Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course

English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course

by Peter Roach

This is a complete basic course in English phonetics and phonology. Since its publication it has established itself as the most practical and comprehensive text in the field. It is used by both native and non-native speakers, who may be training to teach English or studying the language at an advanced level. The new edition takes into account recent developments on the teaching of phonology, and a number of... (more)

An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (Textbooks in Linguistics )

An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (Textbooks in Linguistics )

by Ronald Wardhaugh

Since it first appeared more than fifteen years ago, Ronald Wardhaugh's An Introduction to Sociolinguistics has been an immensely popular textbook for courses in sociolinguistics and the sociology of language. Provides an accessible, comprehensive introduction to sociolinguistics that reflects new developments in the field Features revisions and updates throughout the text, further reading sections,... (more)

The Argument Culture: Stopping America's War of Words

The Argument Culture: Stopping America's War of Words

by Deborah Tannen

THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS LINGUIST OFFERS A COMPLETELY ORIGINAL ANALYSIS OF THE WAY WE COMMUNICATE--AND A REVOLUTIONARY LANGUAGE TO LIVE BY! In her #1 bestseller You Just Don't Understand, Deborah Tannen showed why talking to someone of the opposite sex can be like talking to someone from another world. Now Tannen is back with another groundbreaking book, this time widening her lens to examine the way we... (more)

Writing Systems of the World: Alphabets, Syllabaries, Pictograms

Writing Systems of the World: Alphabets, Syllabaries, Pictograms

by Akira Nakanishi

Text: English, Japanese (translation)

The Archaeology of Knowledge & The Discourse on Language

The Archaeology of Knowledge & The Discourse on Language

by Michel Foucault

"Next to Sartre's Search for a Method and in direct opposition to it, Foucault's work is the most noteworthy effort at a theory of history in the last 50 years." -- Library Journal

You're Wearing That?: Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation

You're Wearing That?: Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation

by Deborah Tannen

Deborah Tannen's #1 New York Times bestseller You Just Don’t Understand revolutionized communication between women and men. Now, in her most provocative and engaging book to date, she takes on what is potentially the most fraught and passionate connection of women’s lives: the mother-daughter relationship. It was Tannen who first showed us that men and women speak different languages. Mothers and daughters speak... (more)

Aspects of the Theory of Syntax

by Noam Chomsky

Beginning in the mid-fifties and emanating largely form MIT, and approach was developed to linguistic theory and to the study of the structure of particular languages that diverges in many respects from modern linguistics. Although this approach is connected to the traditional study of languages, it differs enough in its specific conclusions about the structure and in its specific conclusions about the structure... (more)

The Oxford Companion to the English Language (Oxford Companion to English Literature)

The Oxford Companion to the English Language (Oxford Companion to English Literature)

Language is the life blood of a culture, and to be interested in culture is in some sense to be interested in language, in the shapes and sounds of words, in the history of reading, writing, and speech, in the endless variety of dialects and slangs, in the incessant creativity of the human mind as it reaches out to others. It is surprising then that until now there has been no major one-volume reference devoted to... (more)

Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs

Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs

by James P. Allen

This is an introduction to the writing system of ancient Egypt and the language of hieroglyphic texts. It contains twenty-six lessons, exercises (with answers), a list of hieroglyphic signs, and a dictionary, as well as twenty-five essays on the most important aspects of ancient Egyptian history, society, religion and literature. It also offers scholars of linguistics a complete grammatical description of the... (more)

The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language

The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Other Irreverent Essays on the Study of Language

by Geoffrey K. Pullum

How reliable are all those stories about the number of Eskimo words for snow? How can lamps, flags, and parrots be libelous? These and many other odd questions are typical topics in this collection of essays that present and occasionally zany, often wry, but always fascinating look at language and the people who study it.

The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated

The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated

by Lawrence Bush, Leo Calvin Rosten

Enjoy the most comprehensive and hilariously entertaining lexicon of the colorful and deeply expressive language of Yiddish. With the recent renaissance of interest in Yiddish, and in keeping with a language that embodies the variety and vibrancy of life itself, The New Joys of Yiddish brings Leo Rosten’s masterful work up to date. Revised for the first time by Lawrence Bush, in close consultation with Rosten’s... (more)

On Nature and Language

by Noam Chomsky

In On Nature and Language Noam Chomsky develops his thinking on the relation between language, mind, and brain, integrating current research in linguistics into the burgeoning field of neuroscience. Following a lucid introduction is a penetrating interview with Chomsky, in which he provides the clearest and most elegant introduction to current theory available. It makes his Minimalist Program accessible to all.... (more)

Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures (Current Studies in Linguistics)

Language and Problems of Knowledge: The Managua Lectures (Current Studies in Linguistics)

by Noam Chomsky

Language and Problems of Knowledge is Noam Chomsky's most accessible statement on the nature, origins, and current concerns of the field of linguistics. He frames the lectures with four fundamental questions: What do we know when we are able to speak and understand a language? How is this knowledge acquired? How do we use this knowledge? What are the physical mechanisms involved in the representation,... (more)

Just a Couple of Days

by Tony Vigorito

You are invited to the party at the end of time... An ambitious and exuberant antidote to the end-of-the-world blues, Just a Couple of Days has established itself as the underground classic of this generation. Hilarious, poignant, and delightfully subversive, this visionary satire of the apocalypse has been called "a Dr. Strangelove for the biotech century." If words could dance, this is the story they... (more)

Mathematical Methods in Linguistics, Corrected second printing of the first edition (Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy)

Mathematical Methods in Linguistics, Corrected second printing of the first edition (Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy)

by Barbara Hall Partee

Elementary set theory accustoms the students to mathematical abstraction, includes the standard constructions of relations, functions, and orderings, and leads to a discussion of the various orders of infinity. The material on logic covers not only the standard statement logic and first-order predicate logic but includes an introduction to formal systems, axiomatization, and model theory. The section on algebra is... (more)

Language, Culture, and Communication: The Meaning of Messages (4th Edition)

Language, Culture, and Communication: The Meaning of Messages (4th Edition)

by Nancy Bonvillain

Using data from cultures and languages throughout the world to highlight both similarities and differences in human languages—this book explores the many interconnections among language, culture, and communicative meaning. It examines the multi-faceted meanings and uses of language and emphasizes the ways that language encapsulates speakers' meanings and intentions. Includes new section on Narratives (Ch. 4)... (more)

The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar

The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar

by Mark C. Baker

This skillfully crafted work...combines acute theoretical insight, deep understanding of a wide variety of typologically different languages, and impressive lucidity. It is a wonderful and valuable achievement."--Noam Chomsky. Whether all human languages are fundamentally the same or different has been a subject of debate for ages. This problem has deep philosophical implications: If languages are all the same,... (more)

How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-Step Guide to Teach Yourself, Revised Edition

How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-Step Guide to Teach Yourself, Revised Edition

by Mark Collier

Hieroglyphs are pictures used as signs in writing. When standing before an ancient tablet in a museum or visiting an Egyptian monument, we marvel at this unique writing and puzzle over its meaning. Now, with the help of Egyptologists Mark Collier and Bill Manley, museum-goers, tourists, and armchair travelers alike can gain a basic knowledge of the language and culture of ancient Egypt. Collier and Manley's novel... (more)

Grammatical Man: Information, Entropy, Language and LifeJeremy Campbell

Grammatical Man: Information, Entropy, Language and Life

by Jeremy Campbell

The Sparrow

by Mary Doria Russell

ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR "A NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENT . . . Russell shows herself to be a skillful storyteller who subtly and expertly builds suspense." --USA Today "AN EXPERIENCE NOT TO BE MISSED . . . If you have to send a group of people to a newly discovered planet to contact a totally unknown species, whom would you choose? How about four Jesuit priests, a young astronomer, a... (more)

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by Peter Roach

by Ronald Wardhaugh

by Deborah Tannen

by Akira Nakanishi

by Michel Foucault

by Deborah Tannen

by Noam Chomsky

by James P. Allen

by Geoffrey K. Pullum

by Lawrence Bush, Leo Calvin Rosten

by Noam Chomsky

by Noam Chomsky

by Tony Vigorito

by Barbara Hall Partee

by Nancy Bonvillain

by Mark C. Baker

by Mark Collier

by Jeremy Campbell

by Mary Doria Russell