'And I Quote...'

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'And I Quote...'

A History of Using Other People's Words

Elizabeth Knowles

An accessible account of an area of language in which we all have an interest: as Ralph Waldo Emerson says, 'we all quote.'
Elizabeth Knowles is the former editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, an experienced historical lexicographer and quotation dictionary compiler.
Examines a rich diversity of quotations in today's language to explore how we find, use, and choose quotations.
Individual quotation 'stories' map out a variety of paths by which quotations have embedded themselves in the language, with possible sources ranging from the earliest dictionaries of quotations to the online world we experience today.

'And I Quote...'

A History of Using Other People's Words

Elizabeth Knowles

Description

Quotations are an essential part of the fabric of the language. In And I quote, Elizabeth Knowles draws on her experience editing the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and employs a wide repertoire of examples, ranging from the classical canon to contemporary popular culture, to illuminate just how and why we quote.

Her investigation focuses on how we find, choose, and use quotations in 21st century English, but it also leads her back in time to follow the journeys taken by individual quotes, as their meaning changes subtly - and sometimes not so subtly - over the decades and in many cases the centuries. In following the often-surprising stories of individual quotations, we gain an understanding of how they establish themselves, and to what degree they can develop a life independent of their original coinage.

Everyone has their own quotations 'vocabulary', and each reader of the book will think of further items that they would use and wish to explore, but the journeys mapped here illuminate the many fascinating ways in which quotations have embedded themselves in the language, from the earliest dictionaries of quotations to the online world we experience today.

'And I Quote...'

A History of Using Other People's Words

Elizabeth Knowles

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Overview
2. Chapter 2
3. How and Why We Quote
4. Appeals to Authority and Quotations as Code
5. Primary and Secondary Sources
6. Spicing them up with Learning and Latin
7. Quotations on the Move
8. Guarding Even our Enemies and in our Despair
9. They Never Said It
10. Appealing to Cicero
Conclusion

'And I Quote...'

A History of Using Other People's Words

Elizabeth Knowles

Author Information

Elizabeth Knowles began her lexicographical career as a library researcher for A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary. She worked on the 4th edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1993) and has edited the 5th, 6th, 7th, and (current) 8th editions of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1999, 2004, 2009, 2014). Her other editorial credits include What They Didn't Say: A Book of Misquotations (OUP, 2006), How to Read a Word (OUP, 2010), and the 1st and 2nd editions of the Little Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (2009, 2016). She is a contributor to The Oxford History of Lexicography and The History of Oxford University Press, and was Editor of Dictionaries: the Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America, 2010-13.

'And I Quote...'

A History of Using Other People's Words

Elizabeth Knowles

From Our Blog

All about quotations [quiz]

As Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, 'By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote'. Quotations are an essential part of language and are used widely by almost everyone, sometimes out of context and sometimes wrongly attributed.

Posted on September 25, 2018

Read the blog post