Covering thinkers from Aristotle to Saussure and Chomsky, "Introducing Linguistics" reveals the rules and beauty that underlie language, our most human skill.

    Originally paired with a major PBS miniseries, this book presents a stimulating and comprehensive record of spoken and written English—from its Anglo-Saxon origins some two thousand years ago to the present day, when English is the dominant language of commerce and culture with more than one billion English speakers around the world. From Cockney, Scouse, and Scots to Gulla, Singlish, Franglais, and the latest African American slang, this sweeping history of the English language is the essential introduction for anyone who wants to know more about our common tongue.

    Beginning at the 'arts' end of the subject with the common origins of languages, and finishing at the 'science' end with the newest discoveries regarding language in the brain, this stimulating guide covers all the major aspects of linguistics from a refreshing and insightful angle. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

    

    Just such a village -- an isolated Bedouin community in Israel with an unusually high rate of deafness -- is at the heart of "Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind." There, an indigenous sign language has sprung up, used by deaf and hearing villagers alike. It is a language no outsider has been able to decode, until now.A "New York Times" reporter trained as a linguist, Margalit Fox is the only Western journalist to have set foot in this remarkable village. In "Talking Hands, " she follows an international team of scientists that is unraveling this mysterious language.Because the sign language of the village has arisen completely on its own, outside the influence of any other language, it is a living demonstration of the "language instinct," man's inborn capacity to create language. If the researchers can decode this language, they will have helped isolate ingredients essential to all human language, signed and spoken. But as "Talking Hands" grippingly shows, their work in the village is also a race against time, because the unique language of the village may already be endangered."Talking Hands" offers a fascinating introduction to the signed languages of the world -- languages as beautiful, vital and emphatically human as any other -- explaining why they are now furnishing cognitive scientists with long-sought keys to understanding how language works in the mind.Written in lyrical, accessible prose, "Talking Hands" will captivate anyone interested in language, the human mind and journeys to exotic places.

    A translator and one of the first simultaneous interpreters in the world, Lomb worked in 16 languages for state and business concerns in her native Hungary. She achieved further fame by writing books on languages, interpreting, and polyglots.Polyglot: How I Learn Languages, first published in 1970, is a collection of anecdotes and reflections on language learning. Because Dr. Lomb learned her languages as an adult, after getting a PhD in chemistry, the methods she used will thus be of particular interest to adult learners who want to master a foreign language.

    From the author of the hilarious bestseller Born to Kvetch comes an indispensable guide to the Yiddish language.

    For any devoted philomath (a lover of learning), this anthology of entertaining etymology is an ideal way to have fun with language.

    And that’s exactly why we created this book. Short Stories + Foreign Language = Faster Learning We know how difficult it may seem to learn a foreign language from scratch, let alone trying to put all that learning into practice. But what you might not realize is that it's fairly easy to fully incorporate the essentials of a language once you frame that learning into a certain context (for example, a short story). Short stories allow you to put what you’ve learned so far into practice, allowing you to expand your vocabulary quickly, make sense of ideas, understand new concepts, and overall get a better grasp of the French language. Short stories work because they eliminate the stress of forcing yourself to learn. Instead, when you read the 9 captivating short stories we’ve prepared for you, you will learn French without even realizing you’re learning it! Your goal is to simply focus on a single story at a time (they only a take few minutes to read). The stories consist of multiple genres, including adventure, fantasy, mystery, romance, just to name a new. We wanted these stories to be fun, interesting, and appealing, motivating you to keep on reading to find out what happens next. That’s the very best way to learn, don’t you think? BONUS: Vocabulary Lists, Multiple Choice Exercises & Summaries of Each Story In this book you’ll find a total of 9 short stories in French. Each story is divided into three chapters. You start by reading Chapter one, then you go to the Annex, and you’ll find there a quick summary of what you just read, a vocabulary list, and several multiple choice exercises intended to help you forge a deeper understanding of the story as it goes. Once you’re done with this section, you move on to Chapter 2, then Chapter 3, and then you move on to the next story. It’s so easy and fun you won’t believe it. READ: French Short Stories For Beginners - 9 Captivating Short Stories to Learn French & Expand Your Vocabulary While Having Fun "French Short Stories For Beginners" contains a multitude of vocabulary lists including words and phrases you can incorporate to grow your French vocabulary to unprecedented levels. We chose each of those words carefully, aiming to support the beginner and intermediate student alike. We are absolutely sure will love all our stories, and we sincerely hope they help you learn French much, much faster. How Will You French Skills Improve? You will learn new words without even realizing it You will incorporate key phrases of the French language You will understand how context affects the meaning of certain words You will get a break from all those dusty French grammar books you own You will have fun reading entertaining stories on multiple genres You will get a chance to apply what you already know Most importantly,you will get a better overall grasp of the French

    From the North Pole to New Guinea, from Easter Island to Tibet, Howard Rheingold explores more than forty familiar and obscure languages to discover genuinely useful (rather than simply odd) words that can open up new ways of understanding and experience life.

    Avoidingtraditional thesauruses’ mundane synonym choices,Peter E. Meltzer puts each word—whether it’s protrepic,apostrophize, iracund, or emulous—in context by usingexamples from a broad range of contemporary books,periodicals, and newspapers. His new introductionmakes the case for why we should widen our vocabularyand use the one right word. This groundbreakingthesaurus remains a unique venture, one that enrichesyour writing while helping you find the perfect word.

    Introduces the sub-fields of linguistics: the sounds of language, grammar, semantics, language change, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, language and culture.

    The result is an all-new and updated American dictionary, the crowning achievement in the Oxford line of American dictionaries and thesauruses." "To provide unprecedented clarity, the entries are organized around core meanings, reflecting the way people think about words and eliminating the clutter and confusion of a traditional dictionary entry. Each entry plainly shows the major meaning or meanings of the word, plus any related senses, arranged in intuitive constellations of connected meanings. Definitions are supplemented by illustrative, in-context examples of actual usage." This new edition of The New Oxford American Dictionary includes a guide to the pronunciations on every page spread, a new etymology essay, completely updated and revised maps, and more than a thousand new entries, covering everything new in our language from low-carb to warblog and beyond.

    Delving into the fascinating early history of South Asia, this original book reveals how migration, both external and internal, has shaped all Indians from ancient times. Through a first-of-its-kind and incisive study of languages, such as the story of early Sanskrit, the rise of Urdu, language formation in the North-east, it presents the astounding argument that all Indians are of mixed origins. It explores the surprising rise of English after Independence and how it may be endangering India’s native languages.

    It includes a full account of Tolkien the linguist, as well as telling how to write all the languages, with guides to grammar and pronunciation, and a complete dictionary of the fourteen languages.Here is a book to deepen and enhance our enjoyment of those classics of Middle-earth, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Ruth Noel teaches remedial and developmental reading in Riverside, California. She is the author of The Mythology of Middle-earth, on the relation between The Lord of the Rings and European myth in general. "The author is convincing and fascinating as she connects Tolkien's fantasies with the hallowed myths of other cultures." - Publishers Weekly