“On The Record: 33 Quotations That Made News In 2013” (WBUR-Boston, Dec. 26, 2013)
In such unspeakable moments, words fail. This was true for those at the scene of the marathon, but also for many who watched from afar as photos and videos began flooding social media and the enormity of the crisis began to take shape. When there are no words, “surreal” ends up working as a proxy for more complex, inchoate emotions that are difficult to verbalize.
—Linguist Ben Zimmer for The Boston Globe. (April 21).
Read the rest of the list here.