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November 13-17, 2000
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Speaking with the Verbivore
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A carnivore describes any species that eats meat. A herbivore eats only vegetation. And a verbivore...well, a verbivore eats language. What does self-appointed verbivore Richard Lederer find so tasty about the English language? Richard Lederer began his career as a teacher. In fact, he served for decades as the head of the English Department at the prestigious St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. Along the way, his love of language and his way with words took him in directions he had not anticipated. Lederer completed his Ph.D. in linguistics—the study of language and its structure—and he began publishing a column, "Looking at Language," that now appears in newspapers and magazines around the country. "My focus is on the glorious, uproarious, humanness of language. It is very playful." he says. "And this is why you 'drive on a parkway' and 'park in a driveway.' Or 'your nose can run' and 'your feet can smell.'"
These bloopers offer serious competition to America's Funniest Home Videos. Did you know, for instance, that "Columbus discovered America cursing around the Atlantic Ocean on the Nina, Pinta Colada, and the Santa Fe"? Or that "Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope"? "I love the misplaced modifiers," Lederer says, as he points out that some readers would think the famous president made strange choices in transportation. "Of course, our stomachs are detonated into a rolling boil because 'on the back of an envelope' is misplaced. "Similarly with metaphors, you want to be consistent, or you will kindle a flood of laughter in your readers or listeners." Lederer offers this mixed metaphor from legendary movie producer, Samuel Goldwyn: "You're biting the hand of the goose that laid the golden egg!" And then there are these tidbits of creative misinformation culled from student work in high school and college:
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Since his teaching days, Lederer has made a specialty of finding language bloopers—from newspaper headlines to student essays. His first collection, Anguished English, has sold almost a million copies. Three other blooper collections have followed, including the just released The Bride of Anguished English.
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One recent "Looking at Language" column focused on anagrams, words that use all the letters of a different word or words. Before the 2000 presidential elections, Lederer created anagrams from the names of past presidents. Try matching some of these presidential names listed below with the anagrams in the right-hand column. The anagrams provide hints about their presidential source.
You can check your matches in Richard Lederer's column, "What's in a President's Name?" The variety and sheer breadth of the English language makes Lederer's job especially interesting. He notes that according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the number of words in the English language stands at about 616,000 and is growing at approximately 5,000 words a year. By contrast, the next "wordiest" major language is German, with 185,000 words. French and Spanish are tied with 100,000.
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Richard Lederer does much more than find humor in bad English and wrong information. He calls himself "Attila the Pun," "Conan the Grammarian," and the "Wizard of Idiom," and he has created plenty of crossword puzzles.
| A Vocabulary Test | ||
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"I write to help people fall in love with words because I do think there are a number of forces threatening our vocabulary use," he says. "Families are not sitting down together and talking, there's much less letter writing—although e-mail does provide a wonderful opportunity for the resurrection of the personal letter. "And of course, there's the assault of television and other media on vocabulary, because you receive information that way in a different part of the brain. You get your vocabulary by reading, reading, reading, and putting those words to use." At the same time, he sees a new generation embracing language—from e-mailing friends to devouring the Harry Potter adventure book series. "I think it shows that if language can be fun, people will dive in. Children will dive in," says Lederer. "It bodes well because, among other things, the laying down of the neural network is largely attached to the sheer number of words that a child hears or reads lovingly—from the family or friends around him or her, and from reading." In the coming months, Lederer's views on language should reach an even wider audience. Together with fellow verbivore Charles Harrington Elster, he already hosts "A Way With Words," a one-hour call-in show in his hometown of San Diego, California. The show will be broadcast nationally on radio next year, although it already runs live on the Internet. The two language experts are also taking up residence as the new usage editors for the Random House Dictionary of the English Language. |
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The quantity of words in the English language does not guarantee that today's students are understanding them. Some educational experts have warned that student vocabulary is shrinking. Lederer says he understands those concerns.
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