Social Linguistics

The Language Puzzle explains how the invention of words at 1.6 million years ago began the evolution of human language from the ape-like calls of our earliest ancestors to our capabilities of today, with over 6000 languages in the world and each of us knowing over 50,000 words. Drawing on the latest discoveries in archaeology, linguistics, psychology, and genetics, Steven Mithen reconstructs the steps by which language evolved; he explains how it transformed the nature of thought and culture, and how we talked our way out of the Stone Age into the world of farming and into today's Digital Age.

The Wood Beyond the World transports its hero, Walter the Golden, from the English village of Langton-on-Holm across the seas to a magical kingdom in a forest beyond the known world, ruled by the Mistress, an extraordinarly beautiful, complex, and sinister woman. There he meets the Maid, a woman captured, enslaved, and tortured by the Mistress, who has magical powers of her own.

Charles Dickens' classic novel of mystery, read by Alex Jennings. A body is found in the River Thames and is identified as John Harmon. He was due to inherit a great fortune on the condition that he marry a young woman called Bella Wilfer. And so the story begins and unravels and we are introduced to the mysterious John Rokesmith, Our Mutual Friend.

What does "say it straight or you'll show it crooked" mean? In essence, it means that if I have a strong feeling or a desire, and I don't do something effective about it, I will end up, internally or externally, somehow demonstrating that feeling or desire in an ineffective manner. Unexpressed negative feelings and unfulfilled desires get acted out in ways that are inappropriate if we don't express or act on them in ways that are appropriate.

Alexandra Bergsons, the daughter of Swedish immigrants, inherits her family's ailing farm in Hanover, Nebraska upon the death of her father. Over the years, she turns the farm into a successful enterprise. However, success has not brought peace, as passion and love intervene.

After two hellish years on the rim of the Arctic, Philip Weyman stumbles back toward civilization, half-starved and half-crazy. He stumbles onto Josephine Adare, a beautiful woman living alone in the wilderness. She asks for his help, “I need you to pose as my husband to help me save my home from a band of outlaws and cutthroats.” She persuades him to stay and fight for her. But he has no idea he will be joining a battle with the silent strength of the Cree Nation as his ally. Nor does he realize, the final battle will require every ounce of his strength and will...

A fanciful tale by Andre Norton of a woman, her cat, and a down on his luck space traveler. Many had tried to rescue the treasure aboard a derelict floating in space, but few returned, and those that did weren't about to talk about it. Bat the cat can see things that humans can't, and he sees the unseen aboard the mystery ship. Travel along as Mike Vendetti takes us into the past, the 1950s, and visit their view of the future.

Born in England in 1869, Stephen Leacock would immigrate to Canada and become a teacher, political scientist, and writer. He would ultimately come to be best known and loved as a humourist. Literary Lapses was first published as a collection of sketches in 1910, although many of the individual stories were first printed in various newspapers and periodicals, such as Punch, New York Life, and the Detroit Free Press.

This story is from The Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (His Last Bow) collection. Further adventures by the master of observation and deduction, as faithfully recounted by his companion and greatest admirer, Dr. Watson. "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans," "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax", and "The Adventure of the Dying Detective" are among the stories. David Timson's award-winning performances continue with this series.

This is the handwritten book that Carroll wrote for private use before being urged to develop it later into Alice in Wonderland. It was meant to entertain his family and friends. When a sick child in a hospital enjoyed it so much, the mother wrote him saying it had distracted her for a bit from her pain and led eventually to Carroll expanding the story.

Outside the ruins of San Francisco, a former UC Berkeley professor of literature recounts the chilling sequence of events which led to his current lowly state - a gruesome pandemic which killed nearly every living soul on the planet, in a matter of days. Modern civilization tottered and fell, and a new race of barbarians - the western world's brutalized workers - assumed power everywhere. Over the space of a few decades, all learning has been lost.

This book is a collection of stories revolving around language by a seasoned conference interpreter and former chief interpreter in the United Nations system. Ewandro Magalhaes shares actionable career insights and offers an insider’s look into practical and historical aspects of one of the most exciting and stressful professions known to man.

Bad English is sure to enlighten, enrage, and perhaps even inspire. Filled with historic and contemporary examples, the audiobook chronicles the long and entertaining history of language mistakes, and features some of our most common words and phrases, including decimate, hopefully, enormity, that vs. which, enervate vs. energize, bemuse vs. amuse, literally vs. figuratively, ain't, irregardless, socialist, OMG, and stupider.

Inside a quiet boarding house on the waterfront, a man stares up to the ceiling with sightless eyes. The tight lipped landlady proclaims that it is murder. Can an upscale detective agency penetrate to the bottom of the mystery?

On Heroes, Hero Worship, and The Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle, is a collection of six lectures given in May 1840 about prominent historical figures. It sets out Carlyle's belief in the importance of heroic leadership, his view of how the world would be if powerful and inspired men were to have the power he thought they deserved. The collection includes figures ranging from religion to literature and politics, and the figures chosen were presented by Carlyle as archetypal examples of individuals who had dramatically impacted history for good or ill.

Considered Machen’s most important and moving work, The Hill of Dreams tells the story of aspiring author Lucian Taylor and his fascination with a relic Roman fort near his hometown in Wales. The story follows Taylor’s real-life explorations, through dream-like memories, and finally obsession and fantasy that will lead to Taylor’s ultimate doom. Arthur Machen was a major influence on many early-20th Century fantasy and horror writers, including H. P. Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, and David Lindsay.

The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists chronicles the tale of Frank Owen, a traveling socialist visionary making his way from town to town in the name of the socialist revolution. When spring arrives, Frank Owen decides to settle in the quiet town of Mugsborough, and joins a group of workmen who are painting the home of a wealthy neighborhood resident. Owen is quickly befriended by two fellow workmen: Bodgit and Scarpy. Scarpy is thin and nearly emaciated. When the men break for lunch Scarpy never has much to eat; only a bit of bread, or a biscuit and tea.

In a sweeping synthesis of new research in a number of different disciplines, this book argues that we humans are not who we think we are. As he explores the interconnections between cutting-edge work in bioanthropology, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, human language and learning, and beyond, James Paul Gee advances, also, a personal philosophy of language, learning, and culture, informed by his decades of work across linguistics and the social sciences.

New Texas: its citizens figure that name about says it all. The Solar League ambassador to the Lone Star Planet has the unenviable task of convincing New Texans that a s'Srauff attack is imminent, and dangerous. Unfortunately it's common knowledge that the s'Srauff are evolved from canine ancestors - and not a Texan alive is about to be scared of a talking dog. But unless he can get them to act, and fast, there won't be a Texan alive, scared or otherwise.

This audiobook is the window into the underground world of cheating at the highest levels, which set off a frenzy of activity and hand-wringing in the offices of Major League Baseball and Congress. Through the authors' pursuit of sources and documents, they were able to open for public view a world in which elite athletes trade money and risk their health for the edge that will allow them to run faster, hit harder, and compete longer, and then cash in on the fame and wealth.