Check out Language in Thought and Action, written by an immigrant to Canada who worked his way up to being a US Senator.

http://www.amazon.com/Language-Thought-Action-Fifth-Edition/...

Highly recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Language-Thought-Action-Fifth-Edition/...

Which talks in detail about the "informative" and "affective" connotations of words (it's a lot more entertaining than it sounds). Only slightly related, but I was just reading in the book how we have the terms "light meat" and "dark meat": because ladies and gentleman in 19th century Britain couldn't bring themselves to say "leg", "thigh" or "breast" – even of a chicken!

I've read Impro and it's a great book.

There is another book that I want to recommend to other Hacker News readers and that is 'Language in Thought and Action' by S.I. Hiyakawa[0]. Honestly, reading that changed my life.

[0] http://www.amazon.com/Language-Thought-Action-Fifth-Edition/...

Hey man the argument you seem to be a part of here (both sides) seems really dualistic and considering how poorly concepts and events in real life fit binary interpretations, I think you could reduce your stress by taking a broader approach.

Book I loved on the subject: http://www.amazon.com/Language-Thought-Action-Fifth-Edition/...

If you liked this list, you might be interested in:

Language in Thought and Action http://www.amazon.com/Language-Thought-Action-S-I-Hayakawa/d... by S I Hayakawa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_Hayakawa)

The Art of Conversation http://www.basicincome.com/bp/artofconv.htm

And Ben Franklin's Autobiography http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/148