The Language Report 5: English on the move, 2000-2007

by Susie Dent

2007 is the fifth year of The Language Report's publication and provides a unique opportunity to look back at five years' worth of developments in all aspects of language, charting both small and dramatic changes in areas as diverse as punctuation and political jargon. The Language Report 5 not only takes a historical long view, comparing the state of English a hundred years ago with the present day, but also includes a smaller retrospective snapshot of the last five years to reveal new beginnings in the language's evolution as well as concentrated examples of continuing long-term change. Both approaches provide an excellent vantage point from which to take a predictive look at English in the future. Each year The Language Report - eagerly awaited by language enthusiasts everywhere - includes chapters on new areas in which English is developing in interesting ways (such as the language used in the advertising of cosmetics in 2005). The celebratory 2007 edition will continue to broaden the survey, taking in for example the language of food and drink, advertising and marketing, and the influence of celebrity culture.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published December 18, 2007

About the author

Dent was educated at the Marist Convent in Ascot, an independent Roman Catholic day school. She went on to Somerville College, Oxford for her B.A. in modern languages, then to Princeton University for her master's degree in German.

Dent is serves as the resident lexicographer and adjudicator for the letters rounds on long-running British game show Countdown. At the time she began work on Countdown in 1992, she had just started working for the Oxford University Press on producing English dictionaries, having previously worked on bilingual dictionaries.