Fighting talk

An investigation of the power of words reserves its strongest language for the politically correct.

- GREG DIXON

THE ART OF VERBAL WARFARE, by Rik Smits (Reaktion Books, $57.99 hb) The old saw has it completely wrong.

Sticks and stones will break our bones, but as Rik Smits' brilliantly sweary new book The Art of Verbal Warfare explains, names - that is to say words - can certainly hurt us. With language, any language, we can swear, curse, name call, intimidate, insult, misinform, disinform, cheat, ridicule, sexually harass, dehumanise and more. And each of these acts of verbal aggression has the ability to do harm. "Talk can wound, and often it does," the Dutch linguist and author writes.

That said, that this weighty, exhaustive examination of words as weapons (it runs to 500 pages) should be so entertaining says much about how enjoyable - as well as employable - verbal warfare is, at least for those of us who appreciate a great put-down and a pungent, full-bodied expletive.