books tagged “linguistics”

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Aspects of the Theory of Syntax.
by Noam Chomsky

ISBN 0262530074 (0-262-53007-4)
Softcover, Mit Pr

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Book summary:
Beginning in the mid-fifties and emanating largely form MIT, and approach was developed to linguistic theory and to the study of the structure of particular languages that diverges in many respects from modern linguistics. Although this approach is connected to the traditional study of languages, it differs enough in its specific conclusions about the structure and in its specific conclusions about the structure of language to warrant a name, "generative grammar."Various deficiencies have been discovered in the first attempts to formulate a theory of transformational generative grammar and in the descriptive analysis of particular languages that motivated these formulations. At the same time, it has become apparent that these formulations can be extended and deepened.The major purpose of this book is to review these developments and to propose a reformulation of the theory of transformational generative grammar that takes them into account. The emphasis in this study is syntax; semantic and phonological aspects of the language structure are discussed only insofar as they bear on syntactic theory. [via]
More editions of Aspects of the Theory of Syntax.:
- Aspects of the Theory of Syntax.: ISBN 0262530074 (0-262-53007-4)
  Softcover, Mit Pr
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The Atoms of Language
by Mark C. Baker

ISBN 0465005225 (0-465-00522-5)
Softcover, Perseus Books Group

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Book summary:
Whether all human languages are fundamentally the same or different has been a subject of debate for ages. This problem has deep philosophical implications: If languages are all the same, it implies a fundamental commonality-and thus the mutual intelligibility-of human thought.We are now on the verge of answering this question. Using a twenty-year-old theory proposed by the world's greatest living linguist, Noam Chomsky, researchers have found that the similarities among languages are more profound than the differences. Languages whose grammars seem completely incompatible may in fact be structurally almost identical, except for a difference in one simple rule. The discovery of these rules and how they may vary promises to yield a linguistic equivalent of the Periodic Table of the Elements: a single framework by which we can understand the fundamental structure of all human language. This is a landmark breakthrough, both within linguistics, which will thereby become a full-fledged science for the first time, and in our understanding of the human mind.
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More editions of The Atoms of Language:
- The Atoms of Language: ISBN 0465005217 (0-465-00521-7)
  Hardcover, Perseus Books Group
- The Atoms of Language: ISBN 0465005225 (0-465-00522-5)
  Softcover, Perseus Books Group
The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar
by Mark C. Baker

ISBN 019860632X (0-19-860632-X)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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- The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar: ISBN 019860632X (0-19-860632-X)
  Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr
The Cambridge Encyclopedia
by David Crystal

ISBN 052143176X (0-521-43176-X)
Hardcover, Cambridge Univ Pr

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Book summary:
Remarkably, the fourth edition of The Cambridge Encyclopedia manages to improve on its impressive predecessors. This is no small feat when you take a look at some of the reviews previous editions have garnered: The Daily Telegraph declared that "the essential facts are instantly available ... better written, more concise and intelligent"; the Independent on Sunday felt that it is "as comprehensive as a single-volume encyclopedia can hope to be"; Time Magazine wrote of "Thousands of enlightenments"; and the Mail on Sunday purred about "a superbly organised reference book."
The editorial content is clear and wastes no words. It manages to be accessible without over-simplifying, to a remarkable degree. Take the entry on Aesop as an example. After a pronunciation guide, we read:
"(?6th-c BC) Legendary Greek fabulist. He is supposed to have been a native of Phrygia and a slave who, after being set free, travelled to Greece. The fables attributed to him are anecdotes which use animals to make a moral point and are, in all probability, a compilation of tales from many sources. The stories were popularised by the Roman poet Phaedrus in the 1st-c AD, and rewritten in sophisticated verse by La Fontaine in 1668." There are cross-references to "fable; Greek Literature; La Fontaine; Phaedrus."
The same clarity and economy are maintained consistently throughout the whole vast tome. And it is massive: there are about 40,000 "separately identified people, places and topics" with thousands of those useful cross-references to link entries together, a 24-page colour atlas section, and 800 black and white illustrations to back up the text. The book really does succeed in its aim of being a standard reference for "home, school, library or office," useful for both adults and teenage students. --David Pickering [via]
More editions of The Cambridge Encyclopedia:
- The Cambridge Encyclopedia: ISBN 0521790999 (0-521-79099-9)
  Hardcover, Cambridge Univ Pr
- The Cambridge Encyclopedia: ISBN 052143176X (0-521-43176-X)
  Hardcover, Cambridge Univ Pr
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The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
by David Crystal

ISBN 0521559677 (0-521-55967-7)
Softcover, Cambridge Univ Pr

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The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language has been universally acclaimed as the most exciting, readable and comprehensive boo on language ever written. With over 600 maps, diagrams and photographs, the book is a unique source of information on the variety, structure, history and theory of language. [via]
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The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language
by David Crystal

ISBN 0521530334 (0-521-53033-4)
Softcover, Cambridge Univ Pr

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Book summary:
Rarely has a book so packed with accurate and well researched factual information been so widely read and popularly acclaimed. This Second Edition of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language has been fully revised for a new generation of language-lovers. The book is longer and includes extensive new material on world English and Internet English, in addition to completely updated statistics, further reading suggestions and other references. First Edition Hb (1995): 0-521-40179-8 First Edition Pb (1997): 0-521-59655-6 David Crystal is a leading authority on language, and author of many books, including most recently Shakespeare's Words (Penguin, 2002), Language and the Internet (Cambridge, 2001) and Language Death (Cambridge, 2000). An internationally renowned writer, journal editor, lecturer and broadcaster, he received an Order of the British Empire in 1995 for his services to the English language. [via]
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Caring for Yourself While Caring for Your Aging Parents: How to Help, How to Survive
by Anna Politkovskaia

ISBN 9780805079 (978-080-507-9)
Hardcover, Metropolitan Books

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- Caring for Yourself While Caring for Your Aging Parents: How to Help, How to Survive: ISBN 9780805079 (978-080-507-9)
  Hardcover, Metropolitan Books
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Charles Dickens
by John Lucas

ISBN 0140772529 (0-14-077252-9)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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This study of five major novels by Dickens looks at the tensions between the "private" and "public" aspect of his work. [via]
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- Charles Dickens: ISBN 0140772529 (0-14-077252-9)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction
by William O'Grady, Mark Aronoff, John Archibald

ISBN 0312419368 (0-312-41936-8)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins

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Book summary:
This book is a comprehensive, fully up-to-date introduction to linguistics. All the core topics of linguistics are covered, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, the genetic and typological classification of the languages of the world, and historical linguistics. Interdisciplinary areas discussed include language and the brain, psycholinguistics - the study of language processing, first and second language acquisition, language in social contexts and computational linguistics [via]
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Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction
by Mark Aronoff, William O'Grady, Michael Dobrovolsky

ISBN 0312067801 (0-312-06780-1)
Softcover, Palgrave Macmillan

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Book summary:
Offers a range of supplemental exercises and an answer key. Revised for the fifth edition.
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Contemporary Linguistics Analysis
by O'Grady

ISBN 0773054510 (0-7730-5451-0)
Softcover, Addison-Wesley Pub Co

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- Contemporary Linguistics Analysis: ISBN 0773054510 (0-7730-5451-0)
  Softcover, Addison-Wesley Pub Co
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Course in General Linguistics
by Ferdinand De Saussure

ISBN 0070165246 (0-07-016524-6)
Softcover, McGraw-Hill Humanities Social

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Book summary:
The Cours de linguistique generale, reconstructed from students' notes after Saussure's death in 1913, founded modern linguistic theory by breaking the study of language free from a merely historical and comparativist approach. Saussure's new method, now known as Structuralism, has since been applied to such diverse areas as art, architecture, folklore, literary criticism, and philosophy.
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A Course In Phonetics
by Peter Ladefoged

ISBN 0155001736 (0-15-500173-6)
Softcover, Harcourt College Pub

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Book summary:
The easy to understand approach builds on the basics, beginning with technical terms required for describing speech and transcription symbols before moving on to the phonetics of English and other languages. [via]
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Describing Morphosyntax: A Guide for Field Linguists
by Thomas E. Payne

ISBN 0521588057 (0-521-58805-7)
Softcover, Cambridge Univ Pr

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Book summary:
This book is a guide for linguistic fieldworkers who wish to write a description of the morphology and syntax of one of the world's many underdocumented languages. It offers readers who work through it one possible outline for a grammatical description, with many questions designed to help them address the key topics. Appendices offer guidance on text and elicited data, and on sample reference grammars that readers might wish to consult. This will be a valuable resource to anyone engaged in linguistic fieldwork. [via]
More editions of Describing Morphosyntax: A Guide for Field Linguists:
- Describing Morphosyntax: A Guide for Field Linguists: ISBN 0521582245 (0-521-58224-5)
  Hardcover, Cambridge Univ Pr
- Describing Morphosyntax: A Guide for Field Linguists: ISBN 0521588057 (0-521-58805-7)
  Softcover, Cambridge Univ Pr
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Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
by Lynne Truss

ISBN 1592402038 (1-59240-203-8)
Softcover, Gotham Books

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Book summary:
We all know the basics of punctuation. Or do we? A look at most neighborhood signage tells a different story. Through sloppy usage and low standards on the internet, in email, and now text messages, we have made proper punctuation an endangered species. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset when it is mishandled. From the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to George Orwell shunning the semicolon, this lively history makes a powerful case for the preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to be mucked about with.
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Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!
by Lynne Truss, Bonnie Timmons

ISBN 0399244913 (0-399-24491-3)
Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group

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Book summary:
Illuminating the comical confusion the lowly comma can cause, this new edition of Eats, Shoots & Leaves uses lively, subversive illustrations to show how misplacing or leaving out a comma can change the meaning of a sentence completely.

This picture book is sure to elicit gales of laughterand better punctuationfrom all who read it.

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More editions of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!:
- Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!: ISBN 0399244913 (0-399-24491-3)
  Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
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Eats, Shoots, and Leaves
by Lynne Truss

ISBN 0786268379 (0-7862-6837-9)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

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Book summary:
A New York Times Bestseller
In 2002 Lynne Truss presented a well-received BBC Radio 4 series about punctuation which led to the writing of Eats, Shoots & Leaves. The book became a runaway success in the UK, hitting number one on the bestseller lists and prompting extraordinary headlines such as "Grammar Book Tops Bestseller List" (BBC News). With over a half million copies in print in England, Truss is ready to rally the troops on this side of the pond with her rousing cry, "Sticklers unite!"
Available only in Core 7. [via]
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- Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: ISBN 0786268379 (0-7862-6837-9)
  Hardcover, Thorndike Pr
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Empires Of The Word: A Language History Of The World
by Nicholas Ostler

ISBN 0060935723 (0-06-093572-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Book summary:
The story of the world in the last five thousand years is above all the story of its languages. Some shared language is what binds any community together and makes possible both the living of a common history and the telling of it.
Yet the history of the world's great languages has been very little told. Empires of the Word, by the wide-ranging linguist Nicholas Ostler, is the first to bring together the tales in all their glorious variety: the amazing innovations in education, culture, and diplomacy devised by speakers of Sumerian and its successors in the Middle East, right up to the Arabic of the present day; the uncanny resilience of Chinese through twenty centuries of invasions; the charmed progress of Sanskrit from north India to Java and Japan; the engaging self-regard of Greek; the struggles that gave birth to the languages of modern Europe; and the global spread of English.
Besides these epic ahievements, language failures are equally fascinating: Why did German get left behind? Why did Egyptian, which had survived foreign takeovers for three millennia, succumb to Mohammed's Arabic? Why is Dutch unknown in modern Indonesia, though the Netherlands had ruled the East Indies for as long as the British ruled India?
As this book splendidly and authoritatively reveals, the language history of the world shows eloquently the real character of peoples; and, for all the recent tehnical mastery of English, nothing guarantees our language's long-term preeminence. The language future, like the language past, will be full of surprises.
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More editions of Empires Of The Word: A Language History Of The World:
- Empires Of The Word: A Language History Of The World: ISBN 0066210860 (0-06-621086-0)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
- Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World: ISBN 0060935723 (0-06-093572-3)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
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Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution
by Ray Jackendoff

ISBN 0199264376 (0-19-926437-6)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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Book summary:
Already hailed as a masterpiece, Foundations of Language offers a brilliant overhaul of the last thirty-five years of research in generative linguistics and related fields. "Few books really deserve the cliché 'this should be read by every researcher in the field,'" writes Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct, "But Ray Jackendoff's Foundations of Language does."
Foundations of Language offers a radically new understanding of how language, the brain, and perception intermesh. The book renews the promise of early generative linguistics: that language can be a valuable entree into understanding the human mind and brain. The approach is remarkably interdisciplinary. Behind its innovations is Jackendoff's fundamental proposal that the creativity of language derives from multiple parallel generative systems linked by interface components. this shift in basic architecture makes possible a radical reconception of mental grammar and how it is learned. As a consequence, Jackendoff is able to reintegrate linguistics with philosophy of mind, cognitive and developmental psychology, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and computational linguistics. Among the major topics treated are language processing, the relation of language to perception, the innateness of language, and the evolution of the language capacity, as well as more standard issues in linguistic theory such as the roles of syntax and the lexicon. In addition, Jackendoff offers a sophisticated theory of semantics that incorporates insights from philosophy of language, logic and formal semantics, lexical semantics of various stripes, cognitive grammar, psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic approaches, and the author's own conceptual semantics.
Here then is the most fundamental contribution to linguistic theory in over three decades. [via]
More editions of Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution:
- Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution: ISBN 0198270127 (0-19-827012-7)
  Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr
- Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution: ISBN 0199264376 (0-19-926437-6)
  Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Historical Linguistics: An Introduction
by Lyle Campbell

ISBN 0262532670 (0-262-53267-0)
Softcover, Mit Pr

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Book summary:
Historical linguistics is the study of how and why language changesboth the methods of investigating language change and the theories designed to explain these changes. This highly accessible introductory text takes a hands-on, how-to approach, rather than just talking about the subject as many texts do. The book contains abundant examples both from familiar European languages, to make the topics accessible, and from a variety of non-European languages, to illustrate the depth and range of the concepts. The book also covers a number of essential topics neglected by most texts, including syntactic change, methods for investigating distant genetic relationship, linguistic prehistory, and grammaticalization. [via]
More editions of Historical Linguistics: An Introduction:
- Historical Linguistics: An Introduction: ISBN 0262531593 (0-262-53159-3)
  Softcover, Mit Pr
- Historical Linguistics: An Introduction: ISBN 0262532670 (0-262-53267-0)
  Softcover, Mit Pr
Industrial Democracy in America: Ideological Origins of National Labor Relations Policy
by Howard Dickman

ISBN 0812690087 (0-8126-9008-7)
Softcover, Open Court Pub Co

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- Industrial Democracy in America: Ideological Origins of National Labor Relations Policy: ISBN 0812690087 (0-8126-9008-7)
  Softcover, Open Court Pub Co
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Introduction to Language
by Victoria Fromkin, Robert Rodman, Nina Hyams

ISBN 1413017738 (1-4130-1773-8)
Softcover, Heinle

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Book summary:
AN INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE is ideal for use at all levels and in many different areas of instruction including education, languages, psychology, anthropology, teaching English as a Second Language (TESL), and linguistics. All chapters in this best-seller have been substantially revised to reflect recent discoveries and new understanding of linguistics and languages. [via]
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Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech
by Edward Sapir

ISBN 1406820571 (1-4068-2057-1)
Softcover, Echo Library

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Book summary:
How do culture and language correspond? How does language work, and how do languages vary? An expert linguist and anthropologist addresses these and related issues in a highly readable examination of language within the contexts of thought, historical process, race, culture, and art. Topics include a discussion of "drift," or the processes of language change.
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More editions of Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech:
- Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech: ISBN 0486437442 (0-486-43744-2)
  Softcover, Dover Pubns
- Language. an Introduction to the Study of Speech: ISBN 1406820571 (1-4068-2057-1)
  Softcover, Echo Library
Language
by Sapir

ISBN 0246110740 (0-246-11074-0)
Softcover, Brill Academic Pub

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- Language: ISBN 0246110740 (0-246-11074-0)
  Softcover, Brill Academic Pub
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The Language Instinct
by Steven Pinker

ISBN 0060976519 (0-06-097651-9)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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In The Language Instinct , Steven Pinker, well-known for his revolutionary theory of how children acquire language, lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, how it evolved. With wit, education, and deft use of everyday examples of humor and wordplay, Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of language into a compelling story: language is a human instinct, wired into our brains by evolution like web spinning in spiders or sonar in bats. [via]
More editions of The Language Instinct:
- The Language Instinct: ISBN 0060976519 (0-06-097651-9)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
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The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
by Steven Pinker

ISBN 0060958332 (0-06-095833-2)
Softcover, Perennial

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In this "extremely valuable book, very informative, and very well written" (Noam Chomsky), one of the greatest thinkers in the field of linguistics explains how language works--how people, ny making noises with their mouths, can cause ideas to arise in other people's minds. [via]
More editions of The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language:
- The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language: ISBN 0688121411 (0-688-12141-1)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
- The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language: ISBN 0060958332 (0-06-095833-2)
  Softcover, Perennial
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Language: Its Structure and Use
by Edward Finegan

ISBN 0838407943 (0-8384-0794-3)
Softcover, Thomson Learning

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Finegan's best selling text, LANGUAGE: ITS STRUCTURE AND USE, Fourth Edition maintains its relevance with new emphasis on the political and social aspects of language including "Applications to the Professions." [via]
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- Language: Its Structure and Use: ISBN 0838407943 (0-8384-0794-3)
  Softcover, Thomson Learning
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The Languages of Tolkien's Middle Earth
by Ruth S. Noel

ISBN 0395291305 (0-395-29130-5)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin

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This is the book on all of Tolkien's invented languages, spoken by hobbits, elves, and men of Middle-earth -- a dicitonary of fourteen languages, an English-Elvish glossary, all the runes and alphabets, and material on Tolkien the linguist.
[via]
More editions of The Languages of Tolkien's Middle Earth:
- The Languages of Tolkien's Middle Earth: ISBN 0395291291 (0-395-29129-1)
  Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
- The Languages of Tolkien's Middle Earth: ISBN 0395291305 (0-395-29130-5)
  Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
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Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States
by Bill Bryson

ISBN 0380713810 (0-380-71381-0)
Softcover, Avon Books

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Book summary:
Readers from Toad Suck, Arkansas, to Idiotsville, Oregon--and everywhere in between--will love Made in America, Bill Bryson's Informal History of the English Language in the United States. It is, in a word, fascinating. After reading this tour de force, it's clear that a nation's language speaks volumes about its true character: you are what you speak. Bryson traces America's history through the language of the time, then goes on to discuss words culled from everyday activities: immigration, eating, shopping, advertising, going to the movies, and others.
Made in America will supply you with interesting facts and cocktail chatter for a year or more. Did you know, for example, that Teddy Roosevelt's "speak softly and carry a big stick" credo has its roots in a West African proverb? Or that actor Walter Matthau's given name is Walter Mattaschanskayasky? Or that the supposedly frigid Puritans--who called themselves "Saints," by the way--had something called a pre-contract, which was a license for premarital sex? Made in America is an excellent discussion of American English, but what makes the book such a treasure is that it offers much, much more. [via]
More editions of Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States:
- Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States: ISBN 068810312X (0-688-10312-X)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
- Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States: ISBN 0380713810 (0-380-71381-0)
  Softcover, Avon Books
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Metaphors We Live by
by George Lakoff, Mark Johnson

ISBN 0226468011 (0-226-46801-1)
Softcover, Univ of Chicago Pr

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Book summary:
The now-classic Metaphors We Live By changed our understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by"metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them.

In this updated edition of Lakoff and Johnson's influential book, the authors supply an afterword surveying how their theory of metaphor has developed within the cognitive sciences to become central to the contemporary understanding of how we think and how we express our thoughts in language.
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More editions of Metaphors We Live by:
- Metaphors We Live by: ISBN 0226468003 (0-226-46800-3)
  Hardcover, Univ of Chicago Pr
- Metaphors We Live by: ISBN 0226468011 (0-226-46801-1)
  Softcover, Univ of Chicago Pr
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The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way
by Bill Bryson

ISBN 0380715430 (0-380-71543-0)
Softcover, Avon Books

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Book summary:
Who would have thought that a book about English would be so entertaining? Certainly not this grammar-allergic reviewer, but The Mother Tongue pulls it off admirably. Bill Bryson--a zealot--is the right man for the job. Who else could rhapsodize about "the colorless murmur of the schwa" with a straight face? It is his unflagging enthusiasm, seeping from between every sentence, that carries the book.
Bryson displays an encyclopedic knowledge of his topic, and this inevitably encourages a light tone; the more you know about a subject, the more absurd it becomes. No jokes are necessary, the facts do well enough by themselves, and Bryson supplies tens per page. As well as tossing off gems of fractured English (from a Japanese eraser: "This product will self-destruct in Mother Earth."), Bryson frequently takes time to compare the idiosyncratic tongue with other languages. Not only does this give a laugh (one word: Welsh), and always shed considerable light, it also makes the reader feel fortunate to speak English. [via]
More editions of The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way:
- The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way: ISBN 0688078958 (0-688-07895-8)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
- The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got That Way: ISBN 0380715430 (0-380-71543-0)
  Softcover, Avon Books
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The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language
by John McWhorter

ISBN 006052085X (0-06-052085-X)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Book summary:
There are approximately 6000 languages on earth today, the descendants of the tongue first spoken by homo sapiens some 150,000 years ago. How did they all develop? What happened to the first language?
In this irreverent romp through territory too often claimed by stodgy grammarians, McWhorter ranges across linguistic theory, geography, history, and pop culture to tell the fascinating story of how thousands of very different languages have evolved from a single, original source in a natural process similar to biological evolution. While laying out how languages mix and mutate over time, he reminds us of the variety within the species that speaks them, and argues that, contrary to popular perception, language is not immutable and hidebound, but a living, dynamic entity that adapts itself to an ever-changing human environment.
Full of humor and imaginative insight, The Power of Babel draws its examples from languages around the world, including pidgins, creoles, patois and nonstandard dialects. McWhorter also discusses current theories on what the first language might have been like, why dialects should not be considered "bad speech" and why most of today's languages will be extinct in 100 years.
The first book written for the layperson about the natural history of language, Power of Babel is a dazzling tour de force that will leave readers anything but speechless.
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More editions of The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language:
- The Power of Babel : A Natural History of Language: ISBN 0716744732 (0-7167-4473-2)
  Hardcover, Holt & Company, Henry
- The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language: ISBN 006052085X (0-06-052085-X)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
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Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society
by Peter Trudgill

ISBN 0140289216 (0-14-028921-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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This is a classic book on a fascinating subject. Peter Trudgill examines the close link between language and society and the many factors that influence the way we speak. These range from gender, environment, age, race, class, region and politics. Trudgill's book surveys languages and societies from all over the world drawing on examples from Afrikaans to Yiddish. He has added a fascinating chapter on the development of a language as a result of a non-native speaker's use of it. Compelling and authoritative, this new edition of a bestselling book is set to redraw the boundaries of the study of sociolinguistics. [via]
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Sociolinguistics: An Introduction
by Peter Trudgill

ISBN 0140218025 (0-14-021802-5)
Hardcover, Penguin

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Book summary:
This is a classic book on a fascinating subject. Peter Trudgill examines the close link between language and society and the many factors that influence the way we speak. These range from gender, environment, age, race, class, region and politics. Trudgill's book surveys languages and societies from all over the world drawing on examples from Afrikaans to Yiddish. He has added a fascinating chapter on the development of a language as a result of a non-native speaker's use of it. Compelling and authoritative, this new edition of a bestselling book is set to redraw the boundaries of the study of sociolinguistics. [via]
More editions of Sociolinguistics: An Introduction:
- Sociolinguistics: An Introduction: ISBN 0140218025 (0-14-021802-5)
  Hardcover, Penguin
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Spoken Here: Travels among Threatened Languages
by Mark Abley

ISBN 0618565833 (0-618-56583-3)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin

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In Spoken Here, Mark Abley journeys around the world seeking out languages in peril -- Manx, Mohawk, Boro, Yiddish, and many more. Along the way he reveals delicious linguistic oddities and shows us what is lost when one of the world's six thousand tongues dies -- an irreplaceable worldview and a wealth of practical knowledge. He also examines the forces, from pop culture to creoles to global politics, that threaten to wipe out 90 percent of languages by this century's end.
Abley encounters one of the last two speakers of an Australian language, whose tribal taboos forbid them to talk to each other. He spotlights those who believe that violence is the only way to save their tongue. He meets a Yiddish novelist who writes for an audience she knows doesn't exist. He pays tribute to such strange tongues as the Amazonian language last spoken by a parrot, the Caucasian language with no vowels, and the South Asian language whose innumerable verbs include gobray (to fall in a well unknowingly) and onsra (to love for the last time).
Each of the languages Abley spotlights, from the familiar to the foreign, exemplifies the various threats that endanger languages worldwide. But many also prove their resilience, thanks to the efforts of their determined speakers and such unlikely tools as soap operas and pop music. Abley meets the crusaders as well as the uncaring, all of whom offer surprising insight into this centuries-old debate. Spoken Here is a singular travelogue, a compelling case for linguistic diversity, and a treasure trove for anyone who loves any language.
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More editions of Spoken Here: Travels among Threatened Languages:
- Spoken Here: Travels among Threatened Languages: ISBN 061823649X (0-618-23649-X)
  Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin Company
- Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages: ISBN 0618565833 (0-618-56583-3)
  Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
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The Stories of English
by David Crystal

ISBN 1585677191 (1-58567-719-1)
Softcover, Overlook Pr

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The English language is now accepted as the global lingua franca of the modern age, spoken or written in by over a quarter of the human race. But how did it evolve? How did a language spoken originally by a few thousand Anglo-Saxons become one used by more than 1,500 million? What developments can be seen as we move from Beowulf to Chaucer to Shakespeare to Dickens and the present day? A host of fascinating questions are answered in The Stories of English ? a groundbreaking history of the language by David Crystal, the world-renowned writer and commentator on English. Many books have been written about English, but they have all focused on a single variety ? the educated, printed language called ?standard? English. David Crystal turns the history of English on its head and instead provides a startlingly original view of where the richness, creativity and diversity of the language truly lies ? in the accents and dialects of nonstandard English users all over the world. Whatever their regional, social or ethnic background, each group has a story worth telling, whether it is in Scotland or Somerset, South Africa or Singapore. Interweaved within this central chronological story are accounts of uses of dialect around the world as well as in literary classics from The Canterbury Tales to The Lord of the Rings. For the first time, regional speech and writing is placed centre stage, giving a sense of the social realities behind the development of English. This significant shift in perspective enables the reader to understand for the first time the importance of everyday, previously marginalized, voices in our language and provides an argument too for the way English should be taught in the future. [via]
More editions of The Stories of English:
- The Stories of English: ISBN 1585676012 (1-58567-601-2)
  Hardcover, Penguin USA
- The Stories of English: ISBN 1585677191 (1-58567-719-1)
  Softcover, Overlook Pr
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The Story of English
by Robert McCrum, William Cran, Robert MacNeil

ISBN 0140154051 (0-14-015405-1)
Softcover, Penguin Group (Canada)

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Now revised, The Story of English is the first book to tell the whole story of the English language. Originally paired with a major PBS miniseries, this book presents a stimulating and comprehensive record of spoken and written Englishfrom 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.

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Syntax: A Generative Introduction
by Andrew Carnie

ISBN 1405133848 (1-4051-3384-8)
Softcover, Blackwell Pub

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Book summary:
This book provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the major issues in syntactic theory, including phrase structure, the lexicon, case theory, movement, and locality conditions.
- Walks the student through complicated analyses, pointing out common mistakes and how to avoid them
- Includes extensive foreign language examples and exercises
- Contains exercises designed both to cement foundational knowledge and to take the student to the next level
- Accompanied by a supplementary website with sample problems, chapter summaries and relevant links: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/carnie
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The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour Of Mankind's Greatest Invention
by Guy Deutscher

ISBN 0805080120 (0-8050-8012-0)
Softcover, Owl Books

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Blending the spirit of Eats, Shoots & Leaves with the science of The Language Instinct, an original inquiry into the development of that most essential-and mysterious-of human creations: Language

Language is mankind's greatest invention-except, of course, that it was never invented." So begins linguist Guy Deutscher's enthralling investigation into the genesis and evolution of language. If we started off with rudimentary utterances on the level of "man throw spear," how did we end up with sophisticated grammars, enormous vocabularies, and intricately nuanced degrees of meaning?

Drawing on recent groundbreaking discoveries in modern linguistics, Deutscher exposes the elusive forces of creation at work in human communication, giving us fresh insight into how language emerges, evolves, and decays. He traces the evolution of linguistic complexity from an early "Me Tarzan" stage to such elaborate single-word constructions as the Turkish sehirlilestiremediklerimizdensiniz ("you are one of those whom we couldn't turn into a town dweller"). Arguing that destruction and creation in language are intimately entwined, Deutscher shows how these processes are continuously in operation, generating new words, new structures, and new meanings.

As entertaining as it is erudite, The Unfolding of Language moves nimbly from ancient Babylonian to American idiom, from the central role of metaphor to the staggering triumph of design that is the Semitic verb, to tell the dramatic story and explain the genius behind a uniquely human faculty.
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More editions of The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour Of Mankind's Greatest Invention:
- The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour Of Mankind's Greatest Invention: ISBN 0805079076 (0-8050-7907-6)
  Hardcover, Henry Holt & Co
- The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention: ISBN 0805080120 (0-8050-8012-0)
  Softcover, Owl Books
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Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind
by George Lakoff

ISBN 0226468046 (0-226-46804-6)
Softcover, Univ of Chicago Pr

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Book summary:
"Its publication should be a major event for cognitive linguistics and should pose a major challenge for cognitive science. In addition, it should have repercussions in a variety of disciplines, ranging from anthropology and psychology to epistemology and the philosophy of science. . . . Lakoff asks: What do categories of language and thought reveal about the human mind? Offering both general theory and minute details, Lakoff shows that categories reveal a great deal."David E. Leary, American Scientist
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More editions of Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind:
- Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind: ISBN 0226468038 (0-226-46803-8)
  Hardcover, University of Chicago Press
- Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind: ISBN 0226468046 (0-226-46804-6)
  Softcover, Univ of Chicago Pr
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Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language
by Steven Pinker

ISBN 0060958405 (0-06-095840-5)
Softcover, Perennial

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Book summary:
Human languages are capable of expressing a literally endless number of different ideas. How do we manage it--so effortlessly that we scarcely ever stop to think about it? In Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language, a look at the simple concepts that we use to devise works as complex as love sonnets and tax laws, renowned neuroscientist and linguist Steven Pinker shows us how. The latest linguistic research suggests that each of us stores a limited (though large) number of words and word-parts in memory and manipulates them with a much smaller number of rules to produce every writing and utterance, and Pinker explains every step of the way with engaging good humor.
Pinker's enthusiasm for the subject infects the reader, particularly as he emphasizes the relation between how we communicate and how we think. What does it mean that a small child who has never heard the word wug can tell a researcher that when one wug meets another, there are two wugs? Some rule must be telling the child that English plurals end in -s, which also explains mistakes like mouses. Is our communication linked inextricably with our thinking? Pinker says yes, and it's hard to disagree. Words and Rules is an excellent introduction to and overview of current thinking about language, and will greatly reward the careful reader with new ways of thinking about how we think, talk, and write. --Rob Lightner [via]
More editions of Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language:
- Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language: ISBN 0465072690 (0-465-07269-0)
  Hardcover, Perseus Books Group
- Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language: ISBN 0060958405 (0-06-095840-5)
  Softcover, Perennial
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The World's Major Languages
by Bernard Comrie

ISBN 0195205219 (0-19-520521-9)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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From English, French, Spanish and Russian to Pashto, Tagalog, and Swahili, this is the first comprehensive reference work to provide detailed information about the world's forty major languages. Writen by acknowledged specialists in the field, the volume begins with a general introduction to language and language families, followed by language-family sections that provide an informative essay about that language, and individual chapters that discuss the history, distribution, syntax, grammar and punctuation, writing and spelling systems, standards of usage, and other important aspects of each language. [via]
More editions of The World's Major Languages:
- The World's Major Languages: ISBN 0195205219 (0-19-520521-9)
  Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation
by Deborah Tannen

ISBN 0060959622 (0-06-095962-2)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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"A chatty, earnest and endearing book that promises here-and-now rewards for taking the trouble to listen more carefully to what others are saying--and to be more sensitive to what others are hearing."LOS ANGELES TIMESDiscover how men and women can interpret the same conversation differently, even when there is no apparent misunderstanding. Discover why sinscere attempts to communicate are so often confounded, and how we can prevent or relieve some of the frustration. This fascinating, helpful, and controversial book--on the NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller list for two years!--explores, in depth the differing style men and women articulate, and how to work through it and get to the heart of the matter. [via]
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Cours De Linguistique Generale
by Ferdinand De Saussure, Tullio De Mauro, Charles Bally, Albert Sechehaye, Albert Riedlinger

ISBN 2228500704 (2-228-50070-4)
Hardcover, Payot

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Book summary:
Le Cours de Saussure constitue un ouvrage clé pour quiconque s'intéresse au langage et aux langues ; il est considéré comme fondateur de la linguistique moderne. C'est là que se trouvent exprimés pour la première fois certains des concepts les plus féconds de la linguistique : oppositions binaires (langue/parole, signifiant/signifié, synchronie/diachronie), arbitraire du signe. Ces concepts seront largement affinés ou contestés, et nourriront la réflexion de générations de linguistes.
Avec la reproduction de l'édition originale de 1916 établie par les élèves de Saussure d'après leurs notes, le lecteur trouvera un appareil critique complet dû à Tullio de Mauro, dont une biographie de Saussure et des notes. Les commentaires sont particulièrement instructifs, car ils font apparaître les violentes critiques qui ont suivi la publication du Cours, ainsi que l'influence considérable qu'il a exercée et continue d'exercer. Ce livre peut être lu sans connaissances préalables en linguistique. --Guillaume Segerer [via]
More editions of Cours De Linguistique Generale:
- Cours De Linguistique Generale: ISBN 2228500704 (2-228-50070-4)
  Hardcover, Payot

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