"Chinese Grammar Made Easy" presents instructors with innovative and classroom-tested techniques for teaching Chinese grammar. Its communicative, meaning-based approach helps teachers to engage students by bringing grammar into a practical, real-life context. As a reference for daily teaching, this book discusses 150 of the most fundamental and frequently used grammar points that students need to learn in order to communicate successfully. Each grammar point is accompanied by various learning activities to engage students and provide structured practice. Based on research conducted by a team of 25 experienced language teachers, "Chinese Grammar Made Easy" also offers Clear and concise explanations of grammar concepts, Step-by-step teaching instructions, A range of exercises to reinforce each grammar point.By providing pedagogical strategies, this book allows teachers to reflect on the effectiveness of their grammar instruction and to implement methods which fit the needs and interests of language learners. Jianhua Bai is professor of Chinese at Kenyon College and director of the Chinese School at Middlebury College.

Addressed To School Examining Committees, Teachers And Scholars A Little Advanced In Understanding.

The only fun, friendly, and surefire defense against the grammar snobs Having already made a name for herself with Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies, now in its fifth printing, June Casagrande returns with Mortal Syntax, taking on the 101 most frequently attacked usage choices. Dedicating one short chapter to each, Casagrande brings her subject to life, teaching English usage through lively and amusing personal anecdotes. Mortal Syntax includes such chapters as: ? "I wish I was taller" ? "I am continuously watching Simpsons reruns" ? "Was it Horton that heard the Who?" Casagrande's clear and concise lessons-with entertaining titles and themes-make a potentially prickly subject go down like a spoonful of sugar.

There is no wittier, more amiable or more astute word maven than Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist William Safire.
For many people, the first item on the agenda for Sunday morning is to sit down and read Safire's "On Language" column in "The New York Times Magazine, " then to compose a "Gotcha" letter to the Times. Each of his books on language is a classic, to be read, re-read and fought over. Safire is the beloved, slightly crotchety guru of contemporary vocabulary, speech, language, usage and writing, as close as we are likely to get to a modern Samuel Johnson. Fans, critics and fellow language mavens eagerly await his books on language. This one is no exception.
William Safire has written the weekly "New York Times Magazine" column "On Language" since 1979. His observations on grammar, usage and etymology have led to the publication of fourteen "word books" and have made him the most widely read writer on the English language today. The subjects for his columns come from his insights into the current political scene, as well as from technology, entertainment and life in general. Known for his delight in catching people (especially politicians) who misuse words, he is not above tackling his own linguistic gaffes. Safire examines and comments on language trends and traces the origins of everyday words, phrases and cliches to their source. Scholarly, entertaining, lively and thoughtful, Safire's pointed commentaries on popular language and culture are at once provocative and enlightening.
Want the 411 on what's phat and what's skeevy? Here's the "straight dope" on everything from "fast-track legislation" to "the Full Monty," with deft and well-directed potshots at those who criticize, twist the usage of or misunderstand the meaning of such classic examples of American idiom as "grow'd like Topsy," "and the horse you rode in on," "drop a dime" (on someone), "go figure" and hundreds more, together with sharp, witty and passionately opinionated letters from both ordinary readers and equally irate or puzzled celebrities who have been unable to resist picking up a pen to put Mr. Safire in his place or to offer detailed criticism, additional examples or amusing anecdotes.
"No Uncertain Terms" is a boisterous and brilliant look at the oddities and foibles of our language. Not only "a blast and a half," but wise, clever and illuminating, it is a book that Mencken would have loved and that should be on the desk (or at the bedside) of everyone who shares Mr. Safire's profound love of the English language and his penchant for asking, "Where does that come from?"
This new collection is a joy that will spark the interest of language lovers everywhere.

The Idiom Book was written for high-intermediate/advanced young adult and adult learners of English. The language used is very colloquial and is intended to represent the authentic linguistic expression of native speakers interacting socially in informal personal and professional contexts. Each lesson features 10 idioms. The book is divided into 101 lessons, with each lesson having four sections: - Section A introduces the idioms in the context of an idiomatic conversation. - Section B presents the same idioms in a different format, most in the form of written messages. The messages are gapped. Section C uses a matching exercise to increase the learning challenge. Section D has the students using the idioms in a given sentence substituting the idiom for a non-idiomatic phrase. The topics are varied and interesting. There is a list of idioms and an answer key available for download at ProLinguaLearning.com. An optional downloadable audio program for this book is also available.

This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.

A linguist with attitude, R. L. Trask was a steadfast soldier in the never-ending War of Words, fighting the good fight for standard written English. Revered for its insight and legendary for its "cheek," Trask's Mind the Gaffe! is an indispensable guidebook for wordsmiths and language mavens of every stripe, providing safe passage through the ubiquitous minefields of improper usage.

Artiste: This pretentious word . . . commonly means "fraud pretending to be an artist." Don't use it unless you mean to be insulting.

Amoral, Immoral: An amoral person is one who does not know the difference between right and wrong. An immoral person knows the difference but does wrong anyway.

Reaction: A reaction is a sudden and spontaneous response to a stimulus, such as jumping, shrieking, or fainting. The word is not properly used as a fancy word for any kind of considered response. If you circulate a policy document, you can ask others for their opinions, or for their criticisms, but do not ask them for their reactions unless you hope to hear responses like "I burst into uncontrollable laughter."

After a multi-decade career of stimulating readers to appreciate and laugh at the glories and oddities of our English language, beloved language maven Richard Lederer has collected his very best and most popular pieces in "Word Wizard." In this career-capping anthology the reader will find essays that enlighten, inspire, and tickle the funny bone.
From his hilarious bloopers to his hymns of praise to the English language, these essays are the brightest gems of a storied career. "Word Wizard" includes a new introduction, prefaces for each essay, sprightly verse, and material never before published in Leader's language books. With classic chapters such as "The World According to Student Bloopers," "English Is a Crazy Language," and "The Case for Short Words," and shiny new essays such as "The Way We Word" and "Add Wealth to Your Vocabulary," "Word Wizard "is sure to delight language lovers and Lederer fans everywhere.

This brief guide was prepared for those inquiring about how to enter into Hieroglyphic studies on their own at home or in study groups. First of all you should know that there are a few institutions around the world which teach how to read the Hieroglyphic text but due to the nature of the study there are perhaps only a handful of people who can read fluently. It is possible for anyone with average intelligence to achieve a high level of proficiency in reading inscriptions on temples and artifacts; however, reading extensive texts is another issue entirely. However, this introduction will give you entry into those texts if assisted by dictionaries and other aids. Most Egyptologists have a basic knowledge and keep dictionaries and notes handy when it comes to dealing with more difficult texts. Medtu Neter or the Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic language has been considered as a "Dead Language." However, dead languages have always been studied by individuals who for the most part have taught themselves through various means. This book will discuss those means and how to use them most efficiently.

This book features over 13,000 ancient Greek verbs, analysed and annotated. Most previous studies of ancient slavery have grown out of historical and literary research. In the flood of books and papers on the subject, the archaeological evidence has often been ignored. This book fills the gap by confronting, for the first time, the archaeological evidence for slavery. This evidence is used to build up a picture of rich complexity, drawing both on historical sources or inscriptions and on archaeological studies of the development of technology and the economy. The book covers topics as diverse as the source of slaves, the nature of the slave trade, and the use of slave-labour in agriculture, mines and quarries, corn and weaving mills, and water-lifting. It concludes with chapters on restraint and slave revolts.

Vocabulary forms the building blocks of language learning, and it is essential for learners to expand their vocabulary - whether for active communication, or passive oral understanding or written comprehension. However, most existing vocabulary books don't provide any assistance in actually learning and assimilating the words - the student might as well just look words up in a dictionary.In answer to this need, The Big Red Book of Spanish Vocabulary is a unique reference that provides students with a tremendous resource by combining three key, complementary approaches to vocabulary building:* Cognates: the easiest way to build vocabulary - by learning words in Spanish that are similar to the English meaning. This section contains 14,000 cognates thematically arranged into 20 thematic groups, which are further divided into 100 topics.* Root families: another key way to expand vocabulary is to learn related word families that have the same root. This section contains 14,000 terms grouped by 2,200 root categories. The headwords (the most commonly used word in the family) are ordered alphabetically.* Suffixes: more than most languages, Spanish relies on suffixes to denote parts of speech and convey nuances of meaning. This section contains 130 of the most common Spanish suffixes, grouped alphabetically. The meaning of each suffix is explained, and then exemplified by an illustrative list of words taking the suffix (4,000 words in all), their English equivalent, and the stem to which it is related. These three sections are complimented by a Frequency Index that lists the 5,000 most frequently used words in Spanish. The 1,000 most commonly used words are illustrated by example sentences that provide contextual usage. This index is cross-referenced to the Cognate, Root and Suffix sections.In addition, an Alphabetical Index cross-references all the entries in the Root, Suffix and Frequency sections.

Clear, accessible and jargon-free, BBC Italian Grammar is the ideal complement to any Italian language course. With its emphasis on clear and concise explanation, it provides a handy and authoritative reference guide for learners at home or in the classroom. Well respected and recommended by language tutors, the BBC Grammar range is suitable for adult learners from beginner level to GCSE and beyond.This new edition has been revised and updated to include the euro.

This handbook is a companion to the widely used and standard text, "A Grammar for Biblical Hebrew" (revised edition), by C. L. Seow. It has been thoroughly and successfully field-tested in various settings for studying biblical Hebrew. For each exercise in the Grammar, this volume refreshes the student on lessons already learned, reinforces explanations and terms used in the lesson, explains concepts not yet covered, provides an annotated answer key, offers practical helps and tips, and cites relevant information in the standard dictionaries and reference grammars. The "Handbook" helps students make the most of the introductory grammar, in the classroom or for self-guided study. The reference to the major research grammars and lexicons will enable the student and instructor to take learning and teaching to a more advanced level in studying and translating Biblical Hebrew. The authors are doctoral students of C. L. Seow at Princeton Theological Seminary. Jennifer S. Green is an instructor at Columbia Theological Seminary, G. Brooke Lester is an instructor at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, and Joseph F. Scrivner is an instructor at Samford University.

This is the first comprehensive reference grammar of Tajik, the Persian of Central Asia, to appear in English. It describes the modern literary language, with examples of colloquial and dialect usage, from the early Soviet period (1920s) up until Tajikistan's independence after 2001. Grammatical examples, taken from a variety of literary sources, are given in both the Cyrillic and Perso-Arabic scripts. Complete verb paradigms, a grammatical index, and parallel word-indexes in both writing systems make it easy to find particular points.
Essential for the Iranologist and comparative linguist, for the the student or teacher of Tajik Persian, and a valuable supplement for those who work with Persian of Iran or Afghanistan. With extensive indexes.

By the author of the Atlantic Monthly's highly popular column "Word Court," the most engaging grammar guide of our time, with all the authority of "Strunk" "and White" and all the fun of "Woe Is I."
The "Judge Judy of Grammar" was born when the Atlantic Monthly's Barbara Wallraff began answering grammar questions on America Online. This vibrant exchange became the magazine's bimonthly "Word Court," and eventually the bestselling hardcover book, Word Court.
In Word Court, Wallraff moves beyond her column to tackle common and uncommon items, establishing rules for such issues as turns of phrase, slang, name usage, punctuation, and newly coined vocabulary. With true wit, she deliberates and decides on the right path for lovers of language, ranging from classic questions-Is "a historical" or "an historical" correct?-to awkward issues-How long does someone have to be dead before we should all stop calling her "the late"? Should you use "like" or "as"-and when?
The result is a warmly humorous, reassuring, and brilliantly perceptive tour of how and why we speak the way we do.

Explains some of the more troublesome and confusing aspects of English grammar under the topics of nouns, pronouns, verbs, modifiers, sentences, conjunctions and prepositions, and punctuation. Includes practice quizzes.

tradition on the subject of dharma, or the rules of behavior a community recognizes as binding on its members. Written in a pithy and aphoristic style and representing the culmination of a long tradition of scholarship, the Dharmasutras record intense disputes and divergent views on a wide variety of religious and social issues. These unique documents give us a glimpse of how people, especially Brahmin males, were ideally expected to live their lives within an ordered and hierarchically arranged society. In this first English translation of these documents for over a century, Patrick Olivelle uses the same lucid and elegant style of his award-winning translation of the Upanisads and incorporates the most recent scholarship on ancient Indian law, society and religion. The fresh editions of the Sanskrit texts present new manuscript material, variants recorded in medieval commentaries and legal diigests, and emendations suggested by philologists.

Fans of Richard Lederer's Anguished English series will cherish this newest installment of the author's latest chronicle of the gifts and gaffes of our oddball language. From headlines to menus, student papers to politicians' speeches, every embarrassing example is true-and wonderfully funny.