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

Yee-Lum Mak · back to the book

What’s in it

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24 books with the same feel

Include books by the same author
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Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World

Ella Frances Sanders · 112 pages

"An artistic collection of 50 drawings featuring unique, funny, and poignant foreign words that have no direct translation into English. Did you know that the Japanese have a word to express the way sunlight filters through the leaves of trees? Or that there's a Swedish word to describe the reflection of the moon across the water? The nuanced beauty of language is even more interesting and relevan

Language and LinguisticsNonfictionWhimsicalIllustrated Book
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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.

Language and LinguisticsNonfictionIllustrated Book
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Language and LinguisticsNonfictionWhimsical
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Speaking American: How Y'all, Youse, and You Guys Talk: A Visual Guide

Josh Katz · 203 pages

"From the creator of the New York Times dialect quiz that ignited conversations about how and why we say the words we say, a stunning and delightful exploration of American language"--Amazon.com.

Language and LinguisticsNonfictionIllustrated Book
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Introducing Semiotics

Paul Cobley · 176 pages

Language and LinguisticsNonfictionIllustrated Book
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Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!

Lynne Truss

"Punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, or stop. Of all the punctuation marks, the comma is the most used and misused. Commas can create havoc when they are left out or are put in the wrong spot, and the results of misuse can be hilarious. This little dot with a tail has the power to change the meaning of a sentence by connecti

Language and LinguisticsNonfictionIllustrated Book
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The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus

Jennifer Fisher Bryant

"Words, Peter learned, were powerful things. And when he put them in long, neat rows, he felt as if the world itself clicked into order." For shy young Peter Mark Roget, books were the best companions — and it wasn't long before Peter began writing his own book. But he didn't write stories; he wrote lists. Peter took his love for words and used it to organize his ideas and find exactly the righ

Language and LinguisticsNonfictionIllustrated Book
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A Dictionary of Modern English Usage

Henry Watson Fowler · 742 pages

Language and LinguisticsNonfiction
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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.

Language and LinguisticsNonfiction
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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

Language and LinguisticsNonfiction
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The Story of French

Jean-Benoit Nadeau, Julie Barlow · 496 pages

Language and LinguisticsNonfiction
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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

Language and LinguisticsNonfiction
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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.

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

James Geary · 296 pages

Geary's adept explication of the metaphor's role in defining perceptions analyzes how metaphors are used in advertising, scientific discoveries, economics, and politics, as well as how metaphors play in conceptual comprehension and long-term memory.

Language and LinguisticsNonfiction
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Language and LinguisticsNonfiction
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You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation

Deborah Tannen · 330 pages

Just sit down and read it. Yes, you will want to throw it. You will want to forget it, but that is not possible. It will cross your mind and impact you when you would otherwise just get frustrated. There is one major error, when you read it and reflect on it, forget the gender comments, they are a distraction. Gender is not the answer, see the later book, "That's Not What I Ment" for more unde

Language and LinguisticsNonfiction
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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

Language and LinguisticsNonfiction
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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.

Language and LinguisticsNonfiction
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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

Language and LinguisticsNonfiction
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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

Language and LinguisticsNonfiction
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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.

Language and LinguisticsNonfiction
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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

Language and LinguisticsNonfiction
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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.

Language and LinguisticsNonfiction

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