Books by Kate (Monash University Burridge

English is the most creative, changeable and imaginative of languages. This book celebrates its many facets, including slang and jargon, swearing, speaking the unspeakable, or concealing unpleasant or inconvenient facts. It is a book for browsing: readable and entertaining, and full of intriguing snippets about language, history and social customs.

The English language is a glorious garden, but it also contains some weeds. Linguistic weeds may be slang expressions, non-standard pronunciations, or constructions that are out of place. But what one gardener calls a 'weed', another may call a 'flower'. The same goes for words and their usage in English.