Logology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Logology is the study of words with an emphasis on letter patterns, often as part of recreational word play such as anagrams, palindromes and isograms, rather than on meaning. The name "logology" for this study was popularized, to the extent that it is popular at all, by Dmitri Borgmann, an author of several books on language in the late 1960s. See Borgmann's books for more about logology:

  • Language on Vacation: An Olio of Orthographical Oddities Copyright 1965. Published by Charles Scribner's Sons
  • Beyond Language (Adventures in Word and Thought) Copyright 1967. Published by Charles Scribner's Sons
  • Curious Crosswords (edited and annotated by Borgmann) Copyright 1970. Published by Charles Scribner's Sons

Logology is also the name of a fictional new religion in Greg Bear's novel, Heads.

"Logology" was also defined and used by 20th century philosopher and rhetorician Kenneth Burke. In his book The Rhetoric of Religion he says of logology; "as theology is the study of religion, logology is the study of words."

Languages