Language has no independent existence apart from the people who use it. It is not an end in itself; it is a means to an end of understanding who you are and what society is like.

Texting has added a new dimension to language use, but its long-term impact is negligible. It is not a disaster.

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

It took three years to put Shakespeare's words together, there were a lot of words to be studied and a lot of words to be sorted out, and it proved to be a major project.

Language changes and moves in a different direction evolving all the time. Where a lot of people see deterioration, I see expressive development

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.

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