Summary: Taught by acclaimed linguist, author, and Professor John McWhorter of Columbia University, Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths of Language Usage dispels the cloud of confusion that clings to English, giving you a crystal-clear view of why we use it the way we do and where it fits into the diverse languages of the world. After completing these 24 lectures, you will think about how you use English in a...
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: Teaching Company 2012
Copies Available at Kingsley
2 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 420.9 McWCall number: DVD 420.9 McW
Richards, Mary Agnes
Summary: "A History of Words for Children explores the uniquely human ability to share thoughts using words. Written in a lively narrative style, this book presents a history of the world through language, introducing young readers to the civilizations, inventions, and writers who have shaped the way we communicate. Divided into themed chapters to help young minds grasp difficult concepts, the book...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Thames & Hudson Inc. 2022
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Juvenile Nonfiction, Call number: J 417.7 RICDickson, Paul.
Summary: "William Shakespeare's written vocabulary consisted of 17,245 words, including hundreds that were coined or popularized by him. Some of the words never went further than their appearance in his plays, but others--like bedazzled, hurry, critical, and anchovy--are essential parts of our standard vocabulary today. Many other famous and lesser-known writers have contributed to the popular lexicon....
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: St Martins Pr 2014
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 801.3 DICEverett, Caleb
Summary: "A guide to how languages around the world differ from one another far more than we realize and point to fundamental differences in how people conceive of everything from time to color to smell"--
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Harvard University Press 2023
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 306.44 EVESummary: An animated documentary on the life of controversial MIT professor, philosopher, linguist, anti-war activist and political firebrand Noam Chomsky. Through complex, lively conversations with Chomsky and brilliant illustrations by Gondry himself, the film reveals the life and work of the father of modern linguistics while also exploring his theories on the emergence of language.
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: MPI Media Group 2014
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC ISMoore, Christopher J.
Summary: " The quintessential A to Z guide to British English-perfect for every egghead and bluestocking looking to conquer the language barrier Oscar Wilde once said the Brits have "everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language." Any visitor to Old Blighty can sympathize with Mr. Wilde. After all, even fluent English speakers can be at sixes and sevens when told to pick up...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Gotham 2014
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 427 MOOShea, Ammon
Summary: "The author of Reading the OED presents an eye-opening look at language "mistakes" and how they came to be accepted as correct-or not. English is a glorious mess of a language, cobbled together from a wide variety of sources and syntaxes, and changing over time with popular usage. Many of the words and usages we embrace as standard and correct today were at first considered slang, impolite, or...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: 2014
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 428 SHEMcWhorter, John H.
Summary: "With more than 6,000 languages spoken around the world, it's no wonder that linguistics, the study of language, has a reputation for being complex and inaccessible. But here's a secret: There's a lot that's quirky and intriguing about how human language works--and much of it is downright fun to learn about. Every day, linguists ponder and try to solve some of the most intriguing scientific,...
Format: sound recording-nonmusical
Publisher / Publication Date: 2013
Copies Available at Woodmere
2 available in Compact Disc Audio Book, Call number: 410 MCWCall number: CD 410 MCW
Summary: Presents lectures (each 30 minutes in length) by John McWhorter, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, based on his courses in Linguistics.
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: Teaching Co. 2008
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 410 UNDSanders, Ella Frances.
Summary: "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...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Ten Speed Press 2014
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 410 SANSands, Stella
Summary: "Utterly original and compulsively readable, a detective story about a woman who uses her uncanny ability to analyze words and speech patterns to help solve crimes. Maggie Moore-tattooed, pierced, and a bit of a mess-is a word genius, able to solve any linguistic puzzle. When she's talent-scouted from the top of her forensic linguistics class and asked to analyze harrowing notes left by a...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Harper Paperbacks 2024
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in New Fiction, Call number: FIC SANSummary: This course introduces the student to the history of the English language, from its origins as a dialect of the Germanic-speaking peoples, through the literary and cultural documents of its 1500 year span, to the state of American speech of the present day.
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: Teaching Co. 2008
Copies Available at Woodmere
2 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 420.9 HISCall number: DVD 420.9 HIS
Deutscher, Guy
Summary: A masterpiece of linguistics scholarship, at once erudite and entertaining, confronts the thorny question of how--and whether--culture shapes language and language, culture.
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Metropolitan Books / Henry Holt and Co. 2010
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 410 DEULerer, Seth
Summary: Presents lectures on the history of the English language.
Format: sound recording-nonmusical
Publisher / Publication Date: Teaching Co. 1998
Copies Available at Woodmere
2 available in Compact Disc Audio Book, Call number: CD 420 LER PART ICall number: CD 420 LER PART III
Getty, Stuart
Summary: "Ever wonder what "nonbinary" or "gender nonconforming" really means? Why would someone choose to identify that way? And how the heck do you use "they/them" pronouns for a singular person - isn't it supposed to be plural? This charming and disarming guide promises to unpack all these questions and more, with a fun, visual infographic approach"--
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Sasquatch Books 2020
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 425 GETSummary: In late-medieval England, English quietly ousted French in law and government- but the move to make it God's language meant bloodshed. This program looks at the battle for a Bible in English, a struggle with huge impact on the language itself. Dramatic readings from successive English Bibles show the language's evolution. Location footage and original manuscripts illustrate key figures and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Melvyn Bragg begins the story of English in Holland, finding ancestral echoes in the Frisian dialect. What follows is a chapter on survival as the English language weathers Viking and Norman invasions, vying with and eventually absorbing rival tongues. Lively settings such as village pubs and markets bring home the lasting influence of Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse, and Old French. The connection...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Whether it's English, Spanish, Chinese, or Urdu, babies and young children are able to pick up their native language with remarkable ease; no one language seems any more difficult than any other. Yet few children who are taught a language in school have anything to show for it when they grow up. Why is learning a second or third language so difficult? Are the teaching methods at fault? Enough...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, Robert MacNeil canvasses the North to learn firsthand about linguistic dialect zones, the tension between prescriptivism and descriptivism, the impact of dialect on grapholect, the northern cities vowel shift, the roots of African-American English, minority dialects and linguistic profiling, biases against nonstandard speech, and the general perception of the U.S. Midland...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: What precisely is language, and how did humans acquire it? In an effort to answer those essential questions, this program journeys back to prehistoric times in search of language's origin. But this is not a passive discussion, as Noam Chomsky; Brown University's Philip Lieberman; Johanna Nichols, of U.C. Berkeley; Stanford University's Merritt Ruhlen; professor of anthropology Richard Klein;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program explores how America's rise as an economic power made it the driving force behind the spread of English in the 20th century. A world tour illustrates how English has mixed with other languages-from "Franglais" in France to "Singlish" in Singapore-and how the dollar's power, coupled with the lure of consumerism, has made English the international trade language. Bringing it full...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Both westward expansion and 19th-century immigration affected the development of a uniquely American English. This classic PBS program tells the story of that burgeoning dialect, from the Revolutionary War to the 1920s. Beginning with the Declaration of Independence, the program depicts the determination of American radicals-dictionary author Noah Webster among them-to achieve linguistic as...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Beaver, David I.
Summary: "In much of the theory of meaning, philosophers and linguists have focused on the use of language in conveying information in cooperative informational exchanges. As a result, political uses of speech, of the sort that political propaganda exemplifies, have not been taken to be a central case of language use. In this book, Jason Stanley and David Beaver focus on the political use of speech as a...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Princeton University Press 2023
Sorry, no copies available
Place a hold to request this item.Miura, Shion
Summary: "After shoplifting some bread one chilly night, former high school track-and-field star kakeru Kurahara runs through the city streets. Though he has grown disillusioned with the sport, he feels as if he could keep running forever. However, his reverie is broken by a mysterious boy on a bike: Haiji Kiyose, a fellow runner who also happens to attend Kakeru's univeristy. impressed by Kakeru's...
Format: text
Publisher / Publication Date: Harpervia, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers