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Books > Language & Literature > Literary & linguistic reference works > General
The Solomon Islands has a rich linguistic heritage of over 60
languages, many of which have not been described in detail. This
first dictionary of Owa, a South East Solomonic Language, contains
over 3900 entries, which are typically illustrated with examples of
natural language. An overview of the phonology, morphology, and
syntax is supplemented by notes on discourse features.
This is a serious book examining the original sounds and meanings
of languages right back to the Stone Age - up until now believed to
be impossible. But it can also be seen as tracing the overwhelming
sexual orientation of human thinking for the last six hundred
thousand years or more - when we were only hominids, squatting
round the camp fires at the mouths of our caves - to keep the sabre
toothed tigers out. It was here that our original bare bottomed
language committees first got to grips with meanings and their
audible representation. The committees were convened as a result of
the taming of fire, the high tech of the day. It was a cosy
environment in a cold and hostile world, and the unaccustomed
warmth led to an outburst of amorous inclinations, and the need to
express them in words. Ka they thought echoic of the strike of
flint on flint, and so striking, and so the tenderising of raw meat
for which they had already been making "hand axes" for at least
half a million years. It is from ka-ka for tenderising with a hand
axe that our cooking comes! The flame did it for you. Flint
knapping left a lot of "debetage" or waste flakes, whence ka-ka
also came to mean waste - including today human waste. Metaphor led
to odd bedfellows. All this evidence is decoded from an exhaustive
forty year research into over a hundred languages, many of them
dead ones, where like flies in amber our original Lithic (Stone
Age) language roots are still embedded. There is nothing salacious
in the tale. It simply tells it as it is and was, and it is not
going to go away. This short version is abstracted from a major
work of over 600 pages, and there is nothing in it which the
ordinary man in the street (and his sister) can not easily follow.
It ranks quite highly in the order of useless information, but it
has its indirect usage. If you understand how all our languages
have actually come about - the product of human whimsy - you will
be that much less likely to believe some of the sillier alternative
views put forward by ideologically inclined placemen. Lastly, how
has Lithic Language been cracked? The answer lies in "semantic
triangulation". Believe it or not, all our languages today (over
6000) bear traces of the original meanings given to the sounds as
we first learned to articulate them, and it is possible to work
backwards using the current meanings in numerous languages to home
in on the original source meanings which are common to the current
ones. Then we can see if they make sense as a first guess by our
Stone Age (hominid) forebears of what they thought of as the
"natural" meanings of the sounds. They didn't do thinking very
much. That is how they all guessed the same, or nearly the same. So
we are probably on the right track: language was all spun by human
whimsy, (over a few hundred millennia), from only a baker's dozen
original articulated sounds. The English language alone reached a
million words last year.
The Standard edition of his educational tool teaches Russian
grammar.
If we can agree that creativity is the highest activity of the
human mind, then Bingo You have hit the jackpot. You have just
walked into a powerhouse of fully illustrated, well written,
creative prompts. They are accessible, entertaining, teeming with
energy and as the art work on the cover indicates, original. Spend
a few minutes perusing The Review and you'll see how the author has
captured the dynamics of the King's English in such a way as to
separate it from other books in the field. You'll enjoy it.
Some years ago, the author of these columns was sitting in a Zen
monastery in California, blissfully meditating, when someone
slipped a folded note, underneath his cushion. The note had the
word "Help," and no other information, except for an email address.
When he wrote to the email address, to inquire as to what "Help,"
exactly, was needed, he received only the response, "Thank you."
Two days later he received a second email advising him that someone
of importance had greatly enjoyed reading these columns when they
were originally published, and that they, a publishing house in New
York, had funds specifically allocated for a guidebook on Costa
Rica, and that these funds would be reassigned elsewhere, unless a
Costa Rica guidebook could quickly be assembled, and would he be
the one to do this. Not being one to pass up allocated funds, he
assembled the columns and produced this book, which has turned out
to be unquestionably the definite book on all things Costa Rican.
This bundle consists of the following books: Modern Mandarin
Chinese: The Routledge Course Textbook Level 2, 2nd edition
(9781138101135) Modern Mandarin Chinese: The Routledge Course
Workbook Level 2, 2nd edition (9781138101166) Modern Mandarin
Chinese is a two-year undergraduate course for students with no
prior background in Chinese study. Designed to build a strong
foundation in both the spoken and written language, it develops all
the basic skills such as pronunciation, character writing, word
use, and structures, while placing a strong emphasis on the
development of communicative skills. The complete course consists
of the following books: Modern Mandarin Chinese: The Routledge
Course Textbook Level 1 Modern Mandarin Chinese: The Routledge
Course Workbook Level 1 Modern Mandarin Chinese: The Routledge
Course Textbook Level 2 Modern Mandarin Chinese: The Routledge
Course Workbook Level 2 Each level of the course consists of a
textbook and workbook in simplified Chinese. A free companion
website provides all the audio for the course with a broad range of
interactive exercises and additional resources for students'
self-study, along with a comprehensive instructor's guide with
teaching tips, assessment and homework material, and a full answer
key. Retaining its focus on communicative skills and the long-term
retention of characters, the text is now presented in simplified
characters and pinyin from the outset with a gradual and phased
removal of pinyin as specific characters are introduced and learnt.
This unique approach allows students to benefit from the support of
pinyin in the initial stages as they begin speaking while ensuring
they are guided and supported towards reading only in characters.
Black English dialect has long been rooted in the socio-historical
experience of many African Americans. When discussing the most
appropriate means of promoting the success of those who speak Black
English, educators essentially focus on African American learners
because the dialect is most commonly associated with this ethnic
group. While some may emphasize the importance of recognizing and
respecting dialect differences, others place emphasis on the stigma
often associated with Black English usage in mainstream society.
Regardless of how one characterizes Black English, it is a dialect
on which many African American students rely during their daily
interactions with mainstream speakers in society. Overcoming
Language Barriers lays the foundation for readers who are genuinely
concerned about understanding fundamental Black English concepts
and promoting the success of those who speak the dialect. In this
practical resource book, Dr. Jones "thinks outside the box" by
including pertinent topics such as brain-based learning in addition
to focusing on dialect differences. She shares insightful data from
her English language arts research study as well as practical
strategies to be utilized in mainstream classrooms. The study
highlights examples of Black English features and feedback from
English language arts teachers across the United States regarding
their perceptions of Black English usage in their classrooms. This
publication is ideal for both beginning and veteran educators and
researchers seeking to effect meaningful change for linguistically
different students.
We left the media favorites (sex, politics, violence and religion)
out of this text and the omission quickly begged the question: who
will want to read it?Anybody who is interested in a crisp clean and
prestine trek through a land of language and ideas.Anybody who is
more intrigued by the life of the mind over our daily onslaught of
packaged silliness.Since their inception in 1980 for high school
students, these topics have taken on a life of their own. They have
expanded in quality, variety, tone, color and sheer volume. Some
are even funny.The Sara Bellum Review is instantly adjustable. It
can move with ease from a liberal arts millieux to a syllabus for
home. Schooling or indulge the rapid perusal of some waiting for
the spin cycle to end in the washing machine. The material is
clean, yet it will be left to the reader as to where it will fit in
one's personal word robe.
This new addition to the "ARBA In-depth" series provides focused
help in building children's and young adult collections. More than
300 critical reviews of quality reference titles by subject experts
cover reference titles for this audience; all of which have
appeared in the last six editions of "American Reference Books
Annual," the long-trusted source of reliable reviews of recent
reference publications. Author, title, and subject indexes, as well
as a contributor list, are provided.
The fourth in this series of companion volumes to "ARBA," this
work is designed to assist academic, public, and school libraries
in the systematic selection of suitable reference materials for
their collections. Its purpose is to aid in the evaluation process
by presenting more than 300 critical and evaluative reviews in all
areas of children's and young adult resources.
This book contains a selection of non-academic materials on a wide
range of topics related to Malaysian culture. Several of them deal
with traditional Malay theatre genres, particularly mak yong,
recognised by UNESCO as an item of the Oral and Intangible Heritage
of Humanity in 2005, the shadow play and bangsawan. Others record
the contributions of prominent personalities as practitioners,
preservers, teachers and transmitters of oral traditions. The
author touches upon issues related to the precarious situation in
the arts in a rapidly changing Malay society which has in general
neglected traditional performing arts forms under pressures exerted
by modenisation and the simultaneous wave of Islamicisation. His
own involvement in teaching, research, documentation as well as
preservation of many of these arts provides unique personal
insights into some of the problems and pertinent issues. Other
essays of a more general nature, touch upon the continuing and at
times controversial relationships between Malay cultural
manifestations and those in neighbouring countries, contributions
of the minority Indian-Muslim community in Malaysia, and upon the
role of the administration in the preservation of heritage. The
brief accounts contained in this volume are presented in a direct
and readable manner for the non-expert enthusiast of culture and
the arts from the perspective of someone deeply and passionately
involved.
German Grammar in Context presents an accessible and engaging
approach to learning grammar. Each chapter opens with a real-life
extract from a German newspaper, magazine, poem, book or internet
source and uses this text as the starting point for explaining a
particular key area of German grammar. A range of exercises follow
at the end of the chapter, helping students to reinforce and test
their understanding, and an answer key is also provided at the back
of the book. This second edition features: Updated texts with
current newspaper and magazine articles and new extracts from
digital media such as chatrooms or blogs Inclusion of a
wide-ranging selection of sources and topics to further students'
engagement with issues relevant to contemporary Germany and Austria
Clear and user-friendly coverage of grammar, aided by a list of
grammatical terms A wide variety of inventive exercises designed to
thoroughly build up grammatical understanding, vocabulary
acquisition and effective comprehension and communication skills
Helpful 'keyword boxes' translating difficult vocabulary in the
texts A recommended reading section offering advice on additional
grammar resources and website links German Grammar in Context will
be an essential resource for intermediate to advanced students of
German. It is suitable for both classroom use and independent
study.
This book probes for a post-native-speakerist future. It explores
the nature of (English and Japanese) native-speakerism in the
Japanese context, and possible grounds on which language teachers
could be employed if native-speakerism is rejected (i.e., what are
the language teachers of the future expected to do, and be, in
practice?). It reveals the problems presented by the native-speaker
model in foreign language education by exploring individual
teacher-researcher narratives related to workplace experience and
language-based inclusion/exclusion, as well as Japanese
native-speakerism in the teaching of Japanese as a foreign
language. It then seeks solutions to the problems by examining the
concept of post-native-speakerism in relation to multilingual
perspectives and globalisation generally, with a specific focus on
education.
In Benasni - I Remember: Dene Su line Oral Histories with
Morphological Analysis, Josh Holden presents twelve
autobiographical narratives about cultural change from Dene Su line
elders in an Aboriginal community in northern Saskatchewan, Canada.
In ten interviews and two monologues, the speakers recount their
20th century: the rhythms of traditional life, the catastrophe of
epidemics and language loss, the dizzying technological changes,
their ambivalence over the past and their anxieties for the future.
Accompanying the original Dene texts and free translation is an
analytical interlinear gloss applying rigorous morphological and
semantic principles to the parsing and glossing of words. The
innovative interlinearization distinguishes grammar from visible
etymologies. The volume contains a morphological sketch to
illuminate grammatical issues in the interlinearization.
While research into intercultural teaching has grown exponentially
during the past two decades, the research has primarily resorted to
the use of quantitative data collection instruments and the
interpretation of scores calculated through them. As such, studies
in the field can seem somewhat decontextualized, ignoring in some
cases setting-specific parameters. Therefore, further study is
needed to bring together theory, research, and practice
demonstrating how this teaching is reflected in research design and
how it is undertaken in different settings. Intercultural Foreign
Language Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Contexts is an
essential reference source that provides a series of rich insights
into the way intercultural education is practiced in numerous
international contexts and showcases practical examples of teaching
situations and classroom activities that demonstrate its impact
within the classroom. Featuring research on topics such as higher
education, multilingualism, and professionalism, this book is
ideally designed for educators, researchers, administrators,
professionals, academicians, and students seeking pedagogical
guidance on intercultural teaching.
This book is a collection of articles dealing with various aspects
of the Baltic languages (Lithuanian, Latvian and Latgalian), which
have only marginally featured in the discourse of theoretical
linguistics and linguistic typology. The aim of the book is to
bridge the gap between the study of the Baltic languages, on the
one hand, and the current agenda of the theoretical and typological
approaches to language, on the other. The book comprises 13
articles dealing with various aspects of phonology, morphology,
syntax, semantics, lexicon, and their interactions, plus a lengthy
introduction, whose aim is to outline the state of the art in the
research on the Baltic languages. The contributions are
data-driven, being based on field-work, corpus research, and data
published in the sources not accessible to the general linguistic
audience. On the other hand, all contributions are informed in the
relevant contemporary linguistic theories and in the advances of
linguistic typology. Some of the contributions aim at a more
detailed, accurate and theoretically informed description of the
data, others look at the Baltic material from a more theoretical
point of view, still others assume an areal-typological or contact
perspective.
This book considers some of the outstanding questions regarding
language and communication in the teaching and learning of
mathematics - an established theme in mathematics education
research, which is growing in prominence. Recent research has
demonstrated the wide range of theoretical and methodological
resources that can contribute to this area of study, including
those drawing on cross-disciplinary perspectives influenced by,
among others, sociology, psychology, linguistics, and semiotics.
Examining language in its broadest sense to include all modes of
communication, including visual and gestural as well as spoken and
written modes, it features work presented and discussed in the
Language and Communication topic study group (TSG 31) at the 13th
International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-13). A joint
session with participants of the Mathematics Education in a
Multilingual and Multicultural Environment topic study group (TSG
32) enhanced discussions, which are incorporated in elaborations
included in this book. Discussing cross-cutting topics it appeals
to readers from a wide range of disciplines, such as mathematics
education and research methods in education, multilingualism,
applied linguistics and beyond.
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