The World in a Phrase PDF Download

Author: James Geary
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 160819762X
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Starting with the ancient Chinese and ending with contemporary Europeans and Americans, The World in a Phrase tells the story of the aphorism through spirited and amusing biographies of some of its greatest practitioners, including Emily Dickinson, and Mark Twain and Dorothy Parker; great French aphorists like Montaigne, La Rochefoucauld, and Chamfort; philosophers like Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein; as well as prophets and sages like the Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Jesus. In our modern age, The World in a Phrase explores how aphorisms still retain the power to instigate and inspire, enlighten and enrage, entertain and edify. James Geary is the author of The Body Electric: An Anatomy of the New Bionic Senses. He lives in London with his wife and three children. "James Geary's celebration of the smallest-and sometimes wisest-of literary forms. Geary defines the characteristics of aphorisms and discusses their history and their role in his life, and shares the work of renowned aphorists from Buddha to Dr. Seuss."-Associated Press

Author: Eric Dondero R.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780971853317
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description

Author: Nicholas Ostler
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0066210860
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 644

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Book Description
The story of the world in the last five thousand years is above all the story of its languages. Some shared language is what binds any community together and makes possible both the living of a common history and the telling of it. Yet the history of the world's great languages has been very little told. Empires of the Word, by the wide-ranging linguist Nicholas Ostler, is the first to bring together the tales in all their glorious variety: the amazing innovations in education, culture, and diplomacy devised by speakers of Sumerian and its successors in the Middle East, right up to the Arabic of the present day; the uncanny resilience of Chinese through twenty centuries of invasions; the charmed progress of Sanskrit from north India to Java and Japan; the engaging self-regard of Greek; the struggles that gave birth to the languages of modern Europe; and the global spread of English. Besides these epic ahievements, language failures are equally fascinating: Why did German get left behind? Why did Egyptian, which had survived foreign takeovers for three millennia, succumb to Mohammed's Arabic? Why is Dutch unknown in modern Indonesia, though the Netherlands had ruled the East Indies for as long as the British ruled India? As this book splendidly and authoritatively reveals, the language history of the world shows eloquently the real character of peoples; and, for all the recent tehnical mastery of English, nothing guarantees our language's long-term preeminence. The language future, like the language past, will be full of surprises.

Author: Nicola Edwards
Publisher: Caterpillar Books
ISBN: 9781838913274
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
Have you ever wondered why we talkabout 'buttering someone up' or wherethe phrase 'it's raining cats and dogs'actually comes from? What does it meanto 'comb the giraffe' in France or to 'weara cat on your head' in Japan?Also available This beautifully illustrated collection of curious phrases from around the world is a voyage of cultural discovery.

Author: Patrick Alain
Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser
ISBN: 1601636261
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Easily find the right words to respond like a leader in any situation, communicate effectively, and make your way to success. The Leader Phrase Book contains more than 3,000 dynamic phrases that will enable you to prevail in virtually all of life’s important situations. You will be in command of your words and always stay ahead of the game. With this passport to success, you will begin a new journey on which you are among the charismatic, the untouchable . . . the elite. This easy-to-use reference book will give you a new image you can take pride in helping you to quickly reach your full leadership potential. You will have all the weapons to effectively succeed whenever vibrant, forceful language is required. It works like magic! The Leader Phrase Book will teach you how to: • Speak like a leader • Master all conversations • Attain a charismatic presence • Gain the respect of others • Achieve a lightning-fast rhetoric • Find the right phrases instantly • Argue effectively • Be the envy of all you meet The Leader Phrase Book is the culmination of ten years of Patrick’s personal research on how leaders communicate. It is the summation of his efforts to share one of the most invaluable skills in life: “how to put yourself in command.” Praise for The Leader Phrase Book “This refreshing and practical tool will help to enlarge, promote, and articulate the world of communication.” —Cristina Roggero, Pepperdine University professor of literature “An indispensable tool to help you become quickly fluent in phrases that put you ahead in the marketplace.” —Tony Azar, Homeland Security Chief Engineer “A must read for anyone who wants to move ahead in business.” —Jami Levesque, technical director of 300 and Transformers 3

Author: David Crystal
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134011865
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
Kidnapping, attempted assassination, espionage ... not the answers you’d expect to the question ‘what happens when you become a linguist?’ But now, reflecting on a long and hugely successful career at the forefront of the field of English Language and Linguistics, David Crystal answers this question and offers us a special look behind the scenes at the adventures, rewards, challenges and pitfalls of his life in language. Both an autobiography and a highly accessible introduction to the field of linguistics, Just a Phrase I’m Going Through illuminates and entertains us with its many insights into the ever-fascinating subject of language. David Crystal is synonymous with language, both as a great populariser and linguistic pioneer, and his contribution to the field is unparalleled. This is a book not just for students and teachers but for all lovers of language. For more about David Crystal at Routledge, visit: www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415485746.

Author: Stefan Fatsis
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 0547524315
Category : Games & Activities
Languages : en
Pages : 427

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Book Description
This “marvelously absorbing” book is “a walk on the wild side of words and ventures into the zone where language and mathematics intersect” (San Jose Mercury News). A former Wall Street Journal reporter and NPR regular, Stefan Fatsis recounts his remarkable rise through the ranks of elite Scrabble players while exploring the game’s strange, potent hold over them—and him. At least thirty million American homes have a Scrabble set—but the game’s most talented competitors inhabit a sphere far removed from the masses of “living room players.” Theirs is a surprisingly diverse subculture whose stars include a vitamin-popping standup comic; a former bank teller whose intestinal troubles earned him the nickname “G.I. Joel”; a burly, unemployed African American from Baltimore’s inner city; the three-time national champion who plays according to Zen principles; and the author himself, who over the course of the book is transformed from a curious reporter to a confirmed Scrabble nut. Fatsis begins by haunting the gritty corner of a Greenwich Village park where pickup Scrabble games can be found whenever weather permits. His curiosity soon morphs into compulsion, as he sets about memorizing thousands of obscure words and fills his evenings with solo Scrabble played on his living room floor. Before long he finds himself at tournaments, socializing—and competing—with Scrabble’s elite. But this book is about more than hardcore Scrabblers, for the game yields insights into realms as disparate as linguistics, psychology, and mathematics. Word Freak extends its reach even farther, pondering the light Scrabble throws on such notions as brilliance, memory, competition, failure, and hope. It is a geography of obsession that celebrates the uncanny powers locked in all of us, “a can’t-put-it-down narrative that dances between memoir and reportage” (Los Angeles Times). “Funny, thoughtful, character-rich, unchallengeably winning writing.” —The Atlantic Monthly This edition includes a new afterword by the author.

Author: Patrick Alain
Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser
ISBN: 1601635524
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
The Manager’s Phrase Book is a collection of thousands of ready-to-use phrases that will enable you to move into the ranks of today’s most competent managers. You will have control of any situation at a moment’s notice, regardless of your position in the corporate world. You will have all the weapons you need to succeed where vibrant, meaningful, appropriate, and, perhaps above all, precise language is required. With this passport to success, you will begin a new game in which you are among the charismatic, the untouchable—the elite. The Manager’s Phrase Book is an amazingly fast paced, easy-to-use reference book that will help you to: Use the correct words at all times Conquer conflict Take on challenges and challengers Build bridges between people Address sticky situations Further your own career And so much more The Manager’s Phrase Book makes it easy for you to break out of the mundane world of management and to take on all comers. It is the latest compilation of Patrick Alain’s research on how managers really communicate in today’s world.

Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Publisher: One World
ISBN: 0679645985
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 163

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Author: Thomas L. Friedman
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780374292782
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 682

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Book Description
Explores globalization, its opportunities for individual empowerment, its achievements at lifting millions out of poverty, and its drawbacks--environmental, social, and political.