Declining Grammar and Other Essays on the English Vocabulary

Declining Grammar and Other Essays on the English Vocabulary PDF Author: Dennis E. Baron
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
This book contains 25 essays about English words, and how they are defined, valued, and discussed. The book is divided into four sections. The first section, "Language Lore," examines some of the myths and misconceptions that affect attitudes toward language--and towards English in particular. The second section, "Language Usage," examines some specific questions of meaning and usage. Section 3, "Language Trends," examines some controversial trends in English vocabulary, and some developments too new to have received comment before. The fourth section, "Language Politics," treats several aspects of linguistic politics, from special attempts to deal with the ethnic, religious, or sex-specific elements of vocabulary to the broader issues of language both as a reflection of the public consciousness and the U.S. Constitution and as a refuge for the most private forms of expression. (MS)

Declining Grammar and Other Essays on the English Vocabulary

Declining Grammar and Other Essays on the English Vocabulary PDF Author: Dennis E. Baron
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book

Book Description
This book contains 25 essays about English words, and how they are defined, valued, and discussed. The book is divided into four sections. The first section, "Language Lore," examines some of the myths and misconceptions that affect attitudes toward language--and towards English in particular. The second section, "Language Usage," examines some specific questions of meaning and usage. Section 3, "Language Trends," examines some controversial trends in English vocabulary, and some developments too new to have received comment before. The fourth section, "Language Politics," treats several aspects of linguistic politics, from special attempts to deal with the ethnic, religious, or sex-specific elements of vocabulary to the broader issues of language both as a reflection of the public consciousness and the U.S. Constitution and as a refuge for the most private forms of expression. (MS)

Garner's Modern English Usage

Garner's Modern English Usage PDF Author: Bryan Garner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190491493
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 1008

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Book Description
With more than a thousand new entries and more than 2,300 word-frequency ratios, the magisterial fourth edition of this book-now renamed Garner's Modern English Usage (GMEU)-reflects usage lexicography at its finest. Garner explains the nuances of grammar and vocabulary with thoroughness, finesse, and wit. He discourages whatever is slovenly, pretentious, or pedantic. GMEU is the liveliest and most compulsively readable reference work for writers of our time. It delights while providing instruction on skillful, persuasive, and vivid writing. Garner liberates English from two extremes: both from the hidebound "purists" who mistakenly believe that split infinitives and sentence-ending prepositions are malfeasances and from the linguistic relativists who believe that whatever people say or write must necessarily be accepted. The judgments here are backed up not just by a lifetime of study but also by an empirical grounding in the largest linguistic corpus ever available. In this fourth edition, Garner has made extensive use of corpus linguistics to include ratios of standard terms as compared against variants in modern print sources. No other resource provides as comprehensive, reliable, and empirical a guide to current English usage. For all concerned with writing and editing, GMEU will prove invaluable as a desk reference. Garner illustrates with actual examples, cited with chapter and verse, all the linguistic blunders that modern writers and speakers are prone to, whether in word choice, syntax, phrasing, punctuation, or pronunciation. No matter how knowledgeable you may already be, you're sure to learn from every single page of this book.

Resources in Education

Resources in Education PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description


Garner's Modern American Usage

Garner's Modern American Usage PDF Author: Bryan Garner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195382757
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 1007

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Book Description
A guide to proper American English word usage, grammar, pronunciation, and style features examples of good and bad usage from the media.

Barbarians at the Gate

Barbarians at the Gate PDF Author: Patricia Donaher
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527551148
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
The study of language attitudes is the investigation of beliefs expressed about the nature of language and its diverse usages, how these attitudes came to exist and persist, and how these attitudes shape social action and policy. Language attitude studies have illuminated our understanding of racial issues, social and economic stratification, cultural stereotypes, educational issues, folk linguistics, and, more recently, popular culture. This volume is an examination of four intersections in language attitudes research: Authority, Affiliation, Authenticity, and Accommodation. In each section, the contributors introduce new dimensions to the study of language attitudes while providing examples of the ways in which the study of language attitudes can continue to inform and shape our understanding of language diversity.

Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship

Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship PDF Author: Hans Henrich Hock
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 311061328X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 575

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Book Description
Why does language change? Why can we speak to and understand our parents but have trouble reading Shakespeare? Why is Chaucer's English of the fourteenth century so different from Modern English of the late twentieth century that the two are essentially different languages? Why are Americans and English 'one people divided by a common language'? And how can the language of Chaucer and Modern English - or Modern British and American English - still be called the same language? The present book provides answers to questions like these in a straightforward way, aimed at the non-specialist, with ample illustrations from both familiar and more exotic languages. Most chapters in this new edition have been reworked, with some difficult passages removed, other passages thoroughly rewritten, and several new sections added, e.g. on the regularity of sound change and its importance for general historical-comparative linguistics. Further, the chapter notes and bibliography have all been updated. The content is engaging, focusing on topics and issues that spark student interest. Its goals are broadly pedagogical and the level and presentation are appropriate for interested beginners with little or no background in linguistics. The language coverage for examples goes well beyond what is usual for books of this kind, with a considerable amount of data from various languages of India.

Garner's Modern English Usage

Garner's Modern English Usage PDF Author: Bryan A. Garner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197599028
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1306

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Book Description
The most original and authoritative voice of today's English lexicography presents a fully revised new edition of his beloved usage dictionary When Bryan Garner published the first edition of A Dictionary of Modern American Usage in 1999, the book quickly became one of the most influential style guides ever written for the English language. After four previous editions and over twenty years, our language has evolved in many ways, and the powerful tool of big data has revolutionized lexicography. This extensively revised new edition fully captures these changes, featuring a thousand new entries and over two hundred replacement entries, thoroughly updated usage data and ratios on word frequency based on the Google Ngram Viewer, a more balanced coverage of World Englishes, not just American and British, and the inclusion of gender-neutral language. However, one thing has not changed: in no sense is this a regular dictionary but a masterpiece of lexicography written with wit and personality by one of the preeminent authorities on the English language. To put it in David Foster Wallace's words, Garner's discussion of rhetoric and style still borders on genius. From the (lost) battle between self-deprecating and self-depreciating to the misuse of it's for its, from the variant spelling patty-cake taking over pat-a-cake in American English to the singular uses of they, Garner explains the nuances of grammar and vocabulary and the linguistic blunders to which modern writers and speakers are prone, whether in word choice, syntax, phrasing, punctuation, or pronunciation. His empirical approach liberates English from two extremes: from the purists who maintain that split infinitives and sentence-ending prepositions are malfeasances and from the linguistic relativists who believe that whatever people say or write must necessarily be accepted. The purpose of Garner's dictionary is to help writers, editors, and speakers use the language effectively. And it does so in a playful and persuasive way that will help you sound grammatical but relaxed, refined but natural, correct but unpedantic.

On Literacy and Its Teaching

On Literacy and Its Teaching PDF Author: Gail E. Hawisher
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791402665
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
This book recognizes and embraces the complexities of modern English teaching. It presents English teachers and teacher educators with a critical view of current professional issues and concerns in the belief that these groups need, and want, to participate in curricular and professional reform movements that affect them and their students. The book examines such issues as the interconnectedness of the study of language, literature, and composition; curricular problems in language instruction in teacher education; the relationship between our traditional notions of literature study and our emerging view of literacy in the contemporary information age; and the ways in which current theory and research can be translated into innovative designs for the teaching of written composition. On Literacy and Its Teaching is a powerful response to the current challenge for innovation and change in English teacher education. With its broad scope, it provides a balanced overview and timely analysis of the field of English Education.

Applied Psycholinguistics. Positive effects and ethical perspectives: Volume I

Applied Psycholinguistics. Positive effects and ethical perspectives: Volume I PDF Author: AA. VV.
Publisher: FrancoAngeli
ISBN: 885687430X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
1240.370

Politics and the English Language

Politics and the English Language PDF Author: George Orwell
Publisher: Renard Press Ltd
ISBN: 1913724271
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
George Orwell set out ‘to make political writing into an art’, and to a wide extent this aim shaped the future of English literature – his descriptions of authoritarian regimes helped to form a new vocabulary that is fundamental to understanding totalitarianism. While 1984 and Animal Farm are amongst the most popular classic novels in the English language, this new series of Orwell’s essays seeks to bring a wider selection of his writing on politics and literature to a new readership. In Politics and the English Language, the second in the Orwell’s Essays series, Orwell takes aim at the language used in politics, which, he says, ‘is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind’. In an age where the language used in politics is constantly under the microscope, Orwell’s Politics and the English Language is just as relevant today, and gives the reader a vital understanding of the tactics at play. 'A writer who can – and must – be rediscovered with every age.' — Irish Times