Showing titles in Linguistics

In a hole under the floorboards Silas Marner the linen-weaver keeps his gold. Every day he works hard at his weaving, and every night he takes the gold out and holds the bright coins lovingly, feeling them and counting them again and again. The villagers are afraid of him and he has no family, no friends. Only the gold is his friend, his delight, his reason for living. But what if a thief should come in the night and take his gold away?

Everyone likes to think they know a bit about language: There are some words that you simply can't translate into English. The origin of a word tells you how it should be used. A dialect is inferior to a language. The problem is, none of these statements are true. In Don't Believe a Word, linguist David Shariatmadari explodes nine common myths about language and introduces us to some of the fundamental insights of modern linguistics.

From paddy wagon to rush hour, New York City has given us a number of our popular words and phrases, along the way fashioning a recognizable dialect all its own. Often imitated and just as often ridiculed, New York English has its own identity, imbued with the rich cultural history of (as New Yorkers tell it) the greatest city in the world. In You Talkin' to Me?, E. J. White explores the hidden history of English in New York City - a history that encompasses social class, immigration, culture, economics, and, of course, real estate.

“Sparkles with insight.”—Daniel Pink A Behavioral Scientist Notable Book of 2023 A New Scientist Best Science Book A Publishers Weekly Summer Read 2023 Recommendation One of Next Big Idea Club’s "7 Books that Reveal the Wonders of Writing and Language" One of Inc.’s “13 Psychology...

"With easygoing authority... [Fridland] offers context, and a welcoming spirit, to the many contentious realignments in our language."—The Wall Street Journal “Smart and funny—I loved it!" —Mignon Fogarty, author of New York Times bestseller Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for...

America's own The Professor and the Madman: the story of Noah Webster, author of the first dictionary of American English-and a forgotten leader during a turning point in our nation's history. Noah Webster's name is now synonymous with the dictionary he created, but although there is much more...

This warm, wise exploration of female friendship from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of You Just Don’t Understand will help women lean into these powerful relationships. A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK “Celebrates friendship in its frustrations and its rewards and, above all...

“Do you want to write clearer, livelier prose? This witty primer will help.” —The New York Times Book Review An exploration of how the most ordinary words can be turned into verbal constellations of extraordinary grace through the art of building sentences The sentence is the common ground...

Dreyer’s English meets Schott’s Original Miscellany in this delicious tour of the lesser-known wonders of the language world, perfect for language lovers, word nerds, and the incurably curious. A delightful rollick through language unlike any you’ve ever experienced. As the inventor of the...

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Word Freak, a vibrant, illuminating journey through the exotic world of Merriam-Webster, dictionaries, and language, at a time of rapid-fire change in the way we create, consume, define, and use words Words are the currency of culture—and never...

In a radical new story about the birth of our species, The Origin of Language argues that it was not hunting, fighting, or tool-making that forced early humans to speak, but the inescapable need to care for our children. Journeying to the dawn of Homo sapiens, evolutionary biologist Madeleine...

A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION FINALIST The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A history and celebration of the many far-flung volunteers who helped define the English language, word by word. “Enthralling and exuberant, Sarah Ogilvie...

The third and final collection in this series of reflections written by one of the wittiest and most whimsical men to press pen against paper. As well as his usual take on the foibles of his fellow Englishmen and women, Jerome ruminates, in his typically liberal fashion, about far-flung countries such as Russia, Africa and China. Jerome was never a 'jelly-bellied flag-flapping imperialist', and his vision, experience and worldliness are revealed to us over multiple essays.

A powerful, patriarchy-defying manifesto that will transform your relationship to saying “no”—from the award-winning writer, founder of Jezebel, and former New York Times "Work Friend" advice columnist When was the last time you said “no”? Not, I don’t think so, or maybe, or let me...

An urgent, globe-spanning exploration of languages at risk, from Kichwa to Ukrainian, that asks: What do we lose—culturally, politically, and personally—when a language is silenced? “A vivid, hopeful portrait of how people around the world are staying connected to their linguistic roots...

How does Shakespeare remain Shakespeare when every word is changed? In this playful, meditative exploration of translating the world’s most beloved playwright, Daniel Hahn guides us through the magic of bringing the Bard to a global audience. "For those who care deeply about language, and...

What does it take to reinvent a language? After a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world’s most powerful nations. Just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, as the world underwent a massive technological transformation that threatened to...

Bitch is a bitch of a word. It used to be a straightforward insult, but today—after so many variations and efforts to reject or reclaim the word—it's not always entirely clear what it means. Bitch is a chameleon. There are good bitches and bad bitches; sexy bitches and psycho bitches; boss bitches and even perfect bitches. This eye-opening deep-dive account takes us on a journey spanning a millennium, from its humble beginnings as a word for a female dog through to its myriad meanings today, proving that sometimes you can teach an old dog new tricks.

يبحث هذا الكتاب تاريخَ اللغة منذ ما قبل اللغة البشريَّة حتى الانفجار الهائل لوسائل التواصل والإعلام في وقتنا الراهن. ويستهلُّ المؤلِّف حديثَـهُ بوصف طرائق تواصل الحيتان والطُّيور والحشرات والرئيسيَّات من غير البشر، مشيراً إلى أنَّ هذه السياقات الأولى صالحةٌ لتطبيق مفهوم اللغة، ثم ينتقلُ إلى الحديث عن القدرات المبكِّرة للإنسان المنتصب، وانتشار اللغات في جميع أنحاء العالم، محلِّلاً تطوُّرَ الكتابة، ومبرزاً أثـرَ ظهور علم اللغويات في القرن التَّاسع عشر في دراسة اللغات البشريَّة وفهمها. ويتابع المؤلِّف تطوُّرَ رؤية اللغويين لعلاقة اللغة بالتغيُّرات الاجتماعيَّة في منتصف القرن العشرين. وأخيراً يتطرَّق إلى تأثيرات المذياع والتلفاز والدعاية والإعلام وشبكة الإنترنت في اللغة، ويتساءل كيف تعيدُ الوسائط الإلكترونيَّـة تشكيلَ لغات العالم يومياً، وترسمُ مستقبلَها؟ مقترحاً إعادة تفسيرٍ جذريَّـةٍ للغة.

It doesn't matter whether you're conservative or liberal, religious or skeptical, the very fact you are able to understand the words you're reading right now—that we are all able to communicate with each other using language—means we must share a vast body of beliefs. While language may shape the way we think about the world to some small extent, it makes much more sense to say truth shapes language to a very large extent. That’s the central argument of this book: Truth is the condition that makes language possible.