Why is it that we talk so much? Why can't we
influence the way we speak and why do we use
swearwords even when we don't want to? These and
other questions are the starting point of this book.
So called bad language is dealt with, as is
politeness, and possible reasons for our use of
certain types of language like medical or legal
jargon are investigated. From a biological point of
view these phenomena seem to be rather harmful to the
speaker sometimes, but once we adopt a memetic point
of view they seem to make perfect sense. So after a
brief introduction into both evolutionary biology and
memetics, Edith Simmel explores certain peculiarities
of language and discusses possible explanations for
our speaking behaviours.
influence the way we speak and why do we use
swearwords even when we don't want to? These and
other questions are the starting point of this book.
So called bad language is dealt with, as is
politeness, and possible reasons for our use of
certain types of language like medical or legal
jargon are investigated. From a biological point of
view these phenomena seem to be rather harmful to the
speaker sometimes, but once we adopt a memetic point
of view they seem to make perfect sense. So after a
brief introduction into both evolutionary biology and
memetics, Edith Simmel explores certain peculiarities
of language and discusses possible explanations for
our speaking behaviours.