Do you "know" that posh comes from an acronym meaning "port out, starboard home"? That "the whole nine yards" comes from (pick one) the length of a WWII gunner's belt; the amount of fabric needed to make a kilt; a sarcastic football expression? That Chicago is called "The Windy City" because of the bloviating habits of its politicians, and not the breeze off the lake?
If so, you need this book. David Wilton debunks the most persistently wrong word histories, and gives, to the best of our actual knowledge, the real stories behind these perennially mis-etymologized words.
In addition, he explains why these wrong stories are created, disseminated, and persist, even after being corrected time and time again. What makes us cling to these stories, when the truth behind these words and phrases is available, for the most part, at any library or on the Internet?
Arranged by chapters, this book avoids a dry A-Z format. Chapters separate misetymologies by kind, including The Perils of Political Correctness (picnics have nothing to do with lynchings), Posh, Phat Pommies (the problems of bacronyming--the desire to make every word into an acronym), and CANOE (which stands for the Conspiracy to Attribute Nautical Origins to Everything).
Word Myths corrects long-held and far-flung examples of wrong etymologies, without taking the fun out of etymology itself. It's the best of both worlds: not only do you learn the many wrong stories behind these words, you also learn why and how they are created--and what the real story is.

Diese Professorin Regina Hessky gewidmete thematische Festgabe versammelt 27 Beitrage, die sich mit Problemen der lexikalischen Semantik, der Phraseologie und der Lexikographie des Deutschen aus einzelsprachlicher oder kontrastiver Perspektive auseinander setzen. Die Autoren des Bandes sind Vertreter der ungarischen und der internationalen Germanistik aus Deutschland, Frankreich, Russland, Schweden, Spanien und den USA.

"Sociocultural Contexts of Language and Literacy, Second Edition" engages prospective and in-service teachers in learning about linguistically and culturally diverse students, and in using this knowledge to enrich literacy learning in classrooms and communities. The text is grounded in current research and theory that integrate sociocultural and constructivist concepts and perspectives and provide a framework teachers can use to develop strategies for teaching reading, writing, and thinking to diverse students.
The focus on English literacy development does not imply advocacy for "English only" or ESL as the primary mode of literacy instruction. Rather, the authors take the position that learners need to develop literacy in their native language and that the concepts and skills learned in developing the native language create a foundation of strength from which students can develop English literacy.
Part I introduces relevant research and language learning theories. PartII provides research reviews and information about literacy learning within specific culturally and linguistically diverse communities. The chapters in Part III challenge the reader to view the multiple social, intellectual, cultural, and language differences children bring to the classroom as an opportunity for learning and building on the diversity among students. Activities and suggested readings at the end of each chapter involve readers in reflection, observation, meaning making, and the construction of application processes for their new understandings.
New in the "Second Edition: "
*updated research and theory on multilingual and second language literacy;
*a focus on the interpretation of theseresearch findings to make them useful for teachers and teacher educators in understanding and articulating the research bases for literacy practices;
*attention to current intensely debated issues, such as standards, the phonics movement, and high-stakes testing; and
*new activities and suggested readings.

'The Delights of Learning Turkish' is a self-study course book that takes the learner from the beginner level to the intermediate level in Turkish. It is designed for English speakers, targeting adult and young adult learners; especially for those planning to settle and live in Turkey or visiting Turkey for business or pleasure. It is a comprehensive, explanatory approach to Turkish language teaching how to construct and use the language both in formal and colloquial forms with dialogues, examples, grammar points, vocabulary and exercises. It shows the grammatical structures in detail with examples, which enables the learners to make their own sentences instead of depending on off-the-shelf phrases. In the book, you can also find general information about the Turkish alphabet and Turkish language as well as notes on Turkish culture in daily life. Covering so many language points, this book is also a grammar reference that targets a wide range of audience including advanced learners. At the end of the book, you will find the keys to the exercises. There are also Turkish - English and English - Turkish glossary sections as well as Turkish proverbs and idioms added to the book with explanations.

"Plain Style" is an amusing and instructive guide to written English by the late Christopher Lasch, author of "The Culture of Narcissism," "The True and Only Heaven," and many other memorable works of American history and social criticism. Written for the benefit of the students at the University of Rochester, where Lasch taught from 1970 until his death in 1994, it quickly established itself in typescript as a local classic--a lively, witty, and historically minded alternative to the famous volume by William Strunk and E. B. White, "The Elements of Style." Now available for the first time in published form, "Plain Style" is fundamentally a clear, readable, practical guide to the timeless principles of effective composition. At the same time, however, in ways that Stewart Weaver explains in his critical introduction, it is a distinctive and revealing addition to the published work of an eminent American thinker. No mere primer, "Plain Style" is an essay in cultural criticism, a political treatise even, by one for whom directness, clarity, and honesty of expression were essential to the living spirit of democracy. As the teachers and students who have for years benefited from its succinct wisdom will testify, "Plain Style" is an indispensable guide to writing and, indeed, Christopher Lasch's least-expected but perhaps most serviceable work.

Sprache ist ohne Wiederholungen nicht moeglich. Aber nicht alle Wiederholungen sind gleichermassen notwendig. Diese Arbeit klart, welche formal zu unterscheidenden Wiederholungen bestehen und wie ihre jeweilige Funktion zu beschreiben ist. Der Autor betrachtet das komplexe Thema aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln und macht sich das Wissen antiker und moderner Rhetorik ebenso zunutze, wie die Erkenntnisse von Textlinguistik, Pragmatik und generativer Grammatik. Das verwendete Korpus fusst auf Beispielen der englischsprachigen Literatur. Die Verbindung unterschiedlicher Disziplinen und theoretischer Ansatze ermoeglicht eine umfassende, fur Linguisten, Literaturwissenschaftler und Rhetoriker gleichermassen relevante Beschreibung sprachlicher Wiederholungen.

Das Buch ist in russischer Sprache verfasst. Das Woerterbuch ist das erste seiner Art, das die Wortart der Partikeln der russischen Gegenwartssprache in ihrer Gesamtheit erfasst und in ihrem Funktionieren detailliert und anschaulich beschreibt. Damit werden hier Woerter wissenschaftlich erklart, die in den Woerterbuchern der Vergangenheit stark vernachlassigt wurden, obwohl sie fur die naturliche Kommunikation eine ganz entscheidende Rolle spielen. Aus diesem Grund ist das Woerterbuch besonders auch fur Studierende, Lehrende und Forschende, UEbersetzer und Dolmetscher des Russischen von hoechstem Interesse.

An eminent scholar explains the essentials of English grammar to those who never studied the basics as well as those who need a refresher course. Inspired by Strunk & White's classic "The Elements of Style, " this user-friendly guide focuses exclusively on grammar, explaining the individual parts of speech and their proper arrangement in sentence form. A modest investment of 90 minutes can provide readers of all ages with simple but important tools that will improve their communication skills.
Dover (2011) original publication.

Extensively revised and updated, this second edition provides, in an A-Z format, an analysis of the most important generalizations that have been made on the unidirectional change of grammatical forms and constructions. Based on the analysis of more than 1,000 languages, it reconstructs over 500 processes of grammatical change in the languages of the world, including East Asian languages such as Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Readers are provided with the tools to discover how lexical and grammatical meanings can be related to one another in a principled way, how such issues as polysemy, heterosemy, and transcategoriality are dealt with, and why certain linguistic forms have simultaneous lexical and grammatical functions. Definitions of lexical concepts are provided with examples from a broad variety of languages, and references to key relevant research literature. Linguists and other scholars will gain a better understanding of languages on a worldwide scale.

The Cambridge Guide to English Usage is an A-Z reference book, giving an up-to-date account of the debatable issues of English usage and written style. Its advice draws on a wealth of recent research and data from very large corpora of American and British English - illuminating their many divergences and also points of convergence on which international English can be based. The book comprises more than 4000 points of word meaning, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and larger issues of inclusive language, and effective writing and argument. It also provides guidance on grammatical terminology, and covers topics in electronic communication and the internet. The discussion notes the major dictionaries, grammars and usage books in the USA, UK, Canada and Australia, allowing readers to calibrate their own practices as required. CGEU is descriptive rather than prescriptive, but offers a principled basis for implementing progressive or more conservative decisions on usage.

What is the difference between mean and median, blatant and flagrant, flout and flaunt? Is it whodunnit or whodunit? Do you know? Are you sure? With Troublesome Words, journalist and bestselling travel-writer Bill Bryson gives us a clear, concise and entertaining guide to the problems of English usage and spelling that has been an indispensable companion to those who work with the written word for over twenty years. So if you want to discover whether you should care about split infinitives, are cursed with an uncontrollable outbreak of commas or were wondering if that newsreader was right to say 'an historic day', this superb book is the place to find out.

The Modern English Structures Workbook parallels the text, Modern English Structures, and provides useful training both in memorization and in higher-order thinking skills.

This practical guide can be used by teachers who wish to develop their professional expertise by investigating their own teaching in a systematic and organised way. It is also invaluable for teachers or trainee teachers who have to produce a professional project or dissertation as part of a training programme. This book will help teachers to design and implement a research project which is derived from their normal practice, with results which should be of direct relevance to them.The book is user-friendly and includes:- exemplar articles and extracts which show how the research techniques can be implemented- 'Personal review' sections which help readers to think about the ideas being discussed and relate them to their own situation- commentaries which follow up issues raised in the 'Personal review' sections- chapter summaries- a glossary of all technical terms