A scholarly but exhilarating examination of why we devote so much time and energy to language games. LANGUAGE PLAY shows how professionals - from comedians and copy writers to theologians - make a career of these games; how young children instinctively display skills which no one ever manages to acquire in a foreign language; and the implications for effective teaching of reading, writing and grammar. LANGUAGE PLAY restores fun to the study of language and demonstrates why language games are an essential element of what makes us human.