Book picks similar to
Samskrta-Subodhini: A Sanskrit Primer by Madhav Deshpande
sanskrit
language
non-fiction
linguistics
Dirty Sign Language: Everyday Slang from "What's Up?" to "F*%# Off!"
James T. Van - 2010
Let's start signing!
In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build a Perfect Language
Arika Okrent - 2009
And every Star Trek fan knows about Klingon, which was nothing more than a television show's attempt to create a tough-sounding language befitting a warrior race with ridged foreheads. But few people have heard of Babm, Blissymbolics, and the nearly nine hundred other invented languages that represent the hard work, high hopes, and full-blown delusions of so many misguided souls over the centuries. In In The Land of Invented Languages, author Arika Okrent tells the fascinating and highly entertaining history of man's enduring quest to build a better language. Peopled with charming eccentrics and exasperating megalomaniacs, the land of invented languages is a place where you can recite the Lord's Prayer in John Wilkins's Philosophical Language, say your wedding vows in Loglan, and read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in Lojban. A truly original new addition to the booming category of language books, In The Land of Invented Languages will be a must-have on the shelves of all word freaks, grammar geeks, and plain old language lovers.
Better Than Great: A Plenitudinous Compendium of Wallopingly Fresh Superlatives
Arthur Plotnik - 2011
Deft praise encourages others to feel as we do, share our enthusiasms. It rewards deserving objects of admiration. It persuades people to take certain actions. It sells things. Sadly, in this "age of awesome," our words and phrases of acclaim are exhausted, all but impotent. Even so, we find ourselves defaulting to such habitual choices as good, great, and terrific, or substitute the weary synonyms that tuble our of a thesaurus -- superb, marvelous, outstanding, and the like. The piling on of intensifers such as the now-silly "super," only makes matters worse and negative modifiers render our common parlance nearly tragic. Until now. Arthur Plotnik, the wunderkind of word-wonks is, without mincing, proffering a well knit wellspring of worthy and wondrous words to rescue our worn-down usage. Plotnik is both hella AND hecka up to the task of rescuing the English language and offers readers the chance to never be at a loss for words!
Verbatim: From the bawdy to the sublime, the best writing on language for word lovers, grammar mavens, and armchair linguists
Erin McKean - 2001
HEre, collected for the first itme, are some of the most fascinatin, funniest, and strangest pieces that first debuted in its pages.With reputable contributors such as Richard Lederer, Jesse Sheidlower, Joew Queenana, Frederic Cassidy, and Bryuan Garner, as well as language "experts" of dubious distinction, VERBATIM is a smart and sassy collection for anyone seeking the highly scholarly or the completely frivolous. From the roots of medieval words to teh componenets of a British soccer chant, VERBATIM will offere seomething for every language lover and word nerd to enjoy.
Doing Grammar
Max Morenberg - 1991
The author employs insights from contemporary linguistic theories and builds them into a coherent system firmly rooted in traditional models. Focusing on the idea that students learn grammar by actually doing grammar, he provides down-to-earth explanations about the composition of English sentences, illustrating them at every step with diagrams and other visual models. The author constructs a sensible, even hospitable, approach to grammar. Doing Grammar, 3/e, features real, provocative, and intelligent sentences as examples and exercises. This new edition offers expanded coverage of parts of speech, using both traditional and descriptive explanations to provide definitions of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions. It also features updated sentence exercises, clear diagrams, and an appendix containing answers to half the exercises.
The Superior Person's Book of Words
Peter Bowler - 1979
Peter Bowler will teach you the practical riches of saying it well with good words, neglected words, and precise words for vocabular exultation!
Exploring the Language of Poems, Plays and Prose
Michael H. Short - 1996
Mick Short considers how meanings and effects are generated in the three major literary genres, carying out stylistic analysis of poetry, drama and prose fiction in turn. He analyses a wide range of extracts from English literature, adopting an accessible approach to the analysis of literary texts which can be applied easily to other texts in English and in other languages.
Becoming a Translator: An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Translation
Douglas Robinson - 1997
The book helps students learn how to translate faster and more accurately, how to deal with potential problems, including dealing with stress and how the market works. This second edition has been revised throughout, and includes an exploration of new technologies used by translators and a 'Useful Contacts' section including the names, addresses and web addresses of translator organizations, training programmes, journals and translator agencies. Exercises, email exchanges and examples have also been updated throughout. Becoming a Translator is an invaluable guide for all aspiring and practising translators.
Principles of Language Learning and Teaching
H. Douglas Brown - 2006
Douglas Brown, is the classic second language acquisition text used by teacher education programs worldwide. Principles introduces key concepts through definitions of terms, thought-provoking questions, charts, and spiraling. New Classroom Connections encourage students to consider the implications of research for classroom pedagogy. An up-to-date bibliography and new glossary provide quick access to important works and key terminology in the field. The fifth edition takes a comprehensive look at foundations of language teaching through discussions of the latest research in the field, including: * Vygotsky's and Bakhtin's theories * Thorndike's law of effect * error treatment, noticing, recasts * intercultural communication * language policy and politics * corpus linguistics *hot topics in SLA * connectionism and emergentism * flow theory, willingness to communicate * strategies-based instruction * contrastive rhetoric * attribution theory, self-efficacy * output hypothesis Also by H.Douglas Brown: Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices Strategies for Success: A Practical Guide to Learning English
Living with a Dead Language: My Romance with Latin
Ann Patty - 2016
She was soon bored, aimless, and lost in the woods. Hoping to challenge her restless, word-loving brain, and to find a new engagement with life, she began a serious study of Latin as an auditor at local colleges. In Living with a Dead Language, Patty weaves elements of her personal life into the confounding grammar and syntax of Latin as she chronicles not only the daily slog but also the deep pleasures of trying to master an inflected language. Courses in Roman history and epigraphy give her new insight into her tragic, long-deceased mother; Horace into the loss of a brilliant friend;, Lucretius into her tenacious drivenness and attraction to Buddhism. Catullus calls up her early days in 1970s New York while Ovid adds a delightful dimension to the flora and fauna that surround her. Finally, Virgil reconciles her to her new life—no longer an urban exile but a scholar, writer, and teacher. Along the way, she meets an intriguing, impassioned cast of characters: professors, students, and classicists outside of academia who become her new colleagues and who keep Latin very much alive. Written with humor, candor, and an infectious enthusiasm for words and grammar, Patty’s book is a celebration of how learning and literature can transform the past and lead to a new, unexpected future.
Ancient India: in Historical Outline
D.N. Jha - 1998
It surveys the major developments in Indias social, economic and cultural history up to the end of the ancient period and the beginning of the early middle ages and explains the rise and growth of states with reference to their material basis. Special attention has been paid to the elements of change and continuity in society, economy and culture, and to the changing forms of exploitation and consequent social tensions as well as to the role of religion and superstition in society.
How the Mind Works
Steven Pinker - 1997
He explains what the mind is, how it evolved, and how it allows us to see, think, feel, laugh, interact, enjoy the arts, and ponder the mysteries of life. And he does it with the wit that prompted Mark Ridley to write in the New York Times Book Review, "No other science writer makes me laugh so much. . . . [Pinker] deserves the superlatives that are lavished on him." The arguments in the book are as bold as its title. Pinker rehabilitates some unfashionable ideas, such as that the mind is a computer and that human nature was shaped by natural selection, and challenges fashionable ones, such as that passionate emotions are irrational, that parents socialize their children, and that nature is good and modern society corrupting. Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize A New York Times Notable Book of the Year and Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1997 Featured in Time magazine, the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Nature, Science, Lingua Franca, and Science Times Front-page reviews in the Washington Post Book World, the Boston Globe Book Section, and the San Diego Union Book Review
Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won't Do)
Michael Wex - 2007
From the author of the hilarious bestseller Born to Kvetch comes an indispensable guide to the Yiddish language.
Linguistic Anthropology
Alessandro Duranti - 1993
The theories and methods of linguistic anthropology are introduced through a discussion of linguistic diversity, grammar in use, the role of speaking in social interaction, the organization and meaning of conversational structures, and the notion of participation as a unit of analysis. Linguistic Anthropology will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students.