Author: Henry Hitchings
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 142994157X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 448
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Book Description
Words are essential to our everyday lives. An average person spends his or her day enveloped in conversations, e-mails, phone calls, text messages, directions, headlines, and more. But how often do we stop to think about the origins of the words we use? Have you ever thought about which words in English have been borrowed from Arabic, Dutch, or Portuguese? Try admiral, landscape, and marmalade, just for starters. The Secret Life of Words is a wide-ranging account not only of the history of English language and vocabulary, but also of how words witness history, reflect social change, and remind us of our past. Henry Hitchings delves into the insatiable, ever-changing English language and reveals how and why it has absorbed words from more than 350 other languages—many originating from the most unlikely of places, such as shampoo from Hindi and kiosk from Turkish. From the Norman Conquest to the present day, Hitchings narrates the story of English as a living archive of our human experience. He uncovers the secrets behind everyday words and explores the surprising origins of our most commonplace expressions. The Secret Life of Words is a rich, lively celebration of the language and vocabulary that we too often take for granted.
Author: Kory Stamper
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 110197026X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 322
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Book Description
“We think of English as a fortress to be defended, but a better analogy is to think of English as a child. We love and nurture it into being, and once it gains gross motor skills, it starts going exactly where we don’t want it to go: it heads right for the goddamned electrical sockets.” With wit and irreverence, lexicographer Kory Stamper cracks open the obsessive world of dictionary writing, from the agonizing decisions about what to define and how to do it to the knotty questions of ever-changing word usage. Filled with fun facts—for example, the first documented usage of “OMG” was in a letter to Winston Churchill—and Stamper’s own stories from the linguistic front lines (including how she became America’s foremost “irregardless” apologist, despite loathing the word), Word by Word is an endlessly entertaining look at the wonderful complexities and eccentricities of the English language.
Author: David-Antoine Williams
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198812477
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 314
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Book Description
For centuries, investigations into the origins of words were entwined with investigations into the origins of humanity and the cosmos. With the development of modern etymological practice in the nineteenth century, however, many cherished etymologies were shown to be impossible, and the very idea of original 'true meaning' asserted in the etymology of 'etymology' declared a fallacy. Structural linguistics later held that the relationship between sound and meaning in language was 'arbitrary', or 'unmotivated', a truth that has survived with small modification until today. On the other hand, the relationship between sound and meaning has been a prime motivator of poems, at all times throughout history. The Life of Words studies a selection of poets inhabiting our 'Age of the Arbitrary', whose auditory-semantic sensibilities have additionally been motivated by a historical sense of the language, troubled as it may be by claims and counterclaims of 'fallacy' or 'true meaning'. Arguing that etymology activates peculiar kinds of epistemology in the modern poem, the book pays extended attention to poems by G. M. Hopkins, Anne Waldman, Ciaran Carson, and Anne Carson, and to the collected works of Geoffrey Hill, Paul Muldoon, Seamus Heaney, R. F. Langley, and J. H. Prynne.
Author: James W. Pennebaker
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1608194965
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 366
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Book Description
The author of Opening Up draws on groundbreaking research in computational linguistics to explain what our language choices reveal about feelings, self-concept and social intelligence, in a lighthearted treatise that also explores the language personalities of famous individuals. 40,000 first printing.
Author: Paul Auster
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
ISBN: 1609807782
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 361
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Book Description
An inside look into Paul Auster's art and craft, the inspirations and obsessions, mesmerizing and dramatic in turn. A remarkably candid, and often surprisingly dramatic, investigation into one writer's art, craft, and life, A Life in Words is rooted in three years of dialogue between Auster and Professor I. B. Siegumfeldt, starting in 2011, while Siegumfeldt was in the process of launching the Center for Paul Auster Studies at the University of Copenhagen. It includes a number of surprising disclosures, both concerning Auster's work and about the art of writing generally. It is a book that's full of surprises, unscripted yet amounting to a sharply focused portrait of the inner workings of one of America's most productive and successful writers, through all twenty-one of Auster's narrative works and the themes and obsessions that drive them.
Author: Avel Louise Gordly
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780870716041
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 176
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Book Description
Remembering the Power of Wordsrecounts the personal and professional journey of Avel Gordly, the first African-American woman elected to the Oregon State Senate. The book is a brave and honest telling of Gordly's life. She shares the challenges and struggles she faced growing up black in Portland in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as her determination to attend college, the dedication to activism that took her from Portland to Africa, and her eventual decision to run for a seat in the state legislature. That words have power is a constant undercurrent in Gordly's account and a truth she learned early in life. "Growing up, finding my own voice," she writes, "was tied up with denying my voice or having it forcefully rejected and in all of that the memory of my father is very strong. To this day--and I am today a very experienced public speaker--preparation to speak takes a great deal of energy." That this memoir has its origins as an oral history is fitting since Gordly has used her voice, out loud, to teach and inspire others for so many years. Important as a biographical account of one significant Oregonian's story, the book also contributes "broader narratives touching on Black history (and Oregon's place within it), and most particularly the politics associated with being an African American woman," according to series editor Melody Rose. The inaugural volume in the Women and Politics in the Pacific Northwest Series (series editor, Melody Rose)
Author: Jen Bryant
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 1467432547
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 43
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Book Description
2009 Caldecott Honor Book An ALA Notable Book A New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book A Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book NCTE Notable Children’s Book When he wrote poems, he felt as free as the Passaic River as it rushed to the falls. Willie’s notebooks filled up, one after another. Willie’s words gave him freedom and peace, but he also knew he needed to earn a living. So he went off to medical school and became a doctor -- one of the busiest men in town! Yet he never stopped writing poetry. In this picture book biography of William Carlos Williams, Jen Bryant’s engaging prose and Melissa Sweet’s stunning mixed-media illustrations celebrate the amazing man who found a way to earn a living and to honor his calling to be a poet.
Author: Raj Parmeshwar Kaitwad
Publisher: JEC PUBLICATION
ISBN: 9358501189
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 44
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Book Description
To everyone reading this,the book contains the great situations that have occurred in my life in the past.This book is a collection of such situations in the form of poems that show some good and bad phases that once occurred.
Author: Doreen Rappaport
Publisher: Perfection Learning
ISBN: 9781613833872
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 40
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Book Description
This definitive picture book biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is an unforgettable portrait of a man whose dream changed America--and the world--forever.
Author: Manny Garcia
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781732013599
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 168
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Book Description
A Glossary of Life is an endeavor to reconnect humanity to ancient truths by retelling them in easy to understand, modern-day language. This book - and each of its 133 glossary topics - distills ageless philosophy and wisdom into bite-sized paragraphs intended to expand awareness and take the reader on a journey of self-discovery.
