I too really enjoyed this chapter... I remember a 4th year phonetics class where we discussed phonesthesia for most of a week. Two ideas really struck me in this chapter -- the discussion of how only some neologisms catch on, and the discussion on trends. [Neologisms that drive me crazy: 'bling' '24...

Naming is powerful, and it's a great topic...whether the chapter is comprehensible or not!! Suzette Haden Elgin, SF writer, Linguist, created a language that "is by women, for women and expresses the perceptions of women" called Laadan (http://www.sfwa.org/members/elgin/Laadan.html) for a ...

Penelope said: Audrey - I would once have said it is because you are American that you couldn't get Jane Eyre. But my daughter who was born and bred here, quite close to the Yorkshire Moors, also hated her. You could try - The Wild Sargasso Sea - by Jean Rees. That is about Mrs. Rochester - the mad ...

tlpounds...I'm not ignoring your thoughts on eternal return, but I think it's been discussed nicely in the Chapter 3 thread (and, I've only got a couple of minutes before I have to take my morning shower and get on with my life!!) I wanted to pop in and leave this sentence by Pinker (p. 161), that j...

tlpounds says [quote]Well, "thank you" in Chinese is "xie-xie ni." This phrase literally translates into English as "one inch shorter." What does the measurement for length/height have to do with the meaning of "thank you" to the Chinese, you may ask? Well, in...

I'd join in on some reading of livres en francais...

Welcome, Audrey! Just jump right in, the water's fine!

Ophelia says: when I am really interested in something, fiction or non-fiction, I can read very quickly. This is not necessarily always an advantage, as I come to the end of a good book too quickly and it makes the hobby expensive. Oh! True words!! Another disadvantage is that I find when I try to r...

I have a co-worker who takes Lent very seriously, being Catholic. But he calls it "his Ramadan"...and while I think I understand why he does that, man, I get annoyed by it! He's lived in Canada for decades, but is still firmly rooted in Nigeria -- I think he thinks that the average Canadia...

Julian: Here's a concern that came to mind when reading that part of the book. Since I wasn't previously familiar with those theories, my sole exposure to them came from someone who disagrees with them. Though Pinker puts forth a good-faith effort to describe opposing theories, it still seems a litt...

I'm with the crowd here...I tend to avoid based-on-a-book movies of books I've read. Although, if it's not Hollywood attempting it, it can turn out quite well. What most books require is time and loving devotion, to turn out a good visual rendition. Bad = the first Harry Potter movie. I spent the wh...