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Last broadcast on Sun, 1 Feb 2009, 13:30 on BBC Radio 4 (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
Stephen Fry explores the highways and byways of the English language.
Britain's high coastline/population ratio helps to explain how maritime metaphor shaped the English language. But the sea, and the way it shapes the land, has a special metaphorical meaning. Stephen suggests that language is shaped, like a coastline, by a flow of metaphors, which erode, break down and eventually become part of everyday speech and writing.

Broadcasts
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Mon 25 Aug 200809:00
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Sun 1 Feb 200913:30


