Ronny Boogaart, Henrike Jansen and Maarten van Leeuwen receive LOT popularisation award
Assistant professor Ronny Boogaart, associate professor Henrike Jansen and assistant professor Maarten van Leeuwen have received the popularisation award from the National Research School of Linguistics for their book Maar zo bedoelde ik het niet (That's not what I meant).
Maar zo bedoelde ik het niet is about the strategic use and abuse of language. Using classical rhetoric, the authors analyse what happens when someone makes a controversial statement. What should you do when a politician says he cannot remember his anti-Semitic statements? Or when another politician says she only meant it figuratively when she tweeted: 'Shoot that man.'
The jury described Maar zo bedoelde ik het niet as a book that 'commands respect with its well-chosen examples. As a reader, you can see the pleasure and obsession with which these examples have been collected'.
About the prize
The LOT Popularisation Prize is intended to develop popular science initiatives in the field of linguistics. In even-numbered years, the prize is awarded to a popularisation initiative that has already been published or realised. The prize is accompanied by a cash award of 2,500 euros.