Robin Lakoff is SO a national treasure! Like whoa!

I hate making subjects lines.

I think it's kind of funny, and subtly clever, that those in the field of Linguistics said, "Nono. We're a social SCIENCE. Yes. Not in the Humanities department. Noooo. Science." Because- of all the areas of study one expects to be clever with words- here we see that Linguistics signs, seals, and delivers.
Or something.

Someone had this book before me and there's some highlighting in it. So I suppose I should mention that this person felt that semantics and pragmatics were very important, as well as pretty much anything that has to do with linguistics and culture. And that this person used an orange highlighter. Ooooh. Orange.

At first I was worried I wasn't going to like (tolerate?) this book. In the Introduction, Lakoff sort of dances around the word "Linguistics", telling every possible interpretation- just to know what it IS. Judging from Chapter One, and flipping ahead a bit, later chapters seem a bit more concrete. Dealing with aspects of Linguistics, rather than just the vague word. (This isn't the Mexican Hat Dance, buddy. If you step on it, you don't have to marry it.)

Chapter One Comments:
-Hillary Clinton is NOT Helen of Troy. No way, no how.
-Lakoff says that words have no physical reality, and yet the have such a great effect. In the same vein, thoughts have no physical reality- ideas have no physical reality- and yet their effects can be just as great as things that do have a physical reality.
-The section on apologies reminded me of how much I can't stand it when people say, "I'm sorry that you feel that way." And not actually apologize for whatever it is they did. Grr.

This book just might be interesting. (I try not to get my hopes up.)