Let’s Talk Logology
Often confused with theology and other areas of linguistics, Logology is more what we do and say than what academics research and write about.
“Whoever learns the language of a people will be safe from their mischief.”
Prophet Muhammad
Whenever I introduce my students to Logology, I begin with that thought-provoking question, “What is Logology?” Nine out of ten times, I stare out into the abyss of student faces who always avoid any eye contact with me in the 10 seconds that I await a response…any response. If you’ve never been in this uncomfortable situation before (for both lecturer and pupil), ten seconds can feel like an eternity. But I don’t like silence in my classroom, so I follow up with, “Take the cell phones you are hiding from underneath your desks and just Google ‘Logology’.” And nine out of ten times, I will get the Wikipedia answer I hear every semester of every college year.
“Logology (science), the study of all things related to science. Logology (theology), the study of words in search for divine truth. Lexicology, the study of word meaning and function.”
I’ll go a step further and ask anyone in the class who understands that drab definition to put in their own words an exciting and personalized definition of Logology. And nine out of ten times I’ll stare another ten seconds into the abyss and await a response…any response.
When no one dares break the silence, I usually segue into my 60-minute lecture on the topic and preface it with, “No worries. You may not have the words to define it in the moment. But after the lecture, I guarantee that all of you know EXACTLY what Logology is.”
In the spirit of my Logology lectures, I decided to make the upcoming posts focus on this particular phenomenon shared in both linguistics and applied linguistics in a more Substackish format. I’ll continue to post on my shenanigans here in Uganda, but at the same time, I predict a cross-cultural experience will emerge where referencing the various categories of Logology will make me reflect more on what I do when I language.
Most of what I’ll post is the result of over five years of data I put together and experimented with, in class, semester-by-semester. It has gone through extensive student scrutiny along with colleague feedback. And despite this, I know there will always be room to improve every time I teach it. But let’s leave academics to the side and instead focus the discussion on Logology.
What is ‘Logology’?
Simply put, Logology is word and language play. It’s what we do every day when we speak or when we write. It’s a neologism attributed to Dimitri Borgman, in 1965, but he actually took the wording from various dictionaries like the OED and re-fashioned it into his own meaning. Johnson, Johnson and Schlichting, in their 1st edition chapter entitled Logology: Word and Language Play from Baumann and Kame’enui’s anthology Vocabulary Instruction: Research to Practice, give the following textbook definition:
“The adaptation or use of words to achieve an effect accomplished through the manipulation of meanings, arrangements, sounds, spellings and various other aspects of words.”
In their chapter, they categorize Logology into eight categories, but in their 2nd edition chapter, they narrow it down into seven where they combine expressions and figures of speech into figurative language. As I present each category, I intend to keep the eight categories as I find separating figurative language the way they did in the 1st edition is better for an overall conceptual understanding of what logology is.
Those eight categories are:
1 – Onomastics
2 – Expressions
4 - Word associations
5 – Word formations
6 – Word manipulations
7 – Word games
8 – Ambiguities
While I won’t go in as much detail as I do when I teach my students – the goal in the college being to get multilingual students familiar with both academic and non-academic language and discourse in order to fully integrate into the American college setting, I hope to give each category a meaty size offering fit for mental nourishment. So, without further ado, let’s talk Logology and get our word play on!