Um. . .: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean-Fast Shipping

Description

Essential reading for talkers and listeners of all stripes: An original, entertaining, and surprising book that investigates verbal blunders: what they are, what they say about those who make them, and how and why we’ve come to judge them.

“An enjoyable tour of linguistic mishaps.” —The New York Times Book Review

Um… is about how you really speak, and why it’s normal for your everydayspeech to be filled with errors—about one in every ten words. In this charming, engagingaccount of language in the wild, linguist and writer Michael Erard also explainswhy our attention to some blunders rises and falls. Where did the Freudian slip comefrom? Why do we prize “umlessness” in speaking—and should we? And how do we explainthe American presidents who are famous for their verbal stumbles?