Art of Verbal Warfare

We use salty or artful language to win arguments, slander, cheat and bully, as well as to express feelings of joy or frustration by swearing or blowing off steam. Rik Smits delves into the magic of oaths and profanity, art and advertising, the lure of fake-news and propaganda, as well as invective and off-colour jokes the world over. The book shows why conversation dies in crowded lifts, and what drives you to curse at your laptop. This is, when all is said and done, the story of how we get through life without coming to physical blows.

About the author

Rik Smits is a linguist based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His books include The Puzzle of Left-handedness (Reaktion, 2011) and Dawn: The Origins of Language and the Modern Human Mind (2016).

Summary

A dive into salty and artful language, invective and off-colour jokes the world over.

Report

If you want to know why you swear, what counts as a potty mouth in other cultures, and why words can hurt more than sticks and stones, then this rampage of a book is for you: it will amuse, embarrass, provoke, enlighten and annoy the hell out of you about all forms of dirty language and dirty politics. For it is also a passionate defence of the joys and failures Western democracy, liberalism and rationality for which using words well really matters.', Simon Goldhill, Professor of Greek, University of Cambridge, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge and Foreign Secretary of the British Academy

Product details

• Authors: Rik Smits, Smits Rik
• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.08.2022
• EAN: 9781789145946
• ISBN: 978-1-78914-594-6
• No. of pages: 640
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Sociolinguistics, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Communication Studies, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Rhetoric, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Customs & Traditions, Language: history & general works, Language: history and general works