CU Instructor Orin Hargraves Publishes Book on Clichés
Oxford University Press has publishedÌýIt's Been Said Before: A Guide to the Use and Abuse of Clichés, by Orin Hargraves, lexicographer, research assistant in Martha Palmer's lab, and lecturer in Linguistics and the PWR program. The book examines the use of ³¦±ô¾±³¦³óés in a broad range of genres and uses corpus data to assess the frequency of various ³¦±ô¾±³¦³óés from the mildest to the worst offenders. Hargraves makes a strong argument that the pejorative labelÌý³¦±ô¾±³¦³óéÌýis as likely to arise from the misuse of common expressions as from their overuse, and he gives pertinent and clear advice for speakers and writers on how to avoid communicating ineffectively with ³¦±ô¾±³¦³óés without abandoning them all together, since some ³¦±ô¾±³¦³óés greatly facilitate the flow of discourse. Hargraves spoke to the Linguistics Circle last year about the book; he is happy—indeed, pleased as punch—to autograph copies for students, faculty and staff.