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Author: Rosemarie Ostler
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2005-09-29
Total Pages: 260
ISBN-13: 9780195182545
DOWNLOAD EBOOKGiving yesterday's words another chance to sparkle before they retire to the archives for good, Dewdroppers, Waldos, and Slackers focuses on language that still resonates with the mood of its times.
Author: Martin Dillon
Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
Published: 2004-04-30
Total Pages: 376
ISBN-13: 9781591581680
DOWNLOAD EBOOKEssential for reference work and indispensable for collection development, this book helps you quickly identify the best, most affordable, and most appropriate new reference titles in any given field. The approximately 500 books reviewed in this 23rd annual edition have been selected from American Reference Books Annual (Libraries Unlimited, 2003) as the best works for smaller libraries. A must if your budget precludes ARBA, this time-saving tool also makes an excellent supplement.
Author: Ralph Keyes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2021-02-19
Total Pages: 320
ISBN-13: 0190466782
DOWNLOAD EBOOKSuccessful word-coinages--those that stay in currency for a good long time--tend to conceal their beginnings. We take them at face value and rarely when and where they were first minted. Engaging, illuminating, and authoritative, Ralph Keyes's The Hidden History of Coined Words explores the etymological underworld of terms and expressions and uncovers plenty of hidden gems. He also finds some fascinating patterns, such as that successful neologisms are as likely to be created by chance as by design. A remarkable number of new words were coined whimsically, originally intended to troll or taunt. Knickers, for example, resulted from a hoax; big bang from an insult. Casual wisecracking produced software, crowdsource, and blog. More than a few resulted from happy accidents, such as typos, mistranslations, and mishearing (bigly and buttonhole), or from being taken entirely out of context (robotics). Neologizers (a Thomas Jefferson coinage) include not just scholars and writers but cartoonists, columnists, children's book authors. Wimp originated with a book series, as did goop, and nerd from a book by Dr. Seuss. Coinages are often contested, controversy swirling around such terms as gonzo, mojo, and booty call. Keyes considers all contenders, while also leading us through the fray between new word partisans, and those who resist them strenuously. He concludes with advice about how to make your own successful coinage. The Hidden History of Coined Words will appeal not just to word mavens but history buffs, trivia contesters, and anyone who loves the immersive power of language.
Author: Rosemarie Ostler
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2015-05-12
Total Pages: 320
ISBN-13: 1250046122
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"Standard grammar and accurate spelling are widely considered hallmarks of a good education, but their exact definitions are much more contentious -- capable of inciting a full-blown grammar war at the splice of a comma, battles readily visible in the media and online in the comments of blogs and chat rooms. With an accessible and enthusiastic journalistic approach, Ostler considers these grammatical shibboleths, tracing current debates back to America's earliest days, an era when most families owned only two books -- the Bible and a grammar primer. Along the way, she investigates colorful historical characters on both sides of the grammar debate in her efforts to unmask the origins of contemporary speech." --
Author: Tim William Machan
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2013-08-23
Total Pages: 413
ISBN-13: 0191668362
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhat is English? Can we be as certain as we usually are when we say something is not English? To find some answers Tim Machan explores the language's present and past, and looks ahead to its futures among the one and a half billion people who speak it. His search is fascinating and important, for definitions of English have influenced education and law in many countries and helped shape the identities of those who live in them. Finding an account that fits the constantly changing varieties of English is, Tim Machan finds, anything but simple. But he rises to the challenge, grappling with its elusive essence through episodes in its history. He looks at the ambitions of Caxton, the preoccupations of Johnson, and the eloquence of Churchill, tussles with the jargons of contemporary business, and pursues his object from rural America to James Cook's Australia. He examines creoles, pidgins, and dialects, and takes apart competing histories showing their assumptions and prejudices. Finally he reveals the stable category English, resting paradoxically within its constantly mutating forms and varieties. This is a book for everyone interested in English and the role of language in society and culture.
Author: Gowan Dawson
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2024-02-27
Total Pages: 392
ISBN-13: 0300277237
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe first book to examine the iconic depiction of evolution, the “march of progress,” and its role in shaping our understanding of how humans evolved We are all familiar with the “march of progress,” the representation of evolution that depicts a series of apelike creatures becoming progressively taller and more erect before finally reaching the upright human form. Its emphasis on linear progress has had a decisive impact on public understanding of evolution, yet the image contradicts modern scientific conceptions of evolution as complex and branching. This book is the first to examine the origins and history of this ubiquitous and hugely consequential illustration. In a story spanning more than a century, from Victorian Britain to America in the Space Age, Gowan Dawson traces the interconnected histories of the two most important versions of the image: the frontispiece to Thomas Henry Huxley’s Evidence as to Man’s Place in Nature (1863) and “The Road to Homo Sapiens,” a fold-out illustration in the best-selling book Early Man (1965). Dawson explores how the recurring appearances of this image pointed to shifting scientific and public perspectives on human evolution, as well as indicated novel artistic approaches and advancements in technology.
Author: Ben Etherington
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2018-11-22
Total Pages: 289
ISBN-13: 1108471374
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis Companion presents lucid and exemplary critical essays, introducing readers to the major ideas and practices of world literary studies.
Author: Dale D. Johnson
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-04-17
Total Pages: 164
ISBN-13: 0429982607
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWritten by respected authorities in the fields of education and literacy studies, Words: The Foundation of Literacy is a groundbreaking book for teachers, administrators, and education students. Dale and Bonnie Johnson present a fresh, inspiring reminder of why studying language (from word origins to word structure) is such a vital first step in the development of students' vocabulary, literacy, writing skills, and overall ability to learn. At a time when high-stakes testing has squeezed substance from many curricula, Johnson and Johnson provide ways to enhance students' understanding, interest, and appreciation of language and all its subtleties. Words explores how meaning in language is created by the use and interrelationships of words, phrases, and sentences, their denotations, connotations, implications, and ambiguities. From birth, most children exhibit a natural interest in language: its sounds, nuances, and unpredictable qualities. It is important to sustain, stimulate, and recapture that natural interest in the classroom, and Words provides a multitude of creative and practical techniques for doing so.
Author: Małgorzata Kowalczyk
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2023-08-31
Total Pages: 347
ISBN-13: 1009346881
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhat do 'bimbo,' 'glitch,' 'savvy,' and 'shtick' all have in common? They are all expressions used in informal American English that have been taken from other languages. This pioneering book provides a comprehensive description of borrowings in informal American English, based on a large database of citations from thousands of contemporary sources, including the press, film, and TV. It presents the United States as a linguistic 'melting pot,' with words from a diverse range of languages now frequently appearing in the lexicon. It examines these borrowings from various perspectives, including discussions of terms, donors, types, changes, functions, and themes. It also features an alphabetical glossary of 1,200 representative expressions, defined and illustrated by 5,500 usage examples, providing an insightful and practical resource for readers. Combining scholarship with readability, this book is a fascinating storehouse of information for students and researchers in linguistics as well as anyone interested in lexical variation in contemporary English.
Author: Molly McQuade
Publisher: Sarabande Books
Published: 2010-11-09
Total Pages: 266
ISBN-13: 1936747243
DOWNLOAD EBOOK“A sublime anthology” of essays, memoirs, stories and careful considerations from 66 writers riffing on a single word (Publishers Weekly, starred review). In this darb collection, Molly McQuade asks the question all writers love to answer: what one word means the most to you, thrills you, or sets your teeth on edge? And why? Writers respond with a wild gallimaufry of their choosing, from ardor to bitchin’ to thermostat to wrong and very. There is corn, also—not the vegetable but the idea, defining cultural generations; solmizate, meaning to sing an object into place; and delicious slang, such as dassn’t. Composed as expository or lyric essays, zinging one-liners, extended quips, jeremiads, etymological adventures, or fantastic romps, the writings address not only English words but also a select few from French, German, Japanese, Quechua, Basque, Igbo, and others. Fascinating, funny, and ingeniously curated from critics, novelists, translators, poets, and academics, “the words profiled here have a new trace of meaning, warmth, and a time-worn glow” (John Morse, publisher of Merriam-Webster, Inc.)
