eBOOK
At a Glance
eBook
$13.99
Instant Digital Delivery to your Booktopia Reader App
Read on
Master verbalist Richard Lederer, America's "Wizard of Idiom" (Denver Post), presents a love letter to the most glorious of human achievements...
Welcome to Richard Lederer's beguiling celebration of language -- of our ability to utter, write, and receive words. No purists need stop here. Mr. Lederer is no linguistic sheriff organizing posses to hunt down and string up language offenders. Instead, join him "In Praise of English," and discover why the tongue described in Shakespeare's day as "of small reatch" has become the most widely spoken language in history:
-
English never rejects a word because of race, creed, or national origin. Did you know that jukebox comes from Gullah and canoe from Haitian Creole?
-
Many of our greatest writers have invented words and bequeathed new expressions to our eveyday conversations. Can you imagine making up almost ten percent of our written vocabulary? Scholars now know that William Shakespeare did just that!
He also points out the pitfalls and pratfalls of English. If a man mans a station, what does a woman do? In the "The Department of Redundancy Department," "Is English Prejudiced?" and other essays, Richard Lederer urges us not to abandon that which makes us human: the capacity to distinguish, discriminate, compare, and evaluate.
Industry Reviews
Read on
ISBN: 9781439139400
ISBN-10: 1439139407
Published: 11th May 2010
Format: ePUB
Language: English
Number of Pages: 256
Audience: General Adult
Publisher: Pocket Books
You Can Find This eBook In
This product is categorised by
- Non-FictionLanguage & LinguisticsReference, Dictionaries & Guides
- Non-FictionLanguage & LinguisticsLinguisticsHistorical & Comparative Linguistics
- Non-FictionLanguage & LinguisticsLanguage Learning & TeachingSpecific Skills of Learning LanguageSpeaking & Pronounciation Skills
- Non-FictionLanguage & LinguisticsLinguistics