What I want is for people to really grab hold of language and not be nervous about it. 'The Word Spy' is all about diving in and playing with words.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Language is one component of the human cognitive capacity which happens to be fairly amenable to enquiry. So we know a good deal about that.
And I'm working at trying to find a kind of language where I won't be so easily modulated by expectation.
I have my own language and it's high time I put a little of it out there.
I have been a believer in the magic of language since, at a very early age, I discovered that some words got me into trouble and others got me out.
When I'm doing a one-on-one with somebody, I have to speak in a language that that person can understand, using a vocabulary that they instantly get, and I always have to feel my way around to figure that out. It's a lot of fun, and it's also really challenging - challenging in a different way from performing.
I like to play with words and the sounds of words - that's extremely important to me.
I have always loved the fluidity of language - delighting in dialects, dictionaries, slang and neologisms.
My language is what I use, and if I lost that, I wouldn't be able to say anything.
I have a good ear for languages.
We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.