I is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How it Shapes the Way We See the World

Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind

George Lakoff · 614 pages

Focusing on studies of how humans categorize objects and ideas, this book examines the new understanding of human thought which proposes that human reason is imaginative, metaphorical, and intrinsically linked with the human body.

Metaphors We Live By

George Lakoff, Mark Johnson · 259 pages

Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by"--Metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them.

Talking from 9 to 5: Women and Men at Work

Deborah Tannen · 368 pages

You say something at a meeting, it is ignored, then someone else says the same thing and everyone embraces it as a marvelous idea. You devote yourself to a project, but don't get credit for the results. You work around the clock to avoid a crisis, but your efforts are not recognized because no one notices a crisis that never occurs. You give what you think are clear instructions, but the job is no

Language and Mind

Noam Chomsky · 194 pages

This is the long-awaited third edition of Chomsky's outstanding collection of essays on language and mind. The first six chapters, originally published in the 1960s, made a groundbreaking contribution to linguistic theory. This new edition complements them with an additional chapter and a new preface, bringing Chomsky's influential approach into the twenty-first century. Chapters 1-6 present Choms

The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature

Steven Pinker · 499 pages

New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker possesses that rare combination of scientific aptitude and verbal eloquence that enables him to provide lucid explanations of deep and powerful ideas. His previous books—including the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Blank Slate—have catapulted him into the limelight as one of today's most important and popular science writers.Now, in The Stuff of Thought

The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us

James W. Pennebaker · 360 pages

The Secret Life of Pronouns is based on a large-scale research project that links natural language use to real world social and psychological processes. Using computerized text analyses on hundreds of thousands of letters, poems, books, blogs, Tweets, conversations, and other texts, it is possible to begin to read people’s hearts and minds in ways they can’t do themselves.

The Power of Framing: Creating the Language of Leadership

Gail T. Fairhurst · 266 pages

"This updated edition explores the basic components of the framing process including communication goals, mental models, context, priming for spontaneity, language use, and believability frames (for ethical communication). This new edition is organized to emphasize the skills, science, art ethics and the history of research on framing. The author offers a better understanding of the subject, a dia

The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense

Suzette Haden Elgin · 310 pages

Learn how to detect the subtle "put-downs," insults and other verbal blows that almost everyone uses--parents and children, husbands and wives. teachers and students, and friends and lovers. Most of us are under verbal attack every day and often don't even realize it. In this book you'll learn the skills you need to respond to all types of verbal attack. Specific strategies for your defense includ

A Dictionary of Modern English Usage

Henry Watson Fowler · 742 pages

Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language

Douglas R. Hofstadter · 632 pages

Not Merely a set of translations of one poem, Le Ton beau de Marot is an autobiographical essay, a love letter to the French language, a series of musings on life, loss, and death, a sweet bouquet of stirring poetry - but most of all, it celebrates the limitless creativity fired by a passion for the music of words. Dozens of literary themes and creations are woven into the picture, including Push

The Story of French

Jean-Benoit Nadeau, Julie Barlow · 496 pages

Experiences in translation

Umberto Eco · 135 pages

"Translation is not about comparing two languages, Umberto Eco argues, but about the interpretation of a text in two different languages.". "In this book he draws on his substantial practical experience to identify and discuss some central problems of translation. As he demonstrates, a translation can express an evident deep sense of a text even when violating both lexical and referential faithfu

On Language

Noam Chomsky, Mitsou Ronat · 269 pages

In Part I, Language and Responsibility, Chomsky presents a fascinating self-portrait of his political, moral, and linguistic thinking. In Part II, Reflections on Language, Chomsky explores the more general implications of the study of language and offers incisive analyses of the controversies among psychologists, philosophers, and linguists over fundamental questions of language.

An Exaltation of Larks: The Ultimate Edition, More than 1,000 Terms

James Lipton · 230 pages

A collection of "terms of venery," collective nouns. The origin of some of the terms is explained, and more than 250 of the terms are illustrated with engravings by Dürer and Grandville and others.

The Grammar Devotional: Daily Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl

Mignon Fogarty · 233 pages

English as She Is Spoke: Being a Comprehensive Phrasebook of the English Language, Written by Men to Whom English was Entirely Unknown

Pedro Carolino, Jose da Fonseca · 107 pages

Other-Wordly: Words Both Strange and Lovely from Around the World

Yee-Lum Mak · 53 pages

Of Grammatology

Jacques Derrida · 354 pages

Jacques Derrida's revolutionary theories about deconstruction, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and structuralism, first voiced in the 1960s, forever changed the face of European and American criticism. The ideas in De la grammatologie sparked lively debates in intellectual circles that included students of literature, philosophy, and the humanities, inspiring these students to ask questions of thei

The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary

Simon Winchester · 286 pages

Traces the history of the Oxford English Dictionary from its earliest inception through its long path to completion, describes the process of creating a dictionary, and includes anecdotes about its creators and their work.

How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One

Stanley Fish · 165 pages

Some appreciate fine art; others appreciate fine wines. Stanley Fish appreciates fine sentences. The New York Times columnist and world-class professor has long been an aficionado of language: "I am always on the lookout for sentences that take your breath away, for sentences that make you say, 'Isn't that something?' or 'What a sentence!'" Like a seasoned sportscaster, Fish marvels at the adeptne

The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code

Margalit Fox · 363 pages

In the tradition of Simon Winchester and Dava Sobel, *The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code* tells one of the most intriguing stories in the history of language, masterfully blending history, linguistics, and cryptology with an elegantly wrought narrative. When famed archaeologist Arthur Evans unearthed the ruins of a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that flowered on

Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, And Language

Deborah Fallows · 205 pages

Fallows unravels Chinese culture by explaining the intricacies and subtleties of Mandarin, devoting each chapter to a particular linguistic quirk.

Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing

Melissa Mohr · 336 pages

"Holy Sh*t tells the story of two kinds of swearing--obscenities and oaths--from ancient Rome and the Bible to today. With humor and insight, Melissa Mohr takes readers on a journey to discover how "swearing" has come to include both testifying with your hand on the Bible and calling someone a *#$&!* when they cut you off on the highway. She explores obscenities in ancient Rome--which were remarka

Wheelock's Latin

Frederic M. Wheelock · 511 pages

The classic beginning Latin texbook offers forty chapters with grammatical explanations and readings based on ancient Roman authors, along with self-tutorial exercises and an answer key for independent study.