If your family has a the-end-is-nigh type who often cites people peppering their sentences with like or improper use of certain words (as if words had meaning by divine mandate) as evidence of the crumbling of the empire, this might be a good book to stuff into their stocking (or their mouth, for that matter). And in this volume he goes over much of what people not only do not understand about language, but what many so desperately need to learn about it. John McWhorter, on the other hand, knows what he is talking about. But language misconceptions are ubiquitous to the extent that even parts of the US federal government try to employ linguists to do a translator’s or interpreter’s job. It’s frustrating for the receiving party as well, as everyone seems to think that by merely speaking a language they are an authority on languages, and of course no one enjoys being told that they are wrong.
If there is a downside to a lifelong fascination with languages, it is having to politely tell people that they really don’t know what the hell they are talking about.
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