What exactly are words? Are they the things that get listed in dictionaries, or are they the basic units of sentence structure? Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy explores the implications of these different approaches to words in English.

Combining established theory with original analysis, this book provides a clear account of the social benefits and drawbacks of new media trends and technologies such as emoji, wearables and chatbots and calls for a more critical approach to the rollout of emotional AI in public and private spheres.