The Prodigal Tongue

Author : Lynne Murphy
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1524704881
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.89/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Prodigal Tongue written by Lynne Murphy and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-04-10 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: CHOSEN BY THE ECONOMIST AS A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR An American linguist teaching in England explores the sibling rivalry between British and American English “English accents are the sexiest.” “Americans have ruined the English language.” Such claims about the English language are often repeated but rarely examined. Professor Lynne Murphy is on the linguistic front line. In The Prodigal Tongue she explores the fiction and reality of the special relationship between British and American English. By examining the causes and symptoms of American Verbal Inferiority Complex and its flipside, British Verbal Superiority Complex, Murphy unravels the prejudices, stereotypes and insecurities that shape our attitudes to our own language. With great humo(u)r and new insights, Lynne Murphy looks at the social, political and linguistic forces that have driven American and British English in different directions: how Americans got from centre to center, why British accents are growing away from American ones, and what different things we mean when we say estate, frown, or middle class. Is anyone winning this war of the words? Will Yanks and Brits ever really understand each other?

Author : Mark Abley
Publisher : Vintage Canada
ISBN 13 : 0307368246
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Prodigal Tongue written by Mark Abley and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2011-04-20 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Prodigal Tongue takes a look at the wild, wacky and sometimes baffling road our language–English and others–is taking in its evolution. Where in the world will it end up?! Mark Abley, author of Spoken Here, has created an entertaining and informative exploration of the way that languages–English, Japanese, French, Arabic and other major tongues–are likely to transform and be transformed by their speakers during the twenty-first century. Grammar and vocabulary are just the beginning; more importantly, this book is about people. In places like Los Angeles, Tokyo, Singapore and Oxford, Abley encounters hip-hop performers and dictionary makers, bloggers and translators, novelists and therapists. He talks to a married couple who were passionately corresponding online before they met in “meatspace.” And he listens to teenagers, puzzling out the words they coin in chatrooms and virtual worlds. Everywhere he goes, he asks what the future is likely to hold for the ways we communicate. Abley balances a traditional concern for honesty and accuracy in language with an untraditional delight in newly minted expressions. Lively, evocative, passionate and playful, this is a book for everyone who cherishes the words we use.

Author : Mark Abley
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1501172298
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Watch Your Tongue written by Mark Abley and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-10-30 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Phrases, idioms, and clichés—why do we say the things we say? Watch Your Tongue explores weird and wonderful everyday sayings and what they reveal about us. Do you ever wonder why you shouldn’t have a cow but you should seize a bull by its horns? Who has the better reputation in language—cats or dogs? Do you sometimes feel that our speech is all smoke and mirrors or that our expressions simply make no sense? In Watch Your Tongue, award-winning author Mark Abley explores the phrases, idioms, and clichés of our everyday language. With wit and subtle wisdom, he unravels the mysteries of these expressions, illuminating the history, tradition and stories behind everything we say. Pulling examples from Shakespeare’s plays to sports team names, ancient Rome to Twitter, Abley shares samples and anecdotes of the eccentric ways that we play with, parse, and pattern language. Why do so many companies use fruit for their brand names? What do politicians mean when they say they’re going to “drain the swamp”? Why does English use chickens to signify cowardice? Abley dives into the history and psychology behind these examples and countless others, unpacking their significance (and sheer absurdity) to show how our language developed, where it is headed, and what we can learn about ourselves from it. Whimsically illustrated, easily browsable, and full of catchy sidebars, Watch Your Tongue celebrates how we amuse ourselves with words and what our sayings reveal about the way we see the world.

Author : John McWhorter
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1592404944
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue written by John McWhorter and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-10-27 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A survey of the quirks and quandaries of the English language, focusing on our strange and wonderful grammar Why do we say “I am reading a catalog” instead of “I read a catalog”? Why do we say “do” at all? Is the way we speak a reflection of our cultural values? Delving into these provocative topics and more, Our Magnificent Bastard Language distills hundreds of years of fascinating lore into one lively history. Covering such turning points as the little-known Celtic and Welsh influences on English, the impact of the Viking raids and the Norman Conquest, and the Germanic invasions that started it all during the fifth century ad, John McWhorter narrates this colorful evolution with vigor. Drawing on revolutionary genetic and linguistic research as well as a cache of remarkable trivia about the origins of English words and syntax patterns, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue ultimately demonstrates the arbitrary, maddening nature of English— and its ironic simplicity due to its role as a streamlined lingua franca during the early formation of Britain. This is the book that language aficionados worldwide have been waiting for (and no, it’s not a sin to end a sentence with a preposition).

Author : Ann Lethbridge
Publisher : Harlequin
ISBN 13 : 1460331664
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.68/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Return of the Prodigal Gilvry written by Ann Lethbridge and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A highlander seeking revenge must keep his promise to help a beautiful widow in this Scottish historical romance. Dundee, Scotland, 1822. Though he bears the scars of betrayal, Andrew Gilvry was once a devastatingly handsome man. Though he craves vengeance for his brother’s treachery, he has returned to Scotland to fulfill a noble promise made to a dying man. The widowed Rowena MacDonald has been entrusted to his care, and Drew must do all he can to protect her. . . . But Drew’s honor is about to be tested—because there’s something in Rowena’s dove-gray eyes that awakens a flame long extinguished. And on a perilous journey across the Highlands, with only this alluring woman for company, how long can he deny his desires?

Author : Derek Walcott
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 1466880414
Total Pages : 112 pages
Book Rating : 4.12/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Prodigal written by Derek Walcott and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2014-09-09 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do not diminish in my memory villages of absolutely no importance, ... Hoard, cherish your negligible existence, your unrecorded history of unambitious syntax, your clean pools of unpolluted light over close stones. The Prodigal is a journey through physical and mental landscapes, from Greenwich Village to the Alps, Pescara to Milan, Germany to Cartagena. But always in "the music of memory, water," abides St. Lucia, the author's birthplace, and the living sea. In his new work, Derek Walcott has created a sweeping yet intimate epic of an exhausted Europe studded with church spires and mountains, train stations and statuary, where the New World is an idea, a "wavering map," and where History subsumes the natural history of his "unimportantly beautiful" island home. Here, the wanderer fears that he has been tainted by his exile, that his life has become untranslatable, and that his craft itself is rooted in betrayal of the vivid archipelago to which, like Antaeus, he must return for the very sustenance of life.

Author : Charlayne Hunter-Gault
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0679748180
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book In My Place written by Charlayne Hunter-Gault and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1993-11-02 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The award-winning correspondent for the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour gives a moment-by-moment account of her walk into history when, as a 19-year-old, she challenged Southern law--and Southern violence--to become the first black woman to attend the University of Georgia. A powerful act of witness to the brutal realities of segregation.

Author : Reynolds Price
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1439106398
Total Pages : 151 pages
Book Rating : 4.96/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Tongues of Angels written by Reynolds Price and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2000-10-17 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I'm as peaceful a man as you're likely to meet in America now, but this is about a death I may have caused. Not slowly over time by abuse or meanness but on a certain day and by ignorance, by plain lack of notice. Though it happened thirty-four years ago, and though I can't say it's haunted my mind that many nights lately, I suspect I can draw it out for you now, clear as this noon. I may need to try." Set in a summer camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains during the deceptively tranquil 1950s, The Tongues of Angels is a story of the twenty-one-year-old painting teacher, a superbly gifted boy, and their advance toward a startling fate. As the now-older man looks back at on that summer, he reflects on the meanings he thought he had learned on the threshold of manhood from the perspective of full maturity.

Author : Virginia Tranel
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0307428060
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Ten Circles Upon the Pond written by Virginia Tranel and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A beautifully written collection of essays for anyone who’s ever lived in that unwieldy group called family—a story that takes us from Iowa to the high country of Wyoming and Montana as a woman and her husband search for the perfect place to raise their five daughters and five sons. Rooted in real-life experience, this unique essay collection of passion, intimacy, work, religion, puberty, love and loss, and the struggle to be steadfast in times of enormous social change reads like a novel—full of lively characters, spirited dialogue, and a landscape that takes you from Iowa to the high country of Wyoming and Montana. As the chapters unfold, one focused on each child, Virginia Tranel and her husband search for the ideal place to raise the five daughters and five sons born to them between 1957 and 1978. Tranel artfully weaves daily moments with world events as she reflects on how our culture affects our decisions. She offers candid observations on everything from her reproductive choices and feminism's influence on her thinking to sibling rivalries and her family's emotional response when an architect son emails firsthand reports of the horrors of September 11. Whether considering the issues intrinsic to marriage and child-raising, or questioning her own common sense, her insights are always provocative and deeply moving.

Author : William F. Katz
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 1118505085
Total Pages : 397 pages
Book Rating : 4.83/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Phonetics For Dummies written by William F. Katz and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-09-05 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The clear and easy way to get a handle on the science of speech The science of how people produce and perceive speech, phonetics has an array of real-world applications, from helping engineers create an authentic sounding Irish or Canadian accent for a GPS voice, to assisting forensics investigators identifying the person whose voice was caught on tape, to helping a film actor make the transition to the stage. Phonetics is a required course among students of speech pathology and linguistics, and it's a popular elective among students of telecommunications and forensics. The first popular guide to this fascinating discipline, Phonetics For Dummies is an excellent overview of the field for students enrolled in introductory phonetics courses and an ideal introduction for anyone with an interest in the field. Bonus instructional videos, video quizzes, and other content available online for download on the dummies.com product page for this book.