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Author: William Safire Publisher: Crown ISBN: Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 408
Book Description
"William Safire, America's favorite writer on language, offers a new collection of pieces drawn from his nationally syndicated "On Language" column. Laced with liberal (a loaded word, but apt) doses of Safire's wit, these pieces search culture (high and low), politics, entertainment, and the word on the street to explore what the old but livelier-than-ever English language has been up to lately." "With a keen wit and a sure grasp of usage, Safire dissects trends and traces the origins of colloquialisms that have become second nature to most Americans. He examines everything from whether one delivers "a punch on or in the nose" when offended to whether a disgraced politician should "step down," "step aside," or "stand down." Safire gives us the answers to these and many more quandaries, questions, and complexities of our contemporary lexicon." "As always, Safire is aided by the Gotcha! Gang and the Nitpickers League-readers who claim to have found the language maven making flubs of his own. His comments and observations create a spirited, curious, and scholarly discussion showing that William Safire and his readership are wise in the way of words."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Author: William Safire Publisher: Crown ISBN: Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 408
Book Description
"William Safire, America's favorite writer on language, offers a new collection of pieces drawn from his nationally syndicated "On Language" column. Laced with liberal (a loaded word, but apt) doses of Safire's wit, these pieces search culture (high and low), politics, entertainment, and the word on the street to explore what the old but livelier-than-ever English language has been up to lately." "With a keen wit and a sure grasp of usage, Safire dissects trends and traces the origins of colloquialisms that have become second nature to most Americans. He examines everything from whether one delivers "a punch on or in the nose" when offended to whether a disgraced politician should "step down," "step aside," or "stand down." Safire gives us the answers to these and many more quandaries, questions, and complexities of our contemporary lexicon." "As always, Safire is aided by the Gotcha! Gang and the Nitpickers League-readers who claim to have found the language maven making flubs of his own. His comments and observations create a spirited, curious, and scholarly discussion showing that William Safire and his readership are wise in the way of words."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Author: William Safire Publisher: Doubleday ISBN: 030780058X Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 573
Book Description
Good news! America’s master wordsmith strikes again with a new collection of erudite, witty, provocative, sometimes barbed, frequently hilarious “On Language” columns. Published in The New York Times and syndicated in more than three hundred other newspapers, these opinions from the “Supreme Court of Current English Usage” cover everything from the bottom line on tycoonese and the accesses* of computerese to portmanteau words like televangelist and Draconomics (the language maven’s own plan for our bloated economy). Although Safire makes an admirable case for adverbs and adjectives, advocates of strong verbs will be heartened to hear that he also: pleads for the preservation of the subjunctive mood; delivers, hot off the college campus, the latest lingo in which ‘rents means parents and yesterday’s wimps are today’s squids; decries the brevity-is-next-to-godliness literary school; bids farewell to anxiety (it’s been replaced by trendy stress or swangst); noodles over such weighty geopolitical questions as “when an intercept of a fighter is a buzz”; bemoans the loss of roughage to fiber; and rides herd over the language spoken in Marlboro Country. More good news! Safire again spices his own wit and wisdom with correspondence from Lexicographic irregulars, those zealous readers and letter writers who reply to his columns with praise, scorn, corrections and nitpicks—anything to match wits with Super-maven. If You Could Look It Up and Take My Word for It occupy prominent spots in your bookcase, then Language Maven Strikes Again belongs there too. If they don’t, then begin with this Safire and work your way back. *That’s not a typo—that’s a pun.
Author: Diane Ackerman Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1439125082 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 341
Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Zookeeper's Wife, an ambitious and enlightening work that combines an artist's eye with a scientist's erudition to illuminate, as never before, the magic and mysteries of the human mind. Long treasured by literary readers for her uncommon ability to bridge the gap between art and science, celebrated scholar-artist Diane Ackerman returns with the book she was born to write. Her dazzling new work, An Alchemy of Mind, offers an unprecedented exploration and celebration of the mental fantasia in which we spend our days—and does for the human mind what the bestselling A Natural History of the Senses did for the physical senses. Bringing a valuable female perspective to the topic, Diane Ackerman discusses the science of the brain as only she can: with gorgeous, immediate language and imagery that paint an unusually lucid and vibrant picture for the reader. And in addition to explaining memory, thought, emotion, dreams, and language acquisition, she reports on the latest discoveries in neuroscience and addresses controversial subjects like the effects of trauma and male versus female brains. In prose that is not simply accessible but also beautiful and electric, Ackerman distills the hard, objective truths of science in order to yield vivid, heavily anecdotal explanations about a range of existential questions regarding consciousness, human thought, memory, and the nature of identity.
Author: Charles Harrington Elster Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt ISBN: 9780618423156 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 548
Book Description
The definitive pronouncement on more than 1,500 of our most commonly mispronounced words. From the language maven Charles Harrington Elster comes an authoritative and unapologetically opinionated look at American speech. As Elster points out, there is no sewer in connoisseur, no dip in diphthong, and no pronoun in pronunciation. The culmination of twenty years of observation and study, The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations is more than just a pronunciation guide. Elster discusses past and present usage, alternatives, analogies, and tendencies and offers plenty of advice, none of it objective. Whether you are adamant or ambivalent about the spoken word, Elster arms you with the information you need to decide what is acceptable for you. The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations has now been expanded and revised and features nearly 200 new words, including: al-Qaeda bruschetta commensurate coup de grace curriculum vita exacerbate gigabyte hara-kiri machismo Muslim Niger Pinochet Pulitzer sorbet tinnitus w (as in www-dot) and many, many more. Charles Harrington Elster is the pronunciation editor of Black's Law Dictionary and the author of various books about language, including Verbal Advantage, There's a Word for It, and What in the Word? He has been a guest columnist on language for the Boston Globe and the New York Times Magazine and a commentator on NPR and hundreds of radio shows around the country.
Author: Ralph Keyes Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin ISBN: 1429906170 Category : Reference Languages : en Pages : 416
Book Description
Our language is full of hundreds of quotations that are often cited but seldom confirmed. Ralph Keyes's The Quote Verifier considers not only classic misquotes such as "Nice guys finish last," and "Play it again, Sam," but more surprising ones such as "Ain't I a woman?" and "Golf is a good walk spoiled," as well as the origins of popular sayings such as "The opera ain't over till the fat lady sings," "No one washes a rented car," and "Make my day." Keyes's in-depth research routinely confounds widespread assumptions about who said what, where, and when. Organized in easy-to-access dictionary form, The Quote Verifier also contains special sections highlighting commonly misquoted people and genres, such as Yogi Berra and Oscar Wilde, famous last words, and misremembered movie lines. An invaluable resource for not just those with a professional need to quote accurately, but anyone at all who is interested in the roots of words and phrases, The Quote Verifier is not only a fascinating piece of literary sleuthing, but also a great read.
Author: Constance Hale Publisher: Crown ISBN: 0385346891 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 322
Book Description
A fully revised and updated edition with writing prompts and challenges in every chapter Today’s writers need more spunk than Strunk: whether it's the Great American e-mail, Madison Avenue advertising, or Grammy Award-winning rap lyrics, memorable writing must jump off the page. Copy veteran Constance Hale is on a mission to make creative communication, both the lyrical and the unlawful, an option for everyone. With its crisp, witty tone, Sin and Syntax covers grammar’s ground rules while revealing countless unconventional syntax secrets (such as how to use—Gasp!—interjections or when to pepper your prose with slang) that make for sinfully good writing. Discover how to: *Distinguish between words that are “pearls” and words that are “potatoes” * Avoid “couch potato thinking” and “commitment phobia” when choosing verbs * Use literary devices such as onomatopoeia, alliteration, and metaphor (and understand what you're doing) Everyone needs to know how to write stylish prose—students, professionals, and seasoned writers alike. Whether you’re writing to sell, shock, or just sing, Sin and Syntax—now celebrating 20 years in print—is the guide you need to improve your command of the English language.
Author: Stanley Newman Publisher: Random House Puzzles & Games ISBN: 0812935292 Category : Games & Activities Languages : en Pages : 114
Book Description
UNFORGETTABLE… that’s what they are Ready to rekindle some old relationships? Inside, you’ll find: · 50 brand-new themed puzzles about 50 memorable characters ranging from Captain Ahab to Zorro; from Snoopy to Lassie; and from Hannibal Lecter to Annabel Lee · Accompanying each puzzle, details of the subject’s first appearance, plus some fun trivia · Hundreds of clues about characters from books, movies, cartoons, and more · Stanley Newman’s puzzlemaking expertise, guaranteeing that every puzzle is fun–even if you don’t know how James Bond likes his martinis
Author: William Safire Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 9780393040050 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 1066
Book Description
William Safire's invaluable and immensely entertaining Lend Me Your Ears established itself instantly as a classic treasury of the greatest speeches in human history. Selected with the instincts of a great speechwriter and language maven, arranged by theme and occasion, each deftly introduced and placed in context, the more than two hundred speeches in this compilation demonstrate the enduring power of human eloquence to inspire, to uplift, and to motivate. For this expanded edition Safire has selected more than twenty new speeches by such figures as President Bill Clinton, Senator Robert Dole, General Colin Powell, Microsoft's Bill Gates, the Dalai Lama, Edward R. Murrow, Alistair Cooke, the Buddha, and the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. They prove that even in a digital age the most forceful medium of communication is still the human voice speaking directly to the mind, heart, and soul.
Author: David Bashevkin Publisher: Academic Studies PRess ISBN: 1644690896 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 278
Book Description
"A manual for living with defeat" —Tablet It is no more possible to think about religion without sin than it is to think about a garden without dirt. By its very nature, the ideals of religion entail sin and failure. Judaism has its own language and framework for sin that expresses themselves both legally and philosophically. Both legal questions—circumstances where sin is permissible or mandated, the role of intention and action—as well as philosophical questions—why sin occurs and how does Judaism react to religious crisis—are considered within this volume. This book will present the concepts of sin and failure in Jewish thought, weaving together biblical and rabbinic studies to reveal a holistic portrait of the notion of sin and failure within Jewish thought. The suffix "agogue" means to lead or grow. Here as well, Sin•a•gogue: Sin and Failure in Jewish Thought will provide its readers frameworks and strategies to develop even in the face of failure.
Author: William Safire Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 9780393327236 Category : English language Languages : en Pages : 164
Book Description
Presents fifty humorous rules on grammar, usage, and style, covering everything from capitalization and split infinitives to run-on sentences, semi-colons, contractions, the double negative, dangling participles, and onomatopoeia.
Author: William Safire
Author: William Safire
Author: William Safire
Author: Diane Ackerman
Author: Charles Harrington Elster
Author: Ralph Keyes
Author: Constance Hale
Author: Stanley Newman
Author: William Safire
Author: David Bashevkin
Author: William Safire