David Crystal answers fifty questions about language usage, from general enquiries to specific points of grammar, pronunciation, orthography, vocabulary, idiom, and style....

It\"s not what you say, it\"s the way that you say it... There have long been debates about \\\"correct\\\" pronunciation in the English language, and Britain\"s most distinguished linguistic expert, David Crystal, is here to set the......

It\"s not what you say, it\"s the way that you say it... So is it demonstrate or demonstrate? Advertise or advertise? Controversy or controversy? There have long been debates about pronunciation, and Britain\"s best-loved linguistic......

In this discursive jaunt through the groves and thickets of the English language, David Crystal creates a mesmerizing and entertaining narrative account of his encounters with the language and its speakers. Woven from personal reflections, historical......

The Oxford Illustrated Shakespeare Dictionary is the first of its kind, a brand new illustrated alphabetical dictionary of all the words and meanings students of Shakespeare need to know. Every word has an example sentence selected from the twelve......

The rapid endangerment and death of many minority languages across the world is a matter of widespread concern, not only among linguists and anthropologists but among all concerned with issues of cultural identity in an increasingly globalized......

Wherever you go in the English-speaking world, there are linguistic riches from times past awaiting rediscovery. All you have to do is choose a location, find some old documents, and dig a little. Here, linguistics expert Professor David Crystal......

So how can we better understand Shakespeare? David Crystal provides a lively and original introduction to Shakespeare\"s language, making his plays easily accessible to modern-day audiences....

What precisely are structuralism, semiotics and sociolinguistics? What distinguishes pidgins from Creoles, gerunds from gerundives and the hard palate from the soft palate? How many people speak Macedonian, Malay or Makua?...

Some people say \"sconn\", while others say \"scohn\". He say \"bath\", while she says \"bahth\". You say \"potayto\". I say \"potahto\". And - wait a second, no one says \"potahto\". No one\'s ever said \"potahto\". Have they?...

Why is there an \"h\" in ghost? William Caxton, inventor of the printing press and his Flemish employees are to blame: without a dictionary or style guide to hand in fifteenth century Bruges, the typesetters simply spelled it the way it......

Featuring Latinate and Celtic words, weasel words and nonce-words, ancient word (loaf) to advanced (twittersphere) and spanning the indispensable words that shape our tongue (and, what) to the more fanciful (fopdoodle), the author takes us along the......

Learning to talk is probably the greatest milestone in a child"s development, a deeply moving and often hilarious experience for all parents. It is also a process which has been intensively studied by psychologists and linguists. This book shows us what they have discovered....

What do the following have in common? Let there be light - A fly in the ointment - A rod of iron - New wine in old bottles Lick the dust - How are the mighty fallen - Kick against the pricks - Wheels within wheels They are all in the King James Bible.......

This is a book about how language works, not about how the study of language works. Each chapter is designed as a self-contained unit, and there are many cross-references to associated chapters. This is the book\'s distinctive feature. Though......