A review by smitch29
The Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins by Anne Curzan
funny
informative
relaxing
3.75
3.7
I liked this lecture series. I had some moments of issues, and other moments where I was completely caught up in what I was learning. Some of my issues stem from the fact that this was written and recorded close to a decade ago. Some "new" words that the presenter was excited about, just were no longer relevant, and made it easy to disconnect from the audio during my commute. Alas, that is not a shock, but it did drive my interest down. When Prof. Curzan would present some theories for how a word had developed, I just didn't see the connection to the proof she provided. I don't know if it is my ignorance or a blunder on her part for not providing sufficient proof. It was also made fairly clear, a few too many times, that Prof. Curzan was reading from a script. To me, a captivating lecture needs to be fairly conversational, and there were many times that Curzan held my attention so well I forgot she was delivering the material from a script. Other times, it felt like she was reading an essay. She utilized sentence structure that just isn't best for lecturing, not if you want to keep and hold the audience's attention. Her transitions were a bit clunky because of this, as well. I also blame the scripted-ness for Prof. Curzan lingering on the preview of the next lecture for too long. When I already intend to listen to the next lecture, it is difficult to care about the 2-5 minute teaser she includes at times.
All that being said, there were many moments where I was really enjoying listening and learning from Prof. Curzan. So, clearly she did well at many points throughout the series. She brought up topics and included many words I would've never thought to wish be included in a linguistics lecture series, but I wound up being very entertained and grateful that she did include them.
I liked this lecture series. I had some moments of issues, and other moments where I was completely caught up in what I was learning. Some of my issues stem from the fact that this was written and recorded close to a decade ago. Some "new" words that the presenter was excited about, just were no longer relevant, and made it easy to disconnect from the audio during my commute. Alas, that is not a shock, but it did drive my interest down. When Prof. Curzan would present some theories for how a word had developed, I just didn't see the connection to the proof she provided. I don't know if it is my ignorance or a blunder on her part for not providing sufficient proof. It was also made fairly clear, a few too many times, that Prof. Curzan was reading from a script. To me, a captivating lecture needs to be fairly conversational, and there were many times that Curzan held my attention so well I forgot she was delivering the material from a script. Other times, it felt like she was reading an essay. She utilized sentence structure that just isn't best for lecturing, not if you want to keep and hold the audience's attention. Her transitions were a bit clunky because of this, as well. I also blame the scripted-ness for Prof. Curzan lingering on the preview of the next lecture for too long. When I already intend to listen to the next lecture, it is difficult to care about the 2-5 minute teaser she includes at times.
All that being said, there were many moments where I was really enjoying listening and learning from Prof. Curzan. So, clearly she did well at many points throughout the series. She brought up topics and included many words I would've never thought to wish be included in a linguistics lecture series, but I wound up being very entertained and grateful that she did include them.