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.
この記事は New Zealand Listener の November 12-18 2022 版に掲載されています。
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この記事は New Zealand Listener の November 12-18 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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