dictionary of language games, puzzles, and amusements

[...]... linguistics through the work of Zellig S Harris and Charles Hocket and others to the "Transformational-Generative Syntax " of Noam Chomsky and beyond reveal s a continual progression towards the equating of language and thought , as is evident in Chomsky ' s Language and Mind Whether or not linguists eventual ly explain language and thought or discover Chomsky ' s universal language i s not important... the cleverness , of the endeavor) , but the other classi cal requirements of rhetoric can be conne cted with language play only abstractly Plato , Aristotle , C i cero , and Quintilian, very important t o a study of rhetori c, are relatively unimportant to a study of language games, puzzles, and amusements Other boundaries are equally fuzzy and yet distinguish equally real fields of endeavor Northrop... Sylvan Barnet (New York : Harcourt B race Jovanovich , 1 963 ) DICTIONARY OF LANGUAGE GAMES, PUZZLES, AND AMUSEMENTS A ABBREVIATIONS is a form of word play based on the common practice of substituting shorter forms for words or phrases The third definition of " abbreviation " in Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language (Unabridged, 2d ed , 1 97 1 ) is "a letter or letters... Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language: Unabridged 2d ed New York: World Publ ishing Company, 1 97 1 Myers , L A and Richard L Hoffman The Root.\· of Modern English 2d ed Boston: Little Brown and Co 1 979 Opie Peter and lona Opie The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes Oxford , England : Clarendon Press 1 95 1 Traupman John C The New Collegiate Latin and English Dictionary New... unimportant in the field of language play On the other hand , such key figures in language play as Henry Ernest Dudeney, Gyles B randreth , and Willard R Espy receive no attention from s cholars of literature It is the field of language play that this work addresses , and the need for a beginning is evident Indeed , Joseph T Sh ipley laments in his bibl iography for "Word and Letter Game s , " in... Language: The History and Structure of English New York: Random House , 1 982 Espy W i l l ard R An A lmanac of Words at Play New York : Clarkson N Potter, Inc , 1 975 A Children ' s Almanac of Words at Play New York: Clarkson N Potter, 1 982 The Game of Words New York: Grosset & Dunlap , 1 972 Myers , L A , and Richard L Hoffman The Roots of Modern English 2d ed Boston: Little , Brown and. .. Twentieth Century Dictionary English Language: Unabridged 2d ed New York : World Publ ishing Co , Stein , Jess, ed The Random House Dictionary of the English Language New Random House , 1 98 3 York: of the 1 97 1 York: ACROMANIA, also known a s initial sentences , is a game based o n a combina­ tion of Ghosts and acronyms An acronym is a word formed from the initial letters of a name , as in... Gyles Brandreth , for example , titles two of his books Indoor Games and The World ' s Best Indoor Games, and David Parlett uses the title Botticelli and Beyond: Over 100 of the World's Best Word Games Often the same forms of word play are referred to under separate catego­ ries Amusement is generally used as a tag-along term to cover whatever might not be considered either a game or a puzzle One of the... beyond those of a standard twenty-six-Ietter English alphabet , such as the following: /-il /3/ /a/ Nevertheless, absolutely precise written transcription of human oral languages has not yet been reached , and linguists are in disagreement over whether such elements of oral communication as musical pitch, syllabic stress, and j uncture are parts of phonemes (basic units of sound) or not, and thus disagree... Frye' s Anatomy ofCriticism: four essays, a landmark book i n literary criticism , has l ittle use i n a study of language play John Crowe Ransom and his brill iant students-Allen Tate , Robert Penn Warren, and Cleanth xvi Preface Brooks-brought forth a new set of critical values , one that incorporated many of T S Eliot ' s views , promoted the view of literature as an organic tradition , and stressed