By Hook Or By Crook A Journey In Search Of English
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By Hook Or By Crook: A Journey in Search of English by David Crystal Pdf
A delightfully discursive, Bill Bryson-esque and personal journey through the groves and the thickets of the English language, by our foremost scholar of the history and structure of the English language.
The Story of English in 100 Words by David Crystal Pdf
Featuring Latinate and Celtic words, weasel words and nonce-words, ancient words ('loaf') to cutting edge ('twittersphere') and spanning the indispensable words that shape our tongue ('and', 'what') to the more fanciful ('fopdoodle'), Crystal takes us along the winding byways of language via the rude, the obscure and the downright surprising. In this unique new history of the world's most ubiquitous language, linguistics expert David Crystal draws on words that best illustrate the huge variety of sources, influences and events that have helped to shape our vernacular since the first definitively English word was written down in the fifth century ('roe', in case you are wondering).
The Politics of English Nationhood by Michael Kenny Pdf
Winner of the Political Studies Association WJM MacKenzie Prize for best book of 2014 The Politics of English Nationhood supplies the first comprehensive overview of the evidence, research and major arguments relating to the revival of Englishness, exploring its varied, and often overlooked, political ramifications and dimensions. It examines the difficulties which the major political parties have encountered in dealing with 'the English question' against the backdrop of the diminishing hold of established ideas of British government and national identity in the final years of the last century. And it explores a range of factors—including insecurities generated by economic change, Euroscepticism, and a growing sense of cultural anxiety — which helped make the renewal of Englishness appealing and imperative, prior to the introduction of devolution by the first Blair government, a policy which also gave this process a further impetus. The book therefore provides a powerful challenge to the two established orthodoxies in this area. These either maintain that the English are dispositionally unable to assert their own nationhood outside the framework of the British state, or point to the supposed resurgence of a resentful and reactive sense of English nationalism. This volume instead demonstrates that a renewed, resonant and internally divided sense of English nationhood is apparent across the lines of class, geography, age, and ethnicity. And it identifies several distinct strands of national identity that have emerged in this period, contrasting the appearance of populist and resentful forms of English nationalism with an embedded and deeply rooted sense of conservative Englishness and attempts to reconstruct a more liberal and civic idea of a multicultural England. This volume also includes a wide-ranging analysis of the culturally rooted revival of Englishness, drawing out the political dimensions and implications of this re-emerging form of national consciousness.
Author : Rajend Mesthrie Publisher : Penguin Random House South Africa Page : 176 pages File Size : 40,5 Mb Release : 2011-12-05 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines ISBN : 9781770223936
"What makes South African English different? Have you ever wondered where the words ‘gogga’, ‘tsotsi’ and ‘larney’ come from? Did you know that the first sentence uttered by a South African in English may have been spoken by a Khoikhoi man in 1613? South African English is unique and is made up of several varieties. This entertaining and informative book looks at the forms of English spoken here, where they come from and how they fit into the spectrum of world Englishes. Humorous and engaging, it is packed with common expressions, slang, grammatical variations and distinctive South African words and phrases, including ‘just now’, ‘busy waiting’ and, of course, ‘eish’. The book explores the influence of Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa and other languages on English as it is spoken in the diverse context of South Africa. It considers the social implications of language, questions notions of correctness and incorrectness, and celebrates South African English for its innovations and expressiveness. Eish, but is it English? is a book for everyone who is interested in the way we use language and make it our own. "
From an acclaimed linguist, “part travelogue, part memoir, and part meditation on the intellectual and emotional underpinnings of language. . . . Priceless.” (Booklist) In this discursive jaunt through the groves and thickets of the English language, David Crystal creates an entertaining narrative account of his encounters with the language and its speakers. Woven from personal reflections, historical allusions, and observations of travelers, this fascinating journey through the language we use every day will have readers thinking twice about each word they speak. Starting in Wales and moving from England to San Francisco by way of, yes, Poland, Crystal encounters numerous linguistic side roads that he cannot resist exploring, from pubs to trains to Tolkien. Walking English is a captivating exploration of language by “one of England’s greatest living language commentators.” (The New Statesman) “In a conversational style that includes plenty of quirky facts, Crystal captures the exploratory, seductive, teasing, quirky, tantalizing nature of language study, and in doing so illuminates the fascinating world of words in which we live.” —Publishers Weekly “An informative, transformative trip into the mysterious, mutating, magical thicket of English.” (Kirkus Reviews) “Like passing the afternoon with a knowledgeable uncle.” —The Wall Street Journal “The Dr. Johnson of our age.” —The Sunday Herald “The book reads like a donnish Bill Bryson, a Bryson possessed with a maniacal passion for the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language! . . . [A] compelling guide.” —Independent “Crystal proves an entertaining companion! It is pleasant to ramble with him along the byways of language.” —The Tablet
This 'engaging history of punctuation' (Wall Street Journal) is not only the first history of its kind, but a complete guide on how to use English punctuation. Behind every punctuation mark lies a thousand stories. The punctuation of English, marked with occasional rationality, is founded on arbitrariness and littered with oddities. For a system of a few dozen marks it generates a disproportionate degree of uncertainty and passion, inspiring organisations like the Apostrophe Protection Society and sending enthusiasts, correction-pens in hand, in a crusade against error. Professor Crystal leads us through this minefield with characteristic wit, clarity and commonsense. He gives a fascinating account of the origin and progress of every kind of punctuation mark over one and a half millennia, and he offers sound advice on how punctuation may be used to meet the needs of every occasion and context.
Why is there an 'h' in ghost? William Caxton, inventor of the printing press and his Flemish employees are to blame: without a dictionary or style guide to hand in fifteenth century Bruges, the typesetters simply spelled it the way it sounded to their foreign ears, and it stuck. Seventy-five per cent of English spelling is regular but twenty-five per cent is complicated, and in Spell It Out our foremost linguistics expert David Crystal extends a helping hand to the confused and curious alike. He unearths the stories behind the rogue words that confound us, and explains why these peculiarities entered the mainstream, in an epic journey taking in sixth century monks, French and Latin upstarts, the Industrial Revolution and the internet. By learning the history and the principles, Crystal shows how the spellings that break all the rules become easier to get right.
Monolingualism and Linguistic Exhibitionism in Fiction by Anjali Pandey Pdf
How are linguistic wars for global prominence literarily and linguistically inscribed in literature? This book focuses on the increasing presence of cosmetic multilingualism in prize-winning fiction, making a case for an emerging transparent-turn in which momentary multilingualism works in the service of long-term monolingualism.
Focusing on EFL Reading by Rahma Al-Mahrooqi,Adrian Roscoe Pdf
Reading, a complex and multi-faceted skill, is essential for life and academic success. While its mysteries still baffle first-language research, the nature of reading in a foreign language presents an even greater puzzle. However, given reading’s importance for EFL students who study their specializations in English, and whose future employment may depend on their competence in it, researchers must continue to investigate foreign language reading and devise ways of improving students’ capacity for it. Hence, this book, with its thorough coverage of up-to-date theory, practice and research, will be of great value in today’s educational context. As they strive to understand reading and help EFL students to acquire it, researchers and language teachers will find much of value here.
The Great Typo Hunt by Jeff Deck,Benjamin D. Herson Pdf
The signs of the times are missing apostrophes. The world needed a hero, but how would an editor with no off-switch answer the call? For Jeff Deck, the writing was literally on the wall: “NO TRESSPASSING.” In that moment, his greater purpose became clear. Dark hordes of typos had descended upon civilization… and only he could wield the marker to defeat them. Recruiting his friend Benjamin and other valiant companions, he created the Typo Eradication Advancement League (TEAL). Armed with markers, chalk, and correction fluid, they circumnavigated America, righting the glaring errors displayed in grocery stores, museums, malls, restaurants, mini-golf courses, beaches, and even a national park. Jeff and Benjamin championed the cause of clear communication, blogging about their adventures transforming horor into horror, it’s into its, and coconunut into coconut. But at the Grand Canyon, they took one correction too far: fixing the bad grammar in a fake Native American watchtower. The government charged them with defacing federal property and summoned them to court—with a typo-ridden complaint that claimed that they had violated “criminal statues.” Now the press turned these paragons of punctuation into “grammar vigilantes,” airing errors about their errant errand.. The radiant dream of TEAL would not fade, though. Beneath all those misspelled words and mislaid apostrophes, Jeff and Benjamin unearthed deeper dilemmas about education, race, history, and how we communicate. Ultimately their typo-hunting journey tells a larger story not just of proper punctuation but of the power of language and literacy—and the importance of always taking a second look.
Author : Andrew J. Strathern,Pamela J. Stewart Publisher : Routledge Page : 152 pages File Size : 48,8 Mb Release : 2020-05-31 Category : Social Science ISBN : 9781000184648
Language and Culture in Dialogue by Andrew J. Strathern,Pamela J. Stewart Pdf
In this book, Andrew J. Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart delineate the relationship between “language in particular” and “culture in general” by focusing on language as both social practice and a means of classifying and interpreting the world. A traditional linguistic approach to a focus on language is illuminated by their anthropological emphasis on the embodiment of relationships and experience. In the book, the body is placed in the foreground for understanding language in culture, which helps in turn to understand how it enables us to adapt to the world of lived material experience. Written in an accessible style and drawing on an extensive corpus of primary field research from Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Japan, Taiwan, Scotland, and Ireland, Strathern and Stewart present a world anthropology which links together European, North American, and Asia-Pacific approaches to the topic. Students and scholars alike of sociocultual anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and linguistics will benefit from this engaging work on how the various components of our culture are informed and shaped through language.
Counterfactual Thinking - Counterfactual Writing by Dorothee Birke,Michael Butter,Tilmann Köppe Pdf
Counterfactuality is currently a hotly debated topic. While for some disciplines such as linguistics, cognitive science, or psychology counterfactual scenarios have been an important object of study for quite a while, counterfactual thinking has in recent years emerged as a method of study for other disciplines, most notably the social sciences. This volume provides an overview of the current definitions and uses of the concept of counterfactuality in philosophy, historiography, political sciences, psychology, linguistics, physics, and literary studies. The individual contributions not only engage the controversies that the deployment of counterfactual thinking as a method still generates, they also highlight the concept’s potential to promote interdisciplinary exchange without neglecting the limitations and pitfalls of such a project. Moreover, the essays from literary studies, which make up about half of the volume, provide both a historical and a systematic perspective on the manifold ways in which counterfactual scenarios can be incorporated into and deployed in literary texts.
Interpretation and definition as rhetorical and logical modes are interactive in determining and précising meaning that transcends our repertoire of literal usage. Refining language use gives us the opportunity and freedom to explore and discover what never has been thought about, used, or expressed before.
Author : George E. Yoos Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG Page : 178 pages File Size : 46,5 Mb Release : 2015-01-01 Category : Philosophy ISBN : 9783110450613
Simplifying complexity explores how to eliminate ignorance, which in the view of the author, is the purpose of the sciences and technologies and their consequent developments. More specifically, the book deals with the plurality of the sciences and technologies. It is about the way in which each of them develops around the prosthetics of printed languages and the models used as visual aids to help us create new modes of communication to understand and solve human problems. Consequently, the task is to simplify the complexity that we find in different sciences, both social and physical. In his collection of essays, George E. Yoos surveys a number of different models that have evolved from the innate, biological forms of grammar, logic, and modes of orientation. He investigates the evolution of socially constructed systems of numeracy and measurement that have evolved and developed in different languages for the use in scientific and technological communication. He identifies methods derived from three distinct personal experiences: the use of types of prosthetic, mnemonic, and attention controlling devices, in order to yield simpler perspectives of complex states of affairs. George E. Yoos, emeritus professor, is a legend in the field of rhetoric. Founder and editor of the Rhetoric Society Quarterly [1972-1985], author of Reframing Rhetoric [2007], Politics and Rhetoric [2009], and fellow of the Rhetoric Society of America.
Just A Phrase I'm Going Through by David Crystal Pdf
Looks behind the curtains at the adventures, challenges and pitfalls of the author's life in linguistics. This book answers the question that the author is most frequently asked: 'How did you become a linguist?'