Historical & Comparative

Spoken by eighty million people in South Asia and a diaspora that stretches across the globe, Tamil is one of the great world languages, and one of the few ancient languages that survives as a mother tongue for so many speakers. David Shulman presents a...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780899576657Author S. ZodhiatesFormat HardbackPage Count 2608Imprint AMG PublishersPublisher AMG PublishersWeight(grams) 1769g

An optimistic and nuanced portrait of a generation that has much to teach us about how to live and collaborate in our digital world. Born since the mid-1990s, members of Generation Z comprise the first generation never to know the world without the...

Language in all its modes-oral, written, print, electronic-claims the central role in Walter J. Ong's acclaimed speculations on human culture. After his death, his archives were found to contain unpublished drafts of a final book manuscript that Ong...

The study of English language and literature in Britain changed dramatically between the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. From Philology to English Studies explores the contribution of philology to this movement. Haruko...

This is the first full account of the transformation of Ottoman Turkish into Modern Turkish. It is based on the author's knowledge and experience of the language, history, and people of Turkey. The transformation of the Turkish language is probably the...

Language is a wild animal: rough, ambiguous, inconsistent in countless ways. But that just makes it all the more tempting to tame it. Many have tried, from sticklers for supposedly correct grammar to inventors of supposedly perfect languages; from...

Chatbots are sure to have a significant impact on the way we read, write and think. For better or worse, they are being used to find information, influence public opinion, diagnose illness and shape political discussion online. How did we get to this...

Three centuries of English idioms-their unusual origins and unexpected interpretationsTo pay through the nose. Raining cats and dogs. By hook or by crook. Curry favor. Drink like a fish. Eat crow. We hear such phrases every day, but this book is the...

This volume offers new perspectives on the tension between the rich patterns of language variation that emerge from comparative studies and the quest for simple theoretical primitives. The chapters explore the debate between Cartography and Minimalism:...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781592406753Author John PollackFormat PaperbackPage Count 240Imprint Gotham BooksPublisher Penguin Putnam IncWeight(grams) 197g

A BRIEF HISTORY OF Ancient Greek Attested since the fourteenth century BC, and still spoken today by over 10 million people, Greek has been one of the most influential languages in human history. English, Spanish, French, Russian, and Arabic are among...

Successful word-coinages -- those that stay in currency for a good long time -- tend to conceal their beginnings. We take them at face value and rarely when and where they were first minted. Engaging, illuminating, and authoritative, Ralph Keyes's The...

The abundant Roman inscriptions to be found in British museums tell us much about the everyday life of the inhabitants of Roman Britain - about their hopes and fears, their work and their beliefs. Nor is a fluent command of Latin essential for...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781592408986Author Christopher J. MooreFormat HardbackPage Count 128Imprint Gotham BooksPublisher Penguin Putnam IncWeight(grams) 238gDimensions(mm) 198mm *...

'His cornucopia of tellers and tales is a delight, a riveting celebration of a genre that revels in its own hybridity and the imaginative riches produced by the crossing of cultural and literary borders' Financial Times'Like a child after the Pied Piper...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781621387602Author Leo SpitzerFormat PaperbackPage Count 252Imprint Angelico PressPublisher Angelico PressWeight(grams) 322gDimensions(mm) 216mm * 140mm *...

The Translation Studies Reader provides a definitive survey of the most important and influential developments in translation theory and research, with an emphasis on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The introductory essays prefacing each...

An exhilarating new account of the English language, from British colonialism to the age of social media, emphasizing dynamism and democratization Whose language is English? Although we often think of it as native to one place, today there are many...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781592407200Author John McWhorterFormat PaperbackPage Count 240Imprint Gotham BooksPublisher Gotham BooksWeight(grams) 193gDimensions(mm) 202mm * 133mm *...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780999548622Author Peggy DulyFormat PaperbackPage Count 304Imprint Exploration PressPublisher Exploration PressWeight(grams) 531gDimensions(mm) 254mm *...

Why do Greek lorries have Metaphores written on the side? Is it grammatically correct to say 'the best team won' after a football match? What is the difference between manly, male, masculine and macho? Bringing together Peter Trudgill's highly popular...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781592409471Author John PollackFormat PaperbackPage Count 256Imprint Gotham BooksPublisher Penguin Putnam IncWeight(grams) 246g

Origins of Language: A Slim Guide offers a concise and accessible overview of what is known about the evolution of the human capacity for language. Non-human animals communicate in simple ways: they may be able to form simple concepts, to feel some...

This book provides a detailed but accessible introduction to the development of the German language from the earliest reconstructable prehistory to the present day. Joe Salmons explores a range of topics in the history of the language, offering answers...

This basic introduction to Old English is an essential guide for students with little or no linguistic knowledge. Unlike other textbooks on the subject, Beginning Old English focuses on the explanation and demonstration of how the language works, using...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780897392068Author Heron BooksFormat PaperbackPage Count 356Imprint Heron BooksPublisher Heron BooksWeight(grams) 703gDimensions(mm) 254mm * 203mm * 19mm

The Romance languages and dialects constitute a treasure trove of linguistic data of profound interest and significance. Data from the Romance languages have contributed extensively to our current empirical and theoretical understanding of phonetics,...

The Indigenous Languages of the Americas takes stock of what is known about the history and classification of these languages and language families. It identifies the gaps in knowledge and puts them into perspective, and it assesses differences of...

Lyle Campbell presents an accessible, hands-on introduction to historical linguistics. The fourth edition has a lucid and engaging style, expert guidance and comprehensive coverage, making it ideal for students coming to historical linguistics for the...

Quotations - or snippets from them - are commonly used in everyday speech, most often without the speaker knowing where they came from. From words of comfort to advice for the lovelorn, you can bet that someone, somewhere has come up with phraseology...

This textbook provides a step-by-step introduction to the history of the English language (HEL), offering a fresh perspective on the process of language change. Aimed at undergraduate students, The Emergence and Development of English is accessibly...

A classic historical excursion through the English language.Owen Barfield's original and thought-provoking works over three-quarters of a century made him a legendary cult figure. This popular book provides a brief, brilliant history of those who have...

Outline of Classical Chinese Grammar is a comprehensive introduction to the syntactical analysis of classical Chinese. Focusing on the language of the high classical period, which ranges from the time of Confucius to the unification of the empire by Qin...

The History of English: An Introduction provides a chronological analysis of the linguistic, social, and cultural development of the English language from before its establishment in Britain around the year 450 to the present. Each chapter represents a...

This book explores the differing ways in which language has been used to try to make sense of the First World War. Offering further developments in an innovative approach to the study of the conflict, it develops a transnational viewpoint of the...

Where do our everyday words come from? The bagel you eat for breakfast, the bumf you have to wade through at the office, and the bus that takes you home again: we use these words without thinking about their origins or how their meanings have changed...

This book provides a thorough yet approachable history of the Scots language, a close relative of Standard English with around 1.5 million speakers in Scotland and several thousand in Ireland, according to the 2011 census. Despite the long history of...

A Linguistic History of Italian offers a clear and concise explanation of why modern Italian grammar has become the way it is. It focuses on the effects of historical changes on the modern structure of Italian, revealing patterns and structures which are...

It comes as a surprise to many that the elemental human impulse to tell stories, far from being the exclusive realm of children's bedtime, long-forgotten civilizations and remote cultures, is also a burgeoning creative art form here, now, in twenty-first...