To Each Their Own Language

Even twins aren’t exactly alike in their language – because language is learned, not inherited.

The practical demands of making a dictionary reveal unimpeachable truths about language.

Let me begin with a revelation from Kory Stamper, author of the meticulous, passionate, no-holds-barred best-selling exposé of what really happens in the making of a dictionary, her book aptly titled Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries. She reveals her career as a lexicographer at the venerable and vener...