we should embrace this transformation and not fight it

Language is always changing — but we tend not to like it. We understand that new words must be created for new things, but the way English is spoken today rubs many of us the wrong way. Whether it’s the use of literally to mean “figuratively” rather than “by the letter,” or the way young people use LOL and like, or business jargon like What’s the ask? — it often seems as if the language is deteriorating before our eyes.

But the truth is different and a lot less scary, as John McWhorter shows in this delightful and eye-opening exploration of how English has always been in motion and continues to evolve today. Drawing examples from everyday life and employing a generous helping of humor, he shows that these shifts are a natural process common to all languages, and that we should embrace and appreciate these changes, not condemn them.

Words on the Move opens our eyes to the surprising backstories to the words and expressions we use every day. Did you know that silly once meant “blessed”? Or that ought was the original past tense of owe? Or that the suffix -ly in adverbs is actually a remnant of the word like? And have you ever wondered why some people from New Orleans sound as if they come from Brooklyn?

McWhorter encourages us to marvel at the dynamism and resilience of the English language, and his book offers a lively journey through which we discover that words are ever on the move and our lives are all the richer for it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627794718
Publisher:	Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/06/2016
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

John McWhorter is an associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and is the author of more than fifteen books, including The Language Hoax, The Power of Babel, and Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue. He writes for TIME, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic, and his articles have also appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and The Daily Beast.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 The Faces of English: Words Get Personal 11

2 It's the Implication That Matters: Words on the Move 55

3 When Words Stop Being Words: Where Does Grammar Come From? 102

4 A Vowel Is a Process: Words Start Sounding Different 135

5 Lexical Springtime: Words Mate and Reproduce 172

6 This Is Your Brain on Writing: Lingering Questions 203

Notes 233

Acknowledgments 243

Index 245

Editorial Reviews

John McWhorter's Words on the Move is…a sort of master class in how to prove a point. McWhorter first staggers you with a glittering analogy, and then, once you are off-guard, he bombards you with so many (brilliant) examples that resistance is both useless and out of the question. I have to say, I loved Words on the Move, but it's possible I am suffering from Stockholm syndrome.

The New York Times Book Review - Lynne Truss

12/05/2016
McWhorter (The Language Hoax) will make word snobs clutch their pearls and gasp in dismay as he convincingly argues that they should “shed the contempt: the acrid disgust so many people seem to harbor for people who use the forms we have been taught are ‘bad.’ ” McWhorter shows the mutability that lies at the core of all language, exploring words that transition from semantic to pragmatic use, the evolution of word meanings, words that become grammar, changes in pronunciation over time, and the ways words combine to form new words. Along the way he specifically addresses infamous irritants such as using “literally” figuratively, uptalk, and speech peppered with “like.” Contextualizing them in lexical history, McWhorter shows how they are similar to other changes we now take for granted (such as the evolution of the suffix -like into the common adverbial ending -ly). McWhorter employs a jocular style that makes for smooth reading, without sacrificing the complexity of the subject. Sometimes the humor is a bit stretched, but the overall effect is an unintimidating welcome to readers new to the subject that pleasantly relaxes the discourse of grammar propriety. Agent: Katinka Matson, Brockman. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

“John McWhorter’s Words on the Move has a deeper point than most language books: it’s focused on the ordinary words which do most of the grunt work of communicating, but which we rarely give much thought to. It’s full of little puzzles and surprises that stop us in our tracks and make us aware of the gentle breezes that are always blowing our words hither and yon. McWhorter is awfully good at listening to words and at explaining what he hears there, and his book is so brimming with insights that even as a linguist, I found myself stopping every couple of pages to say to myself, ‘Huh—I never thought of that.’ So will you.”
--Geoffrey Nunberg, linguist on NPR’s “Fresh Air” and author of Going Nucular and Ascent of the A-Word

“If you want to hate on new developments in English, you should at least understand why. With a combination of linguistic erudition and ready wit, John McWhorter takes us on a tour of a thousand years of the history of English, showing how language change is natural, unavoidable, and fascinating. You’ll come away with a better realization of why you feel the way you do—and why you shouldn’t.”
--Jesse Sheidlower, author of The F-Word, former editor at large of the Oxford English Dictionary, and past president of the American Dialect Society

“Witty and wise, John McWhorter’s Words on the Move is an adventure and a romp, full of surprises and delights. If you love language, you will love this book. You’ll never think of language in the same way again.”
--Deborah Tannen, university professor and professor of linguistics, Georgetown University, and author of You Just Don’t Understand

From the Publisher

2016-07-19
A brisk look at how and why words change.In his 17th book investigating the variety, history, and idiosyncrasy of language, McWhorter (English and Comparative Literature/Columbia Univ.; The Language Hoax: Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language, 2014, etc.) enthusiastically makes the case that language is fluid. “It’s always a safe bet that a word will not be tomorrow what it is today,” he writes. Language is “something becoming rather than being” and “ever in flux; the changing is all there is.” To support this idea, repeated throughout the book, McWhorter offers myriad, and often fascinating, word histories. The word “silly,” for example, evolved from meaning “blessed” to “innocent” to “weak.” Some words narrow or broaden their meanings: “apple” once referred to all fruit, and what we call “meat” used to be “flesh.” The author devotes much discussion to “literally,” which originally meant “by the letter” but has gained “purely figurative usage” to mean something closer to “actually.” McWhorter is not bothered by this drift in meaning, but he realizes that some people are. “If the way so many people talk is okay, then what counts as a mistake?” he is often asked. He concedes that individual misuse or mispronunciations can’t be defended, but he is on the lookout for widespread changes. “Nuclear,” he writes, is pronounced “nucular” by some who, he suggests generously, may be modeling it on such words as “spectacular” and “tubular.” Tracing patterns of changing sounds, the author notes that when verbs become nouns, the accent shifts backward: “It’s why someone who re-BELS is a RE-bel.” McWhorter also offers an intricate, if not fully convincing, etymology to defend the ubiquitous use of “like” in popular speech. Although he posits “no scientific grounds for considering any way of speaking erroneous in some structural or logical sense,” he does acknowledge “that some ways of speaking are more appropriate for formal settings than others.” As in most of his books, McWhorter proves to be a well-informed and cheerful guide to linguistics.

Kirkus Reviews