Bees' Knees and Barmy Armies: Origins of the Words and Phrases We Use Every Day

By Harry Oliver

From stiff higher lip to stomping grounds, an fun examine the heritage in the back of commonly-used phrases and phrases

 

What makes somebody "pleased as punch?" Why is ny urban referred to as "The titanic Apple?" Why will we "dress to the nines?"And what does it suggest to flee by way of the "skin of your teeth?" each day speech is peppered with 1000's of words and expressions, yet not often are their origins reflected. This interesting survey delves deep into the heritage in the back of 1000's of universal phrases and turns of word and uncovers their attention-grabbing and a laugh assets. From historical idioms to up-to-the minute lingo, this can be the proper source for etymologists and language-lovers alike.

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A Cultural History of the English Language (The English Language Series)

This publication provides a brand new interpretation of the heritage of English. entry to giant corpuses of English has allowed students to evaluate the trivia of linguistic swap with a lot better precision than earlier than, usually pinpointing the beginnings of linguistic techniques in position and time. the writer makes use of the findings from this examine to narrate significant ancient occasions to alter within the language, specifically to parts of linguistic inquiry which have been of specific significance lately, similar to discourse research, stylistics and paintings on pidgins and creoles. The booklet doesn't try to chronicle adjustments in syntax or pronunciation and spelling, yet is designed to counterpoint a corpus-based research of formal adjustments. the tale of English is mentioned to the past due Nineties to incorporate, among different issues, discussions of Estuary English and the consequences of the knowledge superhighway.

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Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English

* Over 350 tables and graphs convey the frequency of structures in numerous contexts, from dialog to fiction to educational prose * totally corpus-based with 6000 actual examples from the forty million-word Longman Spoken and Written English Corpus * indicates the explanations why we decide a selected constitution in a selected context * Compares British and American spoken and written English parts coated comprise uncomplicated grammar: description and distribution, key be aware sessions and their words and intricate buildings. every one zone is subdivided into extra exact content material.

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Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English 3 Student's Book with Answers: Examination Papers from University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (CPE Practice Tests)

By Cambridge ESOL

Cambridge certificates of skillability in English three comprises 4 whole prior papers for the Cambridge certificates of talent in English (CPE) exam from collage of Cambridge ESOL Examinations (Cambridge ESOL). those previous papers give you the so much genuine examination instruction to be had. they enable applicants to familiarise themselves with the structure and content material of the exam and to preparation necessary exam suggestions. appealing color visible fabric for Paper five is integrated with every one attempt, permitting scholars to arrange completely for the paired interview. This Student's ebook 'with answers' variation additionally incorporates a accomplished component to keys and transcripts, making it compatible for self-study.

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Penguin Quick Guides: Really Useful English Idioms

By Adrian-Vallance D'Arcy

Do you need to appreciate and use extra idioms in English? With over one hundred thirty of the most typical idioms utilized in English this present day, this consultant may also help you utilize idioms to discuss many stuff, together with: family and friends; paintings and company; relationship and romance; pondering and studying, and masses extra.

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Cheerio Tom, Dick and Harry: Despatches from the Hospice of Fading Words

By Ruth Wajnryb

Written with allure and quaint wit, this research embarks on a voyage of discovery one of the phrases that when peppered the language of child boomers and their mom and dad to find why they appear to be slipping from universal use. Why is it that folks do not say cheerio any more? Why did they within the first position? Do humans nonetheless tinker with jalopies? And no matter what occurred to Tom, Dick, and Harry, let alone all these different people who supplied such first-class conversational shorthand? full of exciting vignettes and interesting etymology, this assortment is a hospice that provides a worrying shelter for once-loved phrases which are in coming near near hazard of being disregarded as tom-foolery.

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Every Man for Himself

By Beryl Bainbridge

If ever a subject matter and a author have been completely matched it really is here.  The fated voyage of the Titanic, with its heroics and horror, has been dramatized repeatedly sooner than, yet by no means through an artist with the abilities and sensibility of Beryl Bainbridge.  Bainbridge vividly recreates each one scene of the voyage, from the suspicious hearth within the quantity 10 coal bunker, to the champange and crystal of the first class public rooms, to that negative middle of the night chaos within the frigid North Atlantic.  this is often amazing, haunting story substantiates Bainbridge as a consummate observer of the human situation.

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Premodifiers in English: Their Structure and Significance (Studies in English Language)

By Jim Feist

The order and behavior of the premodifier (an adjective, or different editing observe that looks sooner than a noun) has lengthy been a puzzle to syntacticians and semanticists. Why do we say 'the genuine crimson ball', yet no longer 'the purple real ball'? And why, conversely, perform a little different premodifiers have loose version in sentences; for instance we will say either 'German and English audio system' and 'English and German speakers'? Why perform a little premodifiers switch the that means of a word in a few contexts; for instance 'young man', can suggest 'boyfriend', instead of 'man who's young'? Drawing on a corpus of over 4,000 examples of English premodifiers from a number genres reminiscent of advertisements, fiction and clinical texts, and throughout a number of different types of English, this e-book synthesises study into premodifiers and offers a brand new rationalization in their behaviour, order and use.

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Get Thee to a Punnery: An Anthology of Intentional Assaults Upon the English Language

By Richard Lederer

Get Thee to a Punnery proves that the pun is mightier than the sword . . . and listed here are sidesplitting puns of each colour, stripe and persuasion to fit each whim. no matter if you do not know that your humerus is your humorous bone, this is often the publication for you.

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Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer's Guide to Getting It Right

By Bill Bryson

One of many English language’s so much expert and liked writers publications us all towards special, mistake-free usage.

As ordinary invoice Bryson says it top: “English is a dazzlingly idiosyncratic tongue, filled with quirks and irregularities that regularly appear willfully at odds with good judgment and customary feel. it is a language the place ‘cleave’ can suggest to chop in part or to carry halves jointly; the place the straightforward note ‘set’ has 126 assorted meanings as a verb, fifty eight as a noun, and 10 as a participial adjective; the place if you happen to can run quick you're relocating rapidly, but when you're caught speedy you're not relocating in any respect; [and] the place ‘colonel,’ ‘freight,’ ‘once,’ and ‘ache’ are strikingly at odds with their spellings.” As a replica editor for the London Times within the early Nineteen Eighties, invoice Bryson felt keenly the shortcoming of an easy-to-consult, authoritative consultant to fending off the traps and snares in English, and so he brashly recommended to a writer that he may still write one. unusually, the proposition was once accredited, and for “a amount of money rigorously gauged to not reason embarrassment or emotions of overworth,” he proceeded to put in writing that book–his first, inaugurating his stellar career.

Now, a decade and a part later, revised, up to date, and punctiliously (but no longer overly) Americanized, it has turn into Bryson’s Dictionary of complex Words, greater than ever a necessary advisor to the splendidly disordered factor that's the English language. With a few a thousand entries, from “a, an” to “zoom,” that function real-world examples of questionable utilization from a global array of guides, and with a precious thesaurus and consultant to pronunciation, this particular, prescriptive, and–because it really is written via invoice Bryson–often witty publication belongs at the table of each one that cares adequate in regards to the language to not maul or misuse or distort it.

From the Hardcover edition.

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