As I get older and I get a few more years experience I become more like Dad, you know, King Lear.

Swearing makes an excellent relief mechanism

Text messaging is just the most recent focus of people's anxiety; what people are really worried about is a new generation gaining control of what they see as their language.

Spellings are made by people. Dictionaries - eventually - reflect popular choices.

Word books traditionally focus on unusual and quirky items. They tend to ignore the words that provide the skeleton of the language, without which it would fall apart, such as 'and' and 'what,' or words that provide structure to our conversation, such as 'hello.

At any one time language is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres and dialects.

Vocabulary is a matter of word-building as well as word-using.