The Story of Be

Author: David Crystal
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192508636
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Book Description
It's the most simple, unassuming, innocent-looking verb: 'to be'. Yet it is jam-packed with more different meanings, forms, and uses than any other English word. As he reveals be's multiple incarnations, David Crystal takes us to the heart of our flexible and changing language. He tells the intriguing story in 26 chapters, each linked to a particular usage. We meet circumstantial be ('how are you?'), numerical be ('two and two is four'), quotative be ('so I was like, "wow"'), and ludic be ('oh no he isn't!'), and a whole swarm of other meanings. Bringing the ideas to life are a host of examples from sources as varied as Beowulf, Jane Austen, pantomime, Hamlet (of course), and Star Wars, with cartoons from Ed McLachlan and Punch peppered throughout. Full of fascinating nuggets of information, it is a book to delight any lover of words and language.

To Be Or Not to Be, Innit

Author: Martin Baum
Publisher: Bright Pen
ISBN: 9780755210824
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 68

Book Description
Here's what people are saying about 'TO BE OR NOT TO BE, INNIT' "This is well wicked" Shakespeare's Sister "Blinging" The Stratford upon Avon Massive "Booyakada" The Welsh Shakespearian Society "Bard in Stratford" The Daily Globe headline after Shakespeare disgraced himself after a night binge drinking with Anne Hathaway.

"Oi, Mate, Gimme Some More!"

Author: Martin Baum
Publisher: Authors Online Limited
ISBN: 9780755206032
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 158

Book Description
Writing from the enclaves of his beach-hut in Dorset, author Martin Baum is back, doing for Charles Dickens what he did for William Shakespeare in his best-selling book 'To Be or Not To Be, Innit - a Yoof-Speak Guide to Shakespeare'. As a broadcaster, satirist and journalist, Martin cares deeply about the classics and wants others to feel and experience the passion by introducing them to literature in a fun, accessible and inclusive way. "It was da best of times, and not being funny or nuffing, but it was da worst of times, to be honest." Da Tale of Two Turfs "Bah yada yada humbug." Da Christmas Carol "Annual moolah twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen and six, result good karma. Annual moolah twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds naff all and six, then you is gonna have to consolidate with Ocean Finance. Simples."

Linguistics: A Complete Introduction: Teach Yourself

Author: David Hornsby
Publisher: Teach Yourself
ISBN: 1444180347
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Book Description
Written by David Hornsby, who is a current Linguistics lecturer and researcher at the University of Kent, Linguistics - The Essentials is designed to give you everything you need to succeed, all in one place. It covers the key areas that students are expected to be confident in, outlining the basics in clear jargon-free English, and then providing added value features like summaries of key books, and even lists of questions you might be asked in your seminar or exam. The book uses a structure that mirrors many university courses on linguistics - with separate chapters focusing on linguistic thought, syntax, sound systems, morphology, semantics, pragmatics, language acquisition, and much more.

The Structure of Discourse-Pragmatic Variation

Author: Heike Pichler
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027272182
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Book Description
Everyday language use overflows with discourse-pragmatic features. Their frequency, form and function can vary greatly across social groups and change dramatically over time. And yet these features have not figured prominently in studies of language variation and change. The Structure of Discourse-Pragmatic Variation demonstrates the theoretical insights that can be gained into both the structure of synchronic language variation and the interactional mechanisms creating it by subjecting discourse-pragmatic features to systematic variationist analysis. Introducing an innovative methodology that combines principles of variationist linguistics, grammaticalisation studies and conversation analysis, it explores patterns of variation in the formal encoding of I DON’T KNOW, I DON’T THINK and negative polarity tags in a north-east England interview corpus. Speakers strategically exploit the formal variability of these constructions to signal subtle meaning differences and to index social identities closely linked to the variables’ and their variants’ functional compartmentalisation in the variety. The methodology, results and implications of this study will be of great interest to scholars working throughout variationist sociolinguistics, grammaticalisation and discourse analysis.

Discourse-Pragmatic Variation and Change in English

Author: Heike Pichler
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316592057
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 323

Book Description
This volume brings together key players in discourse variation research to offer original analyses of a wide range of discourse-pragmatic variables, such as 'like', 'innit', 'you get me', and 'at the end of the day'. The authors introduce a range of new methods specifically tailored to the study of discourse-pragmatic variation and change in synchronic and longitudinal dialect data, and provide new empirical and theoretical insights into discourse-pragmatic variation and change in contemporary varieties of English. The volume thus enhances our understanding of the complexities of discourse-pragmatic variation and change, and encourages new ways of thinking about variability in discourse-pragmatics. With its dual focus on presenting innovative methods as well as new results, the volume will provide an important resource for both newcomers and veterans alike in the field of discourse variation analysis, and spark discussions that will set new directions for future work in the field.

Pragmatic Markers and Sociolinguistic Variation

Author: Gisle Andersen
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027298149
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 368

Book Description
This book combines theoretical work in linguistic pragmatics and sociolinguistics with empirical work based on a corpus of London adolescent conversation. It makes a general contribution to the study of pragmatic markers, as it proposes an analytical model that involves notions such as subjectivity, interactional and textual capacity, and the distinction between contextual alignment/divergence. These notions are defined according to how information contained in an utterance interacts with the cognitive environment of the hearer. Moreover, the model captures the diachronic development of markers from lexical items via processes of grammaticalisation, arguing that markerhood may be viewed as a gradient phenomenon. The empirical work concerns the use of like as a marker, as well as a characteristic use of two originally interrogative forms, innit and is it, which are used as attitudinal markers throughout the inflectional paradigm, despite the fact that they contain a third person singular neuter pronoun. The author provides an in-depth analysis of these features in terms of pragmatic functions, diachronic development and sociolinguistic variation, thus adding support to the hypothesis that adolescents play an important role in language variation and change.

Londonstani

Author: Gautam Malkani
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1440619905
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
A talented new writer whose portrayal of the serious business of assimilation and young masculinity is disturbing and hilarious Hailed as one of the most surprising British novels in recent years, Gautam Malkani's electrifying debut reveals young South Asians struggling to distinguish themselves from their parents' generation in the vast urban sprawl that is contemporary London. Chronicling the lives of a gang of four young middle-class men-Hardjit, the violent enforcer; Ravi, the follower; Amit, who's struggling to come to terms with his mother's hypocrisy; and Jas, desperate to win the approval of the others despite lusting after Samira, a Muslim girl-Londonstani, funny, disturbing, and written in the exuberant language of its protagonists, is about tribalism, aggressive masculinity, integration, alienation, bling-bling economics, and "complicated family-related shit."

Q&A Criminal Law 2013-2014

Author: Norman Baird
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136188258
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Book Description
Routledge Q&As give you the tools to practice and refine your exam technique, showing you how to apply your knowledge to maximum effect in an exam situation. Each book contains up to fifty essay and problem-based questions on the most commonly examined topics, complete with expert guidance and fully worked model answers. These new editions for 2013-2014 will provide you with the skills you need for your exams by: Helping you to be prepared: each title in the series has an introduction presenting carefully tailored advice on how to approach assessment for your subject Showing you what examiners are looking for: each question is annotated with both a short overview on how to approach your answer, as well as footnoted commentary that demonstrate how model ?answers meet marking criteria Offering pointers on how to gain marks, as well as what common errors could lose them: ‘Aim Higher’ and ‘Common Pitfalls’ offer crucial guidance throughout Helping you to understand and remember the law: diagrams for each answer work to illuminate difficult legal principles and provide overviews of how model answers are structured Books in the series are also supported by a Companion Website that offers online essay-writing tutorials, podcasts, bonus Q&As and multiple-choice questions to help you focus your revision more effectively.

Navigating English Grammar

Author: Anne Lobeck
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405159944
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
An engaging and fresh take on the rules and politics of English grammar, written in lively prose. It goes a step further than most books on grammar by providing an overview of the field, with a discussion of historical and current debates about grammar, and how we define, discuss, and approach it. Presents a novel, inquiry-based approach to understanding speakers' unconscious knowledge of English grammar Makes lucid connections, when relevant, with current linguistic theory Integrates language change and variation into the study of grammar Examines historical sources of socially evaluative perceptions of grammar, as 'good' or 'bad', and notions of language authority Provides syntactic explanations for many modern punctuation rules Explores some of the current controversies about grammar teaching in school and the role of Standard English in testing and assessment