Language Linguistics

Words on the Move opens our eyes to the surprising backstories to the words and expressions we use every day. Did you know that silly once meant "blessed"? Or that ought was the original past tense of owe? Or that the suffix -ly in adverbs is actually a remnant of the word like? And have you ever wondered why some people from New Orleans sound as if they come from Brooklyn?

In The Sense of Style, the best-selling linguist and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker answers these questions and more. Rethinking the usage guide for the 21st century, Pinker doesn’t carp about the decline of language or recycle pet peeves from the rulebooks of a century ago. Instead, he applies insights from the sciences of language and mind to the challenge of crafting clear, coherent, and stylish prose.

An insider’s tour through the construction of invented languages from the bestselling author and creator of languages for Legendary's Dune, the HBO series Game of Thrones and the Syfy series Defiance.

In the comic annals of linguistic history, legions of rebel wordsmiths have died on the hill of spelling reform, risking their reputations to bring English into the realm of the rational. This book is about them: Mark Twain, Ben Franklin, Eliza Burnz, C. S. Lewis, George Bernard Shaw, Charles Darwin, and the innumerable others on both sides of the Atlantic who, for a time in their life, became fanatically occupied with writing thru instead of through, tho for though, laf for laugh, beleev for believe, and dawter for daughter (and tried futilely to get everyone around them to do it too).

This is the remarkable story of the English language; from its beginnings as a minor guttural Germanic dialect to its position today as a truly established global language. The Adventure of English is not only an enthralling story of power, religion, and trade, but also the story of people, and how their lives continue to change the extraordinary language that is English.

Imagina que cuentas con la capacidad de dirigir o cambiar los pensamientos de las personas. ¿Puedes sentir el poder que esto te daría? ¿Te gustaría tener este poder y lograr todos tus objetivos? Si quieres que tus colegas, jefes, pareja, hijos, clientes potenciales o que cualquier persona diga “sí” a lo que quieres, solo te diré tres palabras: ¡Oiga este audiolibro!

Because Internet is for anyone who's ever puzzled over how to punctuate a text message or wondered where memes come from. It's the perfect book for understanding how the internet is changing the English language, why that's a good thing, and what our online interactions reveal about who we are.

As part of the Seduction Enigma Dating Psychology series, human behavior expert and renowned pickup artist Seventy Seven reveals the lie detection secrets of the FBI and behavioral analysis unit. Using these little known skills, you too can become a master of unlocking the truth behind another person's story.

Are you struggling to find the light at the end of the tunnel? Are you even aware that you can actually turn whatever negative thought you have in your mind into a positive one instead? And better yet, kill any bad thought that crosses your mind? No matter what your thoughts are there is a way to change those thoughts for the better. NLP explores the relationships between how we think, how we communicate, and our patterns of behavior and emotions. The idea is that, by studying NLP people can adopt more successful ways of thinking, communicating, feeling, and behaving.

In The Stuff of Thought, Steven Pinker marries two of the subjects he knows best: language and human nature. The result is a fascinating look at how our words explain our nature. What does swearing reveal about our emotions? Why does innuendo disclose something about relationships? Pinker reveals how our use of prepositions and tenses taps into peculiarly human concepts of space and time, and how our nouns and verbs speak to our notions of matter.

What is language? Why do we have it? Where does it come from? Why does that matter? Upending centuries of scholarship (including, most recently, Chomsky and Pinker) The Language Game shows how people learn to talk not by acquiring fixed meanings and rules, but by picking up, reusing and recombining countless linguistic fragments in novel ways.

Containing a fascinating exploration of the depths of the human mind, this insightful book takes listeners on a deep dive to discover the hidden parts of the psyche. Covering the subtle world of body language and non-verbal communication, along with the lesser-known secrets of human behavior, you’ll discover how you can draw on a rich collection of insights to protect yourself from manipulators and abusers.

According to Merriam and Simpson, case study as a scientific research method is a recent phenomenon. Yet, stories have been around for as long as people sat around a camp-fire. This book analyzes all the various forms of story and makes a case for case study as an essential research methodology. Stories, folk lore, myth, fables, legends, tools of leadership, and cultural communications are all expressed through simple story telling. Stories become histories. Story-telling developed into qualitative research methodology.

Peering through the peephole of Spanish, because it’s my familiar tongue, I try to unpack the mysteries of how the Portuguese language works—and why. But my Spanish also causes obstacles, hurdles, and stumbling blocks. People constantly remind me that I’m thinking – and talking – in Spanish.

Speed-read people, decipher body language, detect deception, and get to the truth. We live in a world where dishonesty and lies are seemingly everywhere. From fake news and problematic media outlets to corrupt management in our workplaces and selfish friends, there’s no doubt that as you grow older, you become more cynical and more distrusting of the world and the people in it. What if there was a way to spot the lies and take yourself closer to the truth? Well, there is, and it’s all detailed in this very audiobook.

First published in 2000, Words and Rules remains one of Pinker's most provocative and accessible books, illuminating the fascinating relationship between the brain, the mind, and how language makes us humans.

Nearly everyone swears - whether it's over a few too many drinks, in reaction to a stubbed toe, or in flagrante delicto. And yet we sit idly by as words are banned from television and censored in books. We insist that people excise profanity from their vocabularies, and we punish children for yelling the very same dirty words that we'll mutter in relief seconds after they fall asleep. Swearing, it seems, is an intimate part of us that we have decided to selectively deny.

More than a quarter of a century ago, Leo Rosten presented the first comprehensive and hilariously entertaining lexicon of the colorful and deeply expressive language of Yiddish. Said to "give body and soul to the Yiddish language," The Joys of Yiddish went on to become an indispensable tool for writers, journalists, politicians and students, as well as a perennial best seller for three decades.

All languages are beautiful for those that speak them and those that don’t understand, it's just like listening to another pair of gibberish parrots, there is no single person who can speak all the languages. That if it was possible would drive any human mad if they make it halfway, or even a quarter, the diversity of languages is what makes our world more exciting and more beautiful, it gives each person a sense of identity and a group to belong to, it gives each individual a unique view of life, when a village chief is asked by an explorer, "which language do you speak sire?" In reply ...

For high-beginner to low-intermediate learners. Master Spanish object pronouns (such as me, te, lo, la, nos, os, etc.) in the next 30 days, with this innovative, story-based immersion method. Just listen to one section per day, complete the exercises and watch as one of the trickiest parts of becoming fluent in Spanish falls into place and improves your speech without a hitch! With 30-Day Mastery: Perfect Object Pronouns you'll learn through example and context, just like native speakers do!