The structure, complexity, and peculiarities of the English language are examined in this book, which begins with a discussion of the nature of language. Chapters are devoted to (1) naming--"Language as Answer to a Need"; (2) grammar--"Language as Economy"; (3) words--"Language as the Finding of Minds"; (4) etymology--"Language to Stretch Brains With"; (5) application--"Language to Stretch Brains With"; (6) borrowing and affixing--"Language to Work With"; (7) language learning--"Language to Play With, Including Slang"; (8) dialects--"Language Working in Its Own Way"; (9) usage--"Language as Fashion"; (10) writing--"Language, the Mother of Tools"; (11) literature, rhetoric, learning, professions, and business--"Language as Growth"; (12) the Whorfian hypothesis--"Language as God"; and (13) "Language and the Future." (HOD)