A snippet from The Language Instinct Stuff of Thought:
“The opacity of everyday metaphors is also apparent in [other examples] and entry into the club called AWFUL — Americans Who Figuratively Use “Literally.” The charter member was Rabbi Baruch Koff, a defender of Richard Nixon during his Watergate ordeal, who at one point protest, “The American press has literally emasculated President Nixon.””
I’ve probably blogged about the issue before, but I really do hate it. The book as a whole is great and serves to culminate both his language and human nature trilogies. I’d like to spend more time here praising the book, but my mind is too absorbed by the thought of this abuse of language.
At the recommendation of Razib, my next read is going to be East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia, so I might blog about that in the near future.
UPDATE: Another gem I had to quote, which follows a discussion of some of Hilary Putnam’s thought experiments: “[…] there are fewer things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy”.
Entitled to an Opinion 
July 26, 2009 at 4:42 am
The chapter about swearing alone is worth the price of admission.
in fact, I’ve seen it being sold (in the UK) as a mini-book in its own right.
July 26, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Is it a good sign that the chapter is of such high quality it can be sold as a stand-alone? Or a bad sign about the rest of the book?
July 26, 2009 at 4:01 pm
No doubt the publishers just wanted dough. Salable topic I’m sure. Heard him talk about it on the radio. I’m pushing 30 and my taste for swearing has really nose dived for the most part, after 15 years of sounding like a sailor. Yet I do find that subversive pinko called Comrade PhysioProf to be pretty funny.
July 26, 2009 at 7:29 pm
I’ve never heard of Comrade PhysioProf. To the google-mobile!
July 26, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Your overbearing pedantry has literally driven me insane. I have just been slobbering and screaming gibberish while I trashed the whole house in five minutes flat, before emerging to bear-hug passersby on the sidewalk. I was tazed three times, and the cops let me post this from my cellie in lieu of my one phone call. They are driving me directly to Rome, where I will be acclaimed World Caesar by a thousand beautiful naiads and rule in peace for a thousand centuries. For that I thank you.
July 26, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I was about to ask if you were related to John Sabotta, but “cellie” sounds like a britishism.
July 26, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I’m a Yankee born and raised. And these days, a patriotic one. Though I have to admit that I protested the American Revolution, mostly for animal rights reasons, by hunger-striking on Boston Common.
August 14, 2009 at 9:46 am
Not really my style.
Also, if I am acclaimed World Conducator, I’ll be acclaimed by a thousand lungs.
July 27, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I’ve had a copy of The Language Instinct for some time but haven’t gotten around to reading it. Will pick it up for the swearing chapter, one of my favorite activities!
July 27, 2009 at 6:28 pm
The Language Instinct might not have a swearing chapter like The Stuff of Thought. My guess though is that it does.
July 27, 2009 at 11:36 pm
I think you mentioned before that you were looking for a copy of James Burnham’s The Machiavellians. Not sure if you found one or not, but there’s a PDF available here:
http://committeeofpublicsafety.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/the-machiavellians/
July 28, 2009 at 12:48 am
Thanks a bunch.
July 30, 2009 at 6:45 pm
TGGP,
I’m just curious, but are you a software programmer?
July 30, 2009 at 6:48 pm
I think I’ve mentioned it before a few times, but yeah. Entry-level and not very good.
July 30, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Cool. Did you major in it?
What languages do you know?
July 30, 2009 at 11:45 pm
Yeah, I got a BS in CS.
I’m most familiar with Java and the C family. My current employer uses a proprietary language they don’t even tell potential recruits about at first for fear of scaring them off, though I sometimes get to use Java and more rarely SQL.