‘Caroline Taggart has carved out a niche for herself in user-friendly, wittily written factual books.’ – Yorkshire Post ______________________ The huge variety of colourful phrases contained in the English language are notoriously varied and, often, notably odd. From blue-blooded (an invention of aristocratic Spaniards) to limelight (a way of lighting Victorian theatres), passing an exam with flying colours (an image from sailing ships) to winning hands down (from horse racing), the fascinating expressions that make up our language are explored in Humble Pie and Cold Turkey. In this highly entertaining book, language enthusiast and Sunday Times best-selling author Caroline Taggart browses through thousands of years of history to shed light on why we use the words and phrases we do. Arranged by themes including food, the household, childhood, romance and more, this intriguing book looks at the origins of our language from their historical context. For example, did you know that: If you rest on your laurels, you’re imitating a complacent Roman general? If you eavesdrop, you’re likely to get wet? If you’re taken aback, you should, strictly speaking, be a sailing ship? If you’re galvanized into action, you’re behaving like Frankenstein’s monster? Humble Pie and Cold Turkey will prompt you to question the downright bizarre idioms we use to express ourselves, and answer questions you may never have thought to ask. Including why turkeys need to be cold and how pies came to be humble.

The Quran: Key Word Distribution, Correlations and Collocation Frequencies presents key data related to the lexicon of the Quran, in terms of Key Word distribution and lexical associations. The digital text used for this purpose is the Uthmani text of the Tanzil Quran Text. This text is widely used. All vocalized Arabic text is quoted unaltered in any shape or form from the Tanzil text. Unvocalized Arabic text and transcriptions are my own. In this series, each Key Word - here adjectives, nouns, proper nouns and verbs - is presented together with the following key data: degree of concentration, weighted distribution, correlations and collocation frequencies. The Key Words are always referenced by their lemma and are sorted alphabetically according to Arabic and UNICODE order. In lemmatizing the words, no attention has been given to the semantics of each word. Only on rare occasion have similar forms of words or proper nouns been separated in order to avoid confusion. In assigning each word a lemma, classical dictionaries and Quran commentaries, as well as modern Quran dictionaries have been consulted. Deciding on these is not always obvious, since classical dictionaries and commentaries sometimes either disagree or present divergent variant readings or root and lemma attributions. This series contributes to Computational Linguistics and Digital Humanities in general, and Computational Linguistics research on the Quran in particular.

Expand your Italian verb mastery with the best review and practice workbook for beginning to intermediate learners-now with extensive support from the McGraw-Hill Language Lab app! Confident use of verbs is an essential foundation for learning Italian-and also one of the most difficult to master. Italian Verb Drills helps you overcome these obstacles, and lays the foundation with clear explanations and rigorous practice. Written with beginning and intermediate-level learners in mind, it provides numerous examples that demonstrate how the Italian verb system works, along with review and mastery exercises to reinforce learning. With extensive support from the McGraw-Hill Language Lab app, you can also access flashcards, an auto-fill glossary, and a variety of exercises to get you up to speed with valuable immediate feedback. Boost your mastery of the Italian language with Italian Verb Drills, Premium Fifth Edition: Drills format helps you to focus on verbs without distractions of other kinds of grammar Clear explanations of conjugations, followed by practice exercises to "drill down" what you've learned New: Streaming audio recordings of verb conjugations and answers to numerous exercises in the book Bonus flashcards, auto-fill glossary, and interactive exercises helps you gauge what you've learned

Featuring Mandarin characters (ideograms), pinyin (Mandarin transliterated into the Latin alphabet) and English translations, this 3-panel guide provides grammar essentials for students, travelers, and business people.

Understanding Indonesian Grammar is a reference and workbook designed primarily for intermediate and advanced students in senior years of high school and at university. It provides a clear, non-technical description of the important structures in the language, together with practical exercises. It can be used with any Indonesian language course. * Units are largely self-contained, enabling teachers to select topics in any order, depending on the structure of their course and the needs of their students. * The various aspects of each topic are discussed one at a time and tested in exercises so that the learner is guided step by step to an in-depth understanding of the topic. * Contains descriptions of many frequently occurring affixes and structures which are not dealt with in existing course materials. * Clear explanations and answers to all exercises enable learners to use the book without a teacher. * Notes throughout the book provide additional information on unusual or irregular features of grammar. * All grammatical terms used are defined in an extensive glossary. The comprehensiveness and flexibility of Understanding Indonesian Grammar make it an indispensable resource for students and teachers of Indonesian. James Neil Sneddon PhD is an associate professor in the School of Languages at Griffith University, with long experience teaching Indonesian language and linguistics. He is the author of Indonesian Reference Grammar (1996).

We're all familiar with 'a flock of sheep' but what are the collective nouns for racehorses, pigs, zebras or giraffes? Drawing on a range of sources, from fifteenth-century hunting terms to more recent inventions that have now entered the language, this book collects over 100 examples of the most interesting collective nouns for animals, each illustrated with charming woodcuts by the renowned naturalist engraver of the eighteenth century, Thomas Bewick. Some describe a key characteristic of the animal in question: 'a shrewdness of apes', 'a busyness of ferrets'. Others are delightfully humorous: 'a piddle of puppies', 'a crash of rhinoceroses'. Featuring pets, farmyard animals, big cats and wild beasts, this beautifully presented book is the perfect gift for animal lovers and all those with an interest in this quirky linguistic tradition.

This is the first book in Chinese linguistics which discusses the grammar of a dialect group, in this case the Xiang dialect spoken in Hunan, from both a synchronic and diachronic prespective. The author uses new data and new frameworks to present her analysis. The synchronic part covers contemporary grammar across localities within the Xiang-speaking area by using the methods and theories of comparative and typological linguistics. The diachronic analysis reconstructs earlier grammatical systems based mainly on modern data but also on historical written records, and analyses the development of the syntactic systems of the Xiang dialects, adopting the methods and theories of historical linguistics and grammaticalization. The discussions in this book raise new issues on dialect research which have not yet been fully acknowledged by Chinese dialectologists. The author shows, for example, how the earlier layers of grammar may be reconstructed on the basis of modern data, and how the path of grammaticalization of functional words may be traced. The discussions reveal that the Xiang dialect group forms a transitional zone between northern and southern dialects. The syntactic constructions in these two areas often co-exist or are mingled in Xiang. Thus, the grammatical constructions in different localities of the Xiang dialect group often provide a bridge connecting the constructions of northern and southern Chinese, or Modern Chinese and Chinese of earlier periods. This book is of interest to scholars and students who are working on grammar, dialectology, historical linguistics, comparative linguistics, typological linguistics, and grammaticalization, as well as those researchers focusing on language policy, language acquisition, and education.

Students improve their Tier 2 academic vocabulary using Contemporary's Words to Learn By!

In one compact volume, 'Essentials Of Swedish Grammar' offers an integrated presentation of the major grammatical concepts needed for correct speech and writing in Swedish.

This root dictionary of Korean for second language learners contains more than 1500 vocabulary lists consisting of words built from a shared root. Upon encountering a word, the student can consult the list for its component roots and discover other semantically related words.

The series is a platform for contributions of all kinds to this rapidly developing field. General problems are studied from the perspective of individual languages, language families, language groups, or language samples. Conclusions are the result of a deepened study of empirical data. Special emphasis is given to little-known languages, whose analysis may shed new light on long-standing problems in general linguistics.

The home of trusted Spanish dictionaries for everyday language learning. This book offers beginners a clear and easy-to-understand guide to the verbs and grammar of Spanish. Perfect for Spanish exams revision. Designed for all those learning Spanish at school, at work or at home. It provides easily accessible information in an attractively presented layout. Key grammatical points are highlighted throughout as a means of reinforcement. In addition, a full glossary gives clear explanations of grammatical terminology. This book also provides beginners with all the regular verb forms and conjugations, and the most common tenses of irregular verbs are shown in full. An index contains over 2,800 verbs which are cross-referred to their conjugation model. Explains the essential points of Spanish grammar using simple language throughout. Hundreds of examples of real Spanish illustrate clearly the grammatical points being made. Clear layout ensures that you find the information you need quickly and easily.

The series builds an extensive collection of high quality descriptions of languages around the world. Each volume offers a comprehensive grammatical description of a single language together with fully analyzed sample texts and, if appropriate, a word list and other relevant information which is available on the language in question. There are no restrictions as to language family or area, and although special attention is paid to hitherto undescribed languages, new and valuable treatments of better known languages are also included. No theoretical model is imposed on the authors; the only criterion is a high standard of scientific quality. To discuss your book idea or submit a proposal, please contact Birgit Sievert.

Expand your Spanish verb mastery with the best review and practice workbook for beginning to intermediate learners-now with extensive support from the McGraw Hill Language Lab app! Confident use of verbs is an essential foundation for learning Spanish-and also one of the most difficult to master. Spanish Verb Drills helps you overcome these obstacles, and lays the foundation with clear explanations and rigorous practice. Written with beginning and intermediate-level learners in mind, it provides numerous examples that demonstrate how the Spanish verb system works, along with review and mastery exercises to reinforce learning. With extensive support from the McGraw Hill Language Lab app, you can also access flashcards, an auto-fill glossary, and a variety of exercises to get you up to speed with valuable immediate feedback. Boost your mastery of the Spanish language with Spanish Verb Drills, Premium Sixth Edition: Drills format helps you to focus on verbs without distractions of other kinds of grammar Clear explanations of conjugations, followed by practice exercises to "drill down" what you've learned New: Streaming audio recordings of verb conjugations and answers to numerous exercises in the book Bonus flashcards, auto-fill glossary, and interactive exercises helps you gauge what you've learned

Exam board: AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC/Eduqas Level: A-level Subject: Spanish First teaching: September 2016 First exams: Summer 2018 Build confidence in Spanish grammar with hundreds of activities to embed the grammar knowledge necessary for exam success. Suitable for all exam boards and abilities, this Spanish A-level Grammar Workbook will help students to: - Extend their learning beyond the classroom by supplementing key resources such as course textbooks - Develop their understanding with clear explanations of grammatical rules and exceptions - Improve confidence with 251 exercises which build in complexity for each grammar point - Strengthen translation skills by putting grammar into practice with 72 translation exercises - Make the most of opportunities for self-directed learning and assessment with answers to activities supplied online

Exam Board: AQA, OCR, Edexcel & WJEC Level: A-Level Subject: French First Teaching: September 2016 First Exam: Summer 2017 Build confidence in French grammar with hundreds of activities to embed the grammar knowledge necessary for exam success. Suitable for all exam boards and abilities, this French A-level Grammar Workbook will help students to: - Extend their learning beyond the classroom by supplementing key resources such as course textbooks - Develop their understanding with clear explanations of grammatical rules and exceptions - Improve confidence with 203 exercises which build in complexity for each grammar point - Strengthen translation skills by putting grammar into practice with 92 translation exercises - Make the most of opportunities for self-directed learning and assessment with answers to activities supplied online