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Travel writer Bill Bryson looks at the language of America and explains the history behind it, including the origins of phrases such as "The real McCoy" and the "G-string"; why...

Verbal aspect in the Greek language has been a topic of significant debate in recent scholarship. The majority of scholars now believe that an understanding of verbal aspect is even...

This comprehensive reference features the birth dates of more than 50,000 words -- from Old English to modern-day slang. Readers can avoid anachronisms and add accuracy to their writing.

*A FINANCIAL TIMES , GUARDIAN AND TLS BOOK OF THE SUMMER* 'The fascinating story of ancient words ... new revelations await' The Guardian 'A magisterial feat' New Scientist ________________________________ One...

Weird or wierd? Minuscule or miniscule? English spelling is fiendish. Probably only one in a hundred people have truly mastered it. Yet when famous writers like Hemingway (mirricle, ungry), Ezra...

The Pocket Scots Dictionary , based on the Concise Scots Dictionary, provides information on Scots language for the general public and for schools in a compact and user-friendly form.* Scots...

Thoroughly revised and expanded for a new generation of readers, this classic guide to enjoying literature to its fullest-a lively, enlightening, and entertaining introduction to a diverse range of writing...

A grand unifying theory of human flourishing and inequality from one of the world's pre-eminent thinkers A bold retelling of the entire human story from one of the world's pre-eminent...

The freedom to think what you want and to say what you think has always generated a pushback of regulation and censorship. This raises the thorny question: to what extent...

I'm not a racist, but... You look good, for your age... She was asking for it... You're crazy... That's so gay... Have you ever wondered why certain language has the...

If you think you know your alphabet, think again. Drawing from mythology, cosmology, history, the Bible, literature, and esoteric and conventional sources, this book takes the reader on a tour...

Would you be down in the dumps if, when asked the definition of certain phrases, it was all Greek to you? Let's not beat about the bush: the English language...

Verbal aspect in the Greek language has been a topic of significant debate in recent scholarship. The majority of scholars now believe that an understanding of verbal aspect is even...

A guide and reference book for everyone who wants to write a novel or short stories. The author teaches creative writing and writes novels, short stories and magazine articles.

How to Sound Really Clever explains and illustrates over 600 words that can outfox us, such as 'condign', 'Zelig-like' and 'agitprop'. This is the sequel to the successful How to...

The ultimate collection of insulting words and phrases Offers thousands of insults for every occasion Covers both historical and contemporary insults Includes numerous insults for physical, social and professional types...

On 21 March 2013, the European Space Agency released a map of the afterglow of the Big Bang. Taking in 440 sextillion kilometres of space and 13.8 billion years of...

Certain children characters in English literature have had a tremendous influence on readers. From Peter Pan to Harry Potter, endearing as they are, these characters have left their indelible mark...

'Brilliantly illustrates how multilingual mothers are disproportionately tasked with preserving linguistic heritage on one hand and preparing children for public society on the other - all while finding a language...

Spoken by over 700 million jabbering individuals, the English language has travelled to all corners of the globe - unfortunately, some of it has got a bit muddled along the...

An authoritative, self-contained introduction to the subject for students who have had no prior coursework in syntactic theory.English Syntax is an authoritative, self-contained introduction to the subject for students who...

English has borrowed more words from French than from any other modern foreign language. French words and phrases-such as a la mode, ennui, naivete and caprice-lend English a certain je-ne-sais-quoi...

Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction is the successor to Sir John Lyons's important textbook Language, Meaning and Context (1981).While preserving the general structure of the earlier book, the author has substantially...

How humans produce and understand language is clearly introduced in this textbook for students with only a basic knowledge of linguistics. With a logical, flexible structure Introducing Psycholinguistics steps through...

From "the more the merrier" to "there's no such thing as a free lunch", this guide contains over 1000 of the best-known English proverbs from around the world. For this...

Why don't eleven and twelve end in -teen? The rest of our counting system sits in neatly arithmetical sets of ten, so why do these two rulebreakers seem so at...

A fascinating exploration of the nuts and bolts of human language. Why don't eleven and twelve end in -teen? The rest of our counting system sits in neatly arithmetical sets...

How did the delphinium get its name? Which parts of the body lend their names to auriculas and orchids? Who are the gentian, lobelia and heuchera named after? Why are...

Welcome to Europe as you've never known it before, seen through the peculiarities of its languages and dialects. Combining linguistics and cultural history, Gaston Dorren takes us on an intriguing...

Certain children characters in English literature have had a tremendous influence on readers. From Peter Pan to Harry Potter, endearing as they are, these characters have left their indelible mark...

Language is the most human invention. Spontaneous, unruly, passionate, and erratic it resists every attempt to discipline or regularize it--a history celebrated here in all its irreverent glory. Language is...

Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue is a hymn to the English language. In examining how a second-rate, mongrel tongue came to be the undisputed language of the globe. Bryson explores English...

Aristotle's influential treatise on the way to win arguments With the emergence of democracy in the city-state of Athens in the years around 460 BC, public speaking became an essential...

A landmark in Boswell and Johnson studies In Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, one of the towering figures of English literature is revealed with unparalleled immediacy and originality, in a...

A new and original anthology that introduces the use of rhetoric in the classical world, from Aristotle to Cicero and beyond Classical rhetoric is one of the earliest versions of...

One of the greatest philosophical works of all time, in a new translation for the twenty-first century Widely regarded as one of the most influential philosophical works of the twentieth...

A fresh new look for Bill Bryson's two exceptional classics on the English language 'More than 300 million people in the world speak English and the rest, it sometimes seems,...

The making of the Oxford English Dictionary was a monumental 50 year task requiring thousands of volunteers. One of the keenest volunteers was a W C Minor who astonished everyone...

How do babies learn to speak? Why are there so many languages? Do we think in our mother tongue? Who decides what's correct English? How did language evolve? In this...

Beautiful reissue of this unique classic collection, featuring a newly translated essay not included in previous collections 'Barthes' purpose is to tear away masks and demystify the signs, signals and...

David Crystal's How Language Works is a fascinating tour through the world of language from one of today's most renowned experts. It ranges over everything from how children learn to...

'A must read for all who would like to understand the languages and culture of Indigenous Australians.' Dr Ernie Grant, Elder of the Jirrbal nation When Captain Cook landed at...

Swearing, it turns out, is an incredibly useful part of our linguistic repertoire. Not only has some form of swearing existed since the earliest humans began to communicate, but it...

Have you ever wondered where the roots of the English language lie? This notebook gives you an overview of the transformation of English from being an obscure Germanic dialect to...

The Development of Latin Post-Tonic /Cr/ Clusters in Select Northern Italian Dialects offers an explanation of the disparate outcomes of similar consonant clusters within several related Northern Italian dialects through...

Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) is one of the founding figures of analytic philosophy, whose contributions to logic, philosophical semantics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mathematics set the agenda for future...