Author : Vyvyan Evans
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 317 pages
File Size : 40,42 MB
Release : 2014-10-02
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 1107043964
Drawing on cutting-edge research, Evans presents an alternative to the received wisdom, showing how language and the mind really work.
Author : Laurie Bauer
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 41,18 MB
Release : 1998-11-26
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 0141939109
A unique collection of original essays by 21 of the world's leading linguists. The topics discussed focus on some of the most popular myths about language: The Media Are Ruining English; Children Can't Speak or Write Properly Anymore; America is Ruining the English Language. The tone is lively and entertaining throughout and there are cartoons from Doonesbury andThe Wizard of Id to illustrate some of the points. The book should have a wide readership not only amongst students who want to read leading linguists writing about popular misconceptions but also amongst the large number of people who enjoy reading about language in general.
Author : Ernst Cassirer
Publisher : Courier Corporation
Page : 129 pages
File Size : 43,21 MB
Release : 2012-06-07
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0486122271
In this important study, Cassirer analyzes the non-rational thought processes that go to make up culture. Includes studies of the metaphysics of the Bhagavat Gita, Ancient Egyptian religion, symbolic logic, and more.
Author : Roy Harris
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 250 pages
File Size : 30,16 MB
Release : 2013-05-13
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 1136751459
The basic claim of this book is that for 2000 years and more the western tradition has relied on two very dubious assumptions about human communication: that each national language is a unique code and that linguistic communication consists in the utilization of such codes to transfer messages from mind to mind.
Author : Abby Kaplan
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 311 pages
File Size : 22,7 MB
Release : 2016-04-21
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 110708492X
A detailed look at language-related myths that explores both what we know and how we know it.
Author : Albert Cook
Publisher :
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 24,29 MB
Release : 1980
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN :
Author : Margaret Alexiou
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 604 pages
File Size : 35,13 MB
Release : 2002
Category : Byzantine literature
ISBN : 9780801433016
With the publication of Ritual Lament in Greek Tradition, widely considered a classic in Modern Greek studies and in collateral fields, Margaret Alexiou established herself as a major intellectual innovator on the interconnections among ancient, medieval, and modern Greek cultures. In her new, eagerly awaited book, Alexiou looks at how language defines the contours of myth and metaphor. Drawing on texts from the New Testament to the present day, Alexiou shows the diversity of the Greek language and its impact at crucial stages of its history on people who were not Greek. She then stipulates the relatedness of literary and "folk" genres, and assesses the importance of rituals and metaphors of the life cycle in shaping narrative forms and systems of imagery.Alexiou places special emphasis on Byzantine literary texts of the sixth and twelfth centuries, providing her own translations where necessary; modern poetry and prose of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; and narrative songs and tales in the folk tradition, which she analyzes alongside songs of the life cycle. She devotes particular attention to two genres whose significance she thinks has been much underrated: the tales (paramythia) and the songs of love and marriage.In exploring the relationship between speech and ritual, Alexiou not only takes the Greek language into account but also invokes the neurological disorder of autism, drawing on clinical studies and her own experience as the mother of autistic identical twin sons.
Author : David Wilton
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 43,41 MB
Release : 2008-11-06
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 0199740836
Do you "know" that posh comes from an acronym meaning "port out, starboard home"? That "the whole nine yards" comes from (pick one) the length of a WWII gunner's belt; the amount of fabric needed to make a kilt; a sarcastic football expression? That Chicago is called "The Windy City" because of the bloviating habits of its politicians, and not the breeze off the lake? If so, you need this book. David Wilton debunks the most persistently wrong word histories, and gives, to the best of our actual knowledge, the real stories behind these perennially mis-etymologized words. In addition, he explains why these wrong stories are created, disseminated, and persist, even after being corrected time and time again. What makes us cling to these stories, when the truth behind these words and phrases is available, for the most part, at any library or on the Internet? Arranged by chapters, this book avoids a dry A-Z format. Chapters separate misetymologies by kind, including The Perils of Political Correctness (picnics have nothing to do with lynchings), Posh, Phat Pommies (the problems of bacronyming--the desire to make every word into an acronym), and CANOE (which stands for the Conspiracy to Attribute Nautical Origins to Everything). Word Myths corrects long-held and far-flung examples of wrong etymologies, without taking the fun out of etymology itself. It's the best of both worlds: not only do you learn the many wrong stories behind these words, you also learn why and how they are created--and what the real story is.
Author : David Shariatmadari
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 323 pages
File Size : 20,20 MB
Release : 2020-01-07
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 1324004266
A linguist’s entertaining and highly informed guide to what languages are and how they function. Think you know language? Think again. There are languages that change when your mother-in-law is present. The language you speak could make you more prone to accidents. Swear words are produced in a special part of your brain. Over the past few decades, we have reached new frontiers of linguistic knowledge. Linguists can now explain how and why language changes, describe its structures, and map its activity in the brain. But despite these advances, much of what people believe about language is based on folklore, instinct, or hearsay. We imagine a word’s origin is it’s “true” meaning, that foreign languages are full of “untranslatable” words, or that grammatical mistakes undermine English. In Don’t Believe A Word, linguist David Shariatmadari takes us on a mind-boggling journey through the science of language, urging us to abandon our prejudices in a bid to uncover the (far more interesting) truth about what we do with words. Exploding nine widely held myths about language while introducing us to some of the fundamental insights of modern linguistics, Shariatmadari is an energetic guide to the beauty and quirkiness of humanity’s greatest achievement.
Author : Steven Brown
Publisher : University of Michigan Press ELT
Page : 209 pages
File Size : 49,70 MB
Release : 2012-03-15
Category : Education
ISBN : 0472034987
This volume was conceived as a first book in SLA for advanced undergraduate or introductory master’s courses that include education majors, foreign language education majors, and English majors. It’s also an excellent resource for practicing teachers. Both the research and pedagogy in this book are based on the newest research in the field of second language acquisition. It is not the goal of this book to address every SLA theory or teach research methodology. It does however address the myths and questions that non-specialist teacher candidates have about language learning. Steven Brown is the co-author of the introductory applied linguistics textbook Understanding Language Structure, Interaction, and Variation textbook (and workbook). The myths challenged in this book are: § Children learn languages quickly and easily while adults are ineffective in comparison. § A true bilingual is someone who speaks two languages perfectly. § You can acquire a language simply through listening or reading. § Practice makes perfect. § Language students learn (and retain) what they are taught. § Language learners always benefit from correction. § Individual differences are a major, perhaps the major, factor in SLA. § Language acquisition is the individual acquisition of grammar.
