This book is about language that is designed to mean what it does not seem to mean. Ciphers and codes conceal messages and protect secrets. Symbol and magic hide meanings to delight or imperil. Languages made to baffle and confuse let insiders talk openly without being understood by thosebeyond the circle.Barry Blake looks at these and many more. He explores the history and uses of the slangs and argots of schools and trades. He traces the centuries-old cants used by sailors and criminals in Britain, among them Polari, the mix of Italian, Yiddish, and slang once spoken among strolling players andcircus folk and taken up by gays in the twentieth century. He examines the sacred languages of ancient cults and religions, uncovers the workings of onomancy, spells, and gematria, looks into the obliqueness of allusion and parody, and celebrates the absurdities of euphemism and jargon.Secret Language takes the reader on fascinating excursions down obscure byways of language, ranging across time and culture. With revelations on every page it will entertain anyone with an urge to know more about the most arcane and curious uses of language.
In clear, congenial style Barry Blake explains how language works. He describes the make-up of words and how they're built from sounds and signs and put together in phrases and sentences. He examines the dynamics of conversation and the relations between the sound and meaning. He shows how languages help their users connect to each other and to the world, how they vary around the world, why they never stop changing, and that no two people speak a language in the same way. He looks at how language is acquired by infant children, how it relates to thought, and its operations in the brain. He investigates current trends and issues such as the levelling of linguistic class differences and the rise of new secret or in-group languages such as argot and teenspeak. He describes the history of writing from its origins to digital diffusion, and ends by looking at how language might have originated and then evolved among our distant hominid and primate ancestors. Language is crucial to every aspect of our lives whether we're thinking, talking, or dreaming. Barry Blake reveals the wonders that lie beneath the surface of everyday communication, enriching his exposition with a unique blend of anecdote and humour. His engaging guide is for everyone curious about language or who needs to know more about it.
The present volume is a collection of fifteen original articles that include descriptive, typological and/or theoretical studies of a number of morphosyntactic phenomena, such as case, transitivity, grammaticalization, valency alternations, etc., in a variety of languages or language groups, and discussions concerning theoretical issues in specific grammatical frameworks. The collection, written in honor of the Australian linguist Barry J. Blake on his 60th birthday, thematically reflects the field that Professor Blake has worked in over the past three decades. The volume will be of special interest to researchers in morphosyntax, and linguistic typology. In addition, scholars in discourse grammar, historical linguistics, theoretical syntax, semantics, language acquisition, and language contact will find articles of interest in the book.
English Vocabulary Today: Into the 21st Century offers an innovative perspective on the ways in which contemporary English language vocabulary continues to adapt and grow in light of emerging technologies and ideas. The book begins with a concise history of the English language, followed by chapters covering key topics including lexical change, semantic change and word-formation. Additional chapters highlight unique topics not often covered in English language studies, including the mental lexicon, inclusive language and the importing and exporting of words between English and other languages. Chapter discussions are enhanced by dynamic examples from a wide range of varieties of English, including American, British, Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, South African and South Asian. Taken together, English Vocabulary Today: Into the 21st Century offers students a clear and comprehensive understanding of the multi-faceted nature of English vocabulary today as well as new insights into its continued development.
Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement are the roads of Genius. William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell One of the worlds most brilliant, visionary artists, William Blake was a painter, engraver, illustrator, and poet as well as a mystic of extraordinary proportion. But he was also a political radical, a Dissenter, and a friend and supporter of Thomas Paine, the English common man, and the early stages of the French Revolution. This remarkable personality is reimagined in Tyger on the Crooked Road, a bold historical novel that delves into both the man and the legend. In the late-eighteenth century, Blake struggles to make ends meet. He is harassed by repressive authorities, denied professional membership in the Royal Academy of Art, and considered by major artistic and literary figures of the day to be little but a willful eccentric. Not a few of them think him mad. But beyond his art and politics, Blake is a loyal friend and a passionate and devoted husband. His life comprises an amalgam of conflict and compassion, adventure and failure, violence and political intrigue, frustration and inspiration. This Blake is a man of profound appetite and exquisite skillone who offers an enduring voice of strength, justice, promise, and capacity. Tyger on the Crooked Road brings Blake vividly to life, a genius underestimated in his own time but known and beloved today.
Relational Grammar had its beginnings in the early 1970s. In this theory of the structure of language grammatical relations are taken to be `undefined primitives'. The set of relations recognised includes subject, direct object, indirect object and a number of `oblique' relations including benefactive, locative and instrumental. This is the first book that describes the theory's basic ideas, evaluates them and compares them with other approaches in other theories. The treatment is straightforward, and should be comprehensible to anyone conversant with traditional grammatical terminology. All unfamiliar terms and conventions are explained and illustrated. The book is written for students of modern theories of grammar, but it should also be of relevance and interest to descriptive and comparative linguistics. It contains a wealth of data on morphology and syntax and also includes comparisons of Relational Grammar analyses with those of 'non-aligned' linguistics who are working with much the same data.
This study covers a number of topics that are prominent in the grammars of Australian Aboriginal languages, especially ergativity and manifestations of the hierarchy that runs from the speech-act participants down to inanimates. This hierarchy shows up in case marking, number marking and agreement, advancement and cross-referencing. Chapter 1 provides an overall picture of Australian languages. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 deal with case systems, including voice alternations and other advancements. Chapter 5 deals with the distribution of case marking within the noun phrase. Chapter 6 deals with systems that allow the cross-referencing of bound pronouns. Chapter 7 deals with clauses which appear to have more than one verb. Chapter 8 deals with compound and complex sentences. Chapter 9 deals with word order, and emphasises a theme introduced in Chapter 5, namely the widespread use of discontinuous phrases. Chapter 10 draws together ergativity and various manifestations of the hierarchy, and attempts to interpret their distribution. The final section provides an interesting hypothesis about the evolution of core grammar in Australia.
In war, the "front" is often referred to as the first line of battle. Christ told Peter that his profession was the rock upon which His church would be built, and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Our hearts are on the front line of this great war, and nowhere is it needed more than in the financial support of the church. This book is intended for all levels of the church, from the Pastor to the layperson. It confronts the law of the tithe as the traditional means of supporting Christ's work. That's right! The requirement for Christians to tithe is challenged. In its place, we insert another measure that is far weightier. Arguments pro and con are presented along with much scripture. In addition, methods and cautions are discussed that should help Christians better attain that measure upon which the Lord truly looks. Mr. Blake was saved in the late 1960's at Tempelhof Central Airport, Berlin, Germany while serving in the Air Force. Later, he attended Baptist Bible College in Springfield, MO, earning a degree in Theology. In the following years he earned a Masters Degree in Management and Contract Management from the Florida Institute of Technology. Mr. Blake is a trained consultant in quality management and has trained supervisors and managers in effective leadership, strategic planning, process management, and problem solving. He is retired both from the Air Force Reserves and from the Federal service as a Contracts Manager. Mr. Blake has taught his fellow Christians in various Bible studies. Over the last few years, he has focused his attention on Christian discipleship, and has produced a series of Discipleship lessons, which he hopes to publish in the near future.
Buy This Book is an important contribution to the history and understanding of consumption and advertising. This book brings together an outstanding collection of writing on the study of advertising, consumer practices and the future directions of research. Advertising and Consumption constitutes an invaluable resource for researchers, teachers and students. The essays are based on new textual and ethnographic research and engage with existing theoretical and historical work to form a volume which is a challenging companion to studies in this field.
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