The Secret Life Of Words

Author : Henry Hitchings
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 142994157X
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.70/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Secret Life of Words written by Henry Hitchings and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2009-09-29 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 : Paul West
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.96/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Secret Lives of Words written by Paul West and published by Houghton Mifflin. This book was released on 2000 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Word-lovers rejoice! This fascinating book reveals the amazing and bizarre histories of language's building blocks. "A sorcerer of language".--"Publishers Weekly".

Author : Kory Stamper
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 110197026X
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.63/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Word by Word written by Kory Stamper and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “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 : James W. Pennebaker
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1608194965
Total Pages : 366 pages
Book Rating : 4.64/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Secret Life of Pronouns written by James W. Pennebaker and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 : Masaru Emoto
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1451656866
Total Pages : 180 pages
Book Rating : 4.62/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Secret Life of Water written by Masaru Emoto and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-07-05 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From its arrival on earth to the vast areas it traverses before emptying into the sea, water holds all the knowledge and experience it has acquired. As phenomenal as it may seem, water carries its whole history, just as we carry ours. It carries secrets, too. In The Secret Life of Water, bestselling author Masaru Emoto guides us along water’s remarkable journey through our planet and continues his work to reveal water’s secret life to humankind. He shows how we can apply its wisdom to our own lives, and how, by learning to respect and appreciate water, we can better confront the challenges that face the twenty-first century—and rejuvenate the planet.

Author : Tom Mole
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781783965298
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Secret Life of Books written by Tom Mole and published by . This book was released on 2020-12-02 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We love books. We take them to bed with us. They weigh down our suitcases on holiday. We display them on our bookshelves, give them as gifts, write our names in them. We take them for granted. And all the time, our books are leading a double life. The Secret Life of Books is about everything that isn't just the words. It's about how books transform us as individuals, the stories they tell us about ourselves. It's about how books - and readers - have evolved over time. And it's about why, even with the arrival of other media, books still have the power to change our lives. In this stylish and thought-provoking meditation, Tom Mole looks at everything from binding innovations to binding errors, to books defaced by lovers, to those imprisoning professors in their offices, to books in art, to burned books, to the books that create nations, to those we'll leave behind. A striking text in a stunning package, it will change how you think about books.

Author : Simon Pulleyn
Publisher : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN 13 : 9781788400244
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Secret Life of Language written by Simon Pulleyn and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2018 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at how language has evolved around the globe from ancestral proto-languages to our recognisable modern tongues. It demonstrates how language has been shaped by social and cultural influences, and even explains how our anatomy affects the articulation, and therefore evolution, of words. Discover the surprising stories behind the origin of the written word, the difficulties of decipherment and the challenge of inventing from scratch languages such as Dothraki. Combining expert analysis with accessible narrative and fun illustrations, The Secret Life of Language makes even the complex topics of philology, morphology and phonology easy to understand.

Author : Sinclair McKay
Publisher : Aurum
ISBN 13 : 1845136837
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.33/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Secret Life of Bletchley Park written by Sinclair McKay and published by Aurum. This book was released on 2011-08-26 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bletchley Park was where one of the war’s most famous – and crucial – achievements was made: the cracking of Germany’s “Enigma” code in which its most important military communications were couched. This country house in the Buckinghamshire countryside was home to Britain’s most brilliant mathematical brains, like Alan Turing, and the scene of immense advances in technology – indeed, the birth of modern computing. The military codes deciphered there were instrumental in turning both the Battle of the Atlantic and the war in North Africa. But, though plenty has been written about the boffins, and the codebreaking, fictional and non-fiction – from Robert Harris and Ian McEwan to Andrew Hodges’ biography of Turing – what of the thousands of men and women who lived and worked there during the war? What was life like for them – an odd, secret territory between the civilian and the military? Sinclair McKay’s book is the first history for the general reader of life at Bletchley Park, and an amazing compendium of memories from people now in their eighties – of skating on the frozen lake in the grounds (a depressed Angus Wilson, the novelist, once threw himself in) – of a youthful Roy Jenkins, useless at codebreaking, of the high jinks at nearby accommodation hostels – and of the implacable secrecy that meant girlfriend and boyfriend working in adjacent huts knew nothing about each other’s work.

Author : Jerome Charyn
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 039307725X
Total Pages : 350 pages
Book Rating : 4.54/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson: A Novel written by Jerome Charyn and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2011-02-14 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this brilliant and hilarious jailbreak of a novel, Charyn channels the genius poet and her great leaps of the imagination." —Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review) Jerome Charyn, "one of the most important writers in American literature" (Michael Chabon), continues his exploration of American history through fiction with The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, hailed by prize-winning literary historian Brenda Wineapple as a "breathtaking high-wire act of ventriloquism." Channeling the devilish rhythms and ghosts of a seemingly buried literary past, Charyn removes the mysterious veils that have long enshrouded Dickinson, revealing her passions, inner turmoil, and powerful sexuality. The novel, daringly written in first person, begins in the snow. It's 1848, and Emily is a student at Mount Holyoke, with its mournful headmistress and strict, strict rules. Inspired by her letters and poetry, Charyn goes on to capture the occasionally comic, always fevered, ultimately tragic story of her life-from defiant Holyoke seminarian to dying recluse.

Author : Simon Pulleyn
Publisher : Secret Life of
ISBN 13 : 9780228100928
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.25/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Secret Life of Language written by Simon Pulleyn and published by Secret Life of. This book was released on 2018 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like its companion titles, The Secret Life of Language uses quirky illustrations, helpful diagrams and clear text to unlock the fascinating workings behind the development of the world's languages. Readers will gain insight into the extraordinary underlying stories and facts about the language (or languages) they speak, as well as those that they perhaps would like to learn. Six chapters cover all of the world's language groups from their historic origins to today as well as the physical mechanics of speech. Language is essential to us all -- spoken, heard, written, read -- no matter which we use. Today, cultures move and meld across the globe in waves of migration taking their languages with them. The Secret Life of Language is sure to pique the interest of all general readers, language learners and those curious about the future of language.