Our Marvelous Native Tongue

Our Marvelous Native Tongue

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  • Author: Robert Claiborne
  • Publisher: Crown
  • ISBN:
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 360

Recounts a history of the English language from its Indo-European origins to the present.


One of Us

One of Us

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  • Author: Geoffrey Galt Harpham
  • Publisher: University of Chicago Press
  • ISBN: 9780226316963
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 232

Joseph Conrad has traditionally been seen as a master - a master mariner, master storyteller, master of the secrets of the human heart, master of fictional technique. Recently, however, these compliments have given way to charges that Conrad is complicit in the various masteries associated with racism, imperialism, and the patriarchy. In this book, Geoffrey Galt Harpham inquires not only into Conrad's work and reputation, but also into the idea of mastery as such.


Our Marvelous Native Tongue

Our Marvelous Native Tongue

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  • Author: Robert Claiborne
  • Publisher: Three Rivers Press
  • ISBN: 9780812916355
  • Category : English language
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 339

Traces the history of the English language from its Indo-European roots to contemporary vocabulary and chronicles the lives and times of various English-speaking people


The Life of Language

The Life of Language

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  • Author: Sol Steinmetz
  • Publisher: Random House Reference
  • ISBN: 0307496465
  • Category : Reference
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 395

If time travelers from the nineteenth century dropped in on us, our strange vocabulary would shock them just as much as our TVs, cars, and computers. Society changes, and so does its word stock. The Life of Language reveals how pop culture, business, technology, and other forces of globalization expand and enrich the English language, forming thousands of new words every year. In this fascinating and jargon-free guide, lexicographers Kipfer and Steinmetz reconstruct the births of thousands of words, including infantries, poz, mobs, Soho, dinks, choo choos, frankenfoods, LOL, narcs and perps. · A word lover’s guide to etymology, written in a fun, informal, and accessible style · An excellent resource for vocabulary building; a word's root helps readers understand its meaning · Beautifully packaged paperback with French flaps From the Trade Paperback edition.


Letter Perfect

Letter Perfect

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  • Author: David Sacks
  • Publisher: Vintage Canada
  • ISBN: 0307371034
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 415

Letters are tangible language. Joining together in endless combinations to actually show speech, letters convey our messages and tell our stories. While we encounter these tiny shapes hundreds of times a day, we take for granted the long, fascinating history behind one of the most fundamental of human inventions -- the alphabet. The heart of the book is the 26 fact-filled “biographies” of letters A through Z, each one identifying the letter’s particular significance for modern readers, tracing its development from ancient forms, and discussing its noteworthy role in literature and other media. We learn, for example, why the letter X has a sinister and sexual aura, how B came to signify second best, why the word “mother” in many languages starts with M, and what is the story of O. Packed with information and lavishly illustrated, Letter Perfect is not only accessible and entertaining, but essential to the appreciation of our own language.


Why Kids Can't Spell

Why Kids Can't Spell

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  • Author: Roberta Heembrock
  • Publisher: R&L Education
  • ISBN: 157886898X
  • Category : Education
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 160

Why Kids Can't Spell is a resource reference book for parents and educators who have an interest in and a concern for children's spelling ability. The purpose of this book is to encourage and foster good spelling practices in the home and at school to reflect modern teaching methods. The design of this book uses a scope and sequence format with each chapter building on the previous one. Every chapter includes a discussion on spelling background knowledge. In this section one finds an analysis of children's writing samples, in accordance with J. Richard Gentry and Jean Wallace Gillet's Model of Spelling Development. This is followed by numerous inquiry-based, project based and generative ideas and activities. The activities in this book are practical and easy to prepare, use readily available materials and are meant to facilitate readers' understanding. All chapters are related and therefore, the reader is encouraged to browse and borrow from any chapter. The activities may be modified in order to appropriately challenge and meet individual needs.


Alternative Histories of English

Alternative Histories of English

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  • Author: Peter Trudgill
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISBN: 1134569351
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 295

This book explores the beliefs and approaches to the history of English showing how the standard English dialect is to the detriment of those which are non-standard or from other areas of the world.


Storied Words

Storied Words

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  • Author: Jeff Jeske
  • Publisher: iUniverse
  • ISBN: 0595313760
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 340

From alphabet to zeugma Storied Words reveals the picturesque stories of 1,000 words that we use to talk about writing. You will learn about: The actual pictures behind our alphabet letters (e.g., "A", the inverted head of an ox; "B," a two-chambered house; "Z," a sword and shield) The surprising common origin of grammar and glamour The literal meanings of our rhetorical devices The "meaningless chatter" in jargon's ancestry The picturesque origins of the words we use to talk about style The "mock song" of parody How and why the librarian of the great ancient library of Alexandria gave us the komma, the kolon, and the periodos Each chapter begins with an introductory essay followed by alphabetized discussions of individual words. Chapter topics include the writer's tools, patterns of arrangement, style, rhetorical choices, grammar, writers in academe, and publishing. Storied Words is chock full of quotations and anecdotes from writers throughout history; it also contains an essay on the history of the English vocabulary.


American English

American English

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  • Author: Zoltan Kovecses
  • Publisher: Broadview Press
  • ISBN: 1770484280
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 362

This book is a cultural-historical (rather than purely linguistic) introduction to American English. The first part consists of a general account of variation in American English. It offers concise but comprehensive coverage of such topics as the history of American English; regional, social and ethnic variation; variation in style (including slang); and British and American differences. The second part of the book puts forward an account of how American English has developed into a dominant variety of the English language. It focuses on the ways in which intellectual traditions such as puritanism and republicanism, in shaping the American world view, have also contributed to the distinctiveness of American English.


The English Languages

The English Languages

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  • Author: Thomas Burns McArthur
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
  • ISBN: 9780521481304
  • Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 278

Plural? monolithic? legion? - Tom McArthur explores the nature of English in its local and global contexts.