The English Language and Linguistics Companion

GEOFF FINCH retired from Anglia Ruskin University in 2006, where he was Senior Lecturer in English language and literature, and now works as a freelance lecturer and writer. His is the author of How to Study Linguistics, A Guide to Understanding Language, Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics and Word of Mouth: A New Introduction to Language and Communication.KEITH ALLAN is Professor of Linguistics at Monash University, Australia. His research focuses on aspects of meaning in Language and his publications include Natural Language Semantics, Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language (with Kate Burridge), The Western Classical Tradition in Linguistics and The Concise Encyclopedia of Semantics. JULIE BRADSHAW is Lecturer in Linguistics at Monash University, Australia.  Her main interests are in the sociolinguistic aspects of second language acquisition and use.   GEORGINA HEYDON was Research Fellow in the Linguistics Program at Monash University and is now Senior Lecturer in Criminal Justice Administration at RMIT University, Australia. She is the author of The Language of Police Interviewing.KATE BURRIDGE is both Professor and Chair of Linguistics in the Linguistics Program at Monash University. She is the author of Blooming English: Observations on the Roots, Cultivation and Hybrids of the English Language, Weeds in the Garden of Words: Further Observations on the Tangled History of the English Language, Gift of the Gob: Morsels of English Language History, co-author, with Keith Allan, of Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language, with Kersti Borjars, of Introducing English Grammar and is also a regular presenter of language segments on ABC Radio and television.