Language: history & general works
Showing all 13 results
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188 words for rain
£16.99188 words for rain
We Brits love talking about the weather. So much so that our islands have hundreds of words and phrases for rain, some self-explanatory and others that really leave us scratching our heads. From a light smirr in Aberdeen to a ‘it’s raining knives and forks!’ in the Brecon Beacons, each type of rain tells a story about the people and places it falls on. In this delightfully damp tour of the British Isles, writer and puddle-splasher Alan Connor digs deep into the meaning and quirky histories of over one hundred words for precipitation. He gets caught in a plash in Northumberland, crashes a fox’s wedding in Devon and ponders the phenomenon of Brits-who-picnic-in-the-car, in this charming and witty celebration of our very British obsession.
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A little book of language
£10.99A little book of language
With a language disappearing every two weeks and neologisms springing up almost daily, an understanding of the origins and currency of language has never seemed more relevant. In this volume, a narrative history written explicitly for a young audience, expert linguist David Crystal proves why the story of language deserves retelling.
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Inventing the Renaissance
£30.00Inventing the Renaissance
The Renaissance is one of the most studied and celebrated eras of history. Spanning the end of the Middle Ages to the beginning of modernity, it has come to symbolise the transformative rebirth of knowledge, art, culture and political thought in Europe. And for the last two hundred years, historians have struggled to describe what makes this famous golden age unique. In this book, historian Ada Palmer provides a fresh perspective on what makes this epoch so captivating. Her witty and irreverent journey through the fantasies historians have constructed about the period show how its legend derives more from later centuries’ mythmaking than from the often grim reality of the period itself.
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Proto
£22.00Proto
‘The fascinating story of ancient words ? new revelations await’ The Guardian
‘A truly extraordinary detective story’ Matt Ridley, author of The Evolution of Everything
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Rare tongues
£20.00Rare tongues
‘Rare Tongues’ is an enthralling tour around the rarest languages in the world, bringing a different eye to an often Anglocentric topic. It explores how globally, language and culture is becoming increasingly homogenous – with a resulting loss of different viewpoints and ways of living. Linguist and writer Lorna Gibb will explore the history of these languages, the cultures they belong to, the tales they tell, while offering a glimpse into what we can learn from each of them.
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Rosen’s almanac
£16.99Rosen’s almanac
What are words? They’re the beginning of our stories: portals to treasured memories, to the strange sayings that seem to be unique to our own families and the beloved people that say them to us. So, what was your gran’s favourite word for a time-waster? How did your dad answer the question ‘What’s the time?’? And just how many responses are there to the daily query ‘What’s for dinner?’ Even better, how do these words change as they travel across our regions? In a joyful journey through a year of weird words and fantastic phrases, one of the nation’s favourite wordsmiths takes a tour of the British Isles and all its vernacular idiosyncrasies, as well as reflecting on the joys of English, in a book for anyone who loves language – whether following its rules or breaking them!
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Scarcely English
£16.99Scarcely English
The English language has evolved throughout its history, and usually for good reasons. However, in recent years, egged on by social media and the ubiquity and velocity of the internet, it has been subject to some grave assaults. There appear no longer to be any rules, in an era when, thanks to the web (another word to have changed its meaning) everyone can be a published author, completely unedited and unregulated. This often has dire consequences for the English tongue. Trenchant and sprinkled with dry wit, ‘Scarcely English’ is both a chamber of horrors of bad and lazy English and a plea for accuracy, clear thinking and elegance.
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The dictionary people
£10.99The dictionary people
What do three murderers, Karl Marx’s daughter and a vegetarian vicar have in common? They all helped create the ‘Oxford English Dictionary’. The ‘Oxford English Dictionary’ has long been associated with elite institutions and Victorian men; its longest-serving editor, James Murray, devoted 36 years to the project, as far as the letter T. But the Dictionary didn’t just belong to the experts; it relied on contributions from members of the public. By the time it was finished in 1928 its 414,825 entries had been crowdsourced from a surprising and diverse group of people, from archaeologists and astronomers to murderers, naturists, novelists, pornographers, queer couples, suffragists, vicars, and vegetarians. Lexicographer Sarah Ogilvie dives deep into previously untapped archives to tell a people’s history of the OED.
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The language puzzle
£25.00The language puzzle
The relationship between language, thought and culture is of concern to anyone with an interest in what it means to be human. ‘The Language Puzzle’ explains how the invention of words at 1.6 million years ago began the evolution of human language from the ape-like calls of our earliest ancestors to our capabilities of today, with over 6000 languages in the world and each of us knowing over 50,000 words. Drawing on the latest discoveries in archaeology, linguistics, psychology, and genetics, Mithen reconstructs the steps by which language evolved. While this radical new work is not shy to reject outdated ideas about language, it builds bridges between disciplines to forge a new synthesis for the evolution of language that will find widespread acceptance as a new standard account for how humanity began.
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The language puzzle
£12.99The language puzzle
The relationship between language, thought and culture is of concern to anyone with an interest in what it means to be human. ‘The Language Puzzle’ explains how the invention of words at 1.6 million years ago began the evolution of human language from the ape-like calls of our earliest ancestors to our capabilities of today, with over 6000 languages in the world and each of us knowing over 50,000 words. Drawing on the latest discoveries in archaeology, linguistics, psychology, and genetics, Mithen reconstructs the steps by which language evolved. While this radical new work is not shy to reject outdated ideas about language, it builds bridges between disciplines to forge a new synthesis for the evolution of language that will find widespread acceptance as a new standard account for how humanity began.
£12.99 -
The little book of funny foreign phrases
£6.99The little book of funny foreign phrases
Ever been stuck for a phrase that sums up exactly how you feel? These hilarious foreign expressions have got you covered in every scenario. With a variety of sayings from around the world, this entertaining compilation will equip you to insult your friends, proclaim your feelings and speak your mind in new and creative ways.
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Words from hell
£14.99Words from hell
The English language is where words go to be tortured and mutilated into unrecognizable shadows of their former selves. It’s where Latin, Greek, and Germanic roots are shredded apart and stitched unceremoniously back together with misunderstood snippets of languages snatched from the wreckage of conquest and colonialism. It wreaks merciless havoc upon grammar and spelling. It turns clinical terms into insults and children’s tales into filthy euphemisms. With an emphasis on understanding where the foulest words in the English language came from – and the disgusting and hilarious histories behind them – this book demonstrates the true filth of our everyday words. But it is more than just a list of vulgar words and salacious slang. It’s a thoughtful analysis of why we deem words as being inappropriate as well as revealing ‘good words’ that have surprisingly naughty origins.
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You’re all talk
£10.99You’re all talk
Linguist Rob Drummond explores the enormous diversity in our spoken language to reveal extraordinary insights into how humans operate: how we perceive (and judge) other people and how we would like ourselves to be perceived. He investigates how and why we automatically associate different accents with particular social characteristics – degrees of friendliness, authority, social class, level of education, race, and so on – and how we, consciously or subconsciously, change the way we speak in order to create different versions of ourselves to fit different environments. Ultimately, ‘You’re All Talk’ demonstrates the beauty of linguistic diversity and how embracing it can give us a better understanding of other people – and ourselves.
£10.99