When James Murray compiled the OED in the 19th century, he used a small army of volunteers--and thousands upon thousands of paper slips--to track down the English language. Today, linguists use massive computer power--including the world's largest language databank, the Oxford Corpus, which contains more than two billion words--to determine for the first time definitively how the English language is used. From evidence contained in the gargantuan Oxford Corpus, Jeremy Butterfield here uncovers a wealth of fascinating facts about the English language. Where does our vocabulary come from? How do word meanings change? How is our language really being used? This entertaining book has the up-to-date and authoritative answers to all the key questions about our language. Butterfield takes a thorough look at the English language and exposes its peculiarities and penchants, its development and difficulties, revealing exactly how it operates. We learn, for instance, that we use language in chunks of words--as one linguist put it, "we know words by the company that they keep." For instance, the word quintessentially is joined half the time with a nationality--something is "quintessentially American" or "quintessentially British." Using such observations, Butterfield explains how dictionary makers decide which words to include, how they find definitions, and how the Corpus influences the process. Covering all areas of English, from spelling and idioms to the future of English, and with entertaining examples and useful charts throughout, this compelling and lively book will delight word lovers everywhere.
Offers more than 770,000 translations, with an emphasis on current American usage, and includes computer and business terms, sections on pronunciation and verb forms, and common abbreviations and acronyms.
The dictionary is designed to be easy to read, easy to use, and easy to understand. The comprehensive entries highlight key translations, all essential set expressions and have clear, helpful examples to show how to best use the translation. Easy To Read, Easy To Use Easy To Understand Ideal for school use and anyone starting to learn Spanish Clear, innovative color layout allows for maximum ease of use Unique games section that helps readers have fun while learning Special entries on Latin American life and culture Table of common Spanish verbs
Collins Easy Learning German Verbs First Edition Designed to accompany the widely acclaimed Collins Easy Learning German Dictionary and to complement the new Collins Easy Learning German Grammar, this brand new edition, the Collins Easy Learning German Verbs offers beginners a clear and easy-to-understand guide to German verbs. The main section of the book consists of 200 fully conjugated verbs, regular and irregular, weak and strong. Each is self-contained in a full-page spread showing all the major tenses, clearly set out with pronouns. The tables also tell you if the verb is weak or strong and if it takes the auxiliary haben or sein. There is a special section on modal and auxiliary verbs, as well as an extensive introduction on the formation and use of tenses in German. A full alphabetical index of all the most widely used German verbs, cross-refers the user to its basic model in the verb tables.
With over 80,000 references and 115,000 translations, this revised and updated dictionary covers up-to-date vocabulary, including business and computing terms. New features include treatment of frequently-used words in Spanish and English and entries explaining aspects of Spanish culture. The clear new typography makes this text easier to consult than the first edition. In addition, this dictionary retains full coverage of today's spoken and written language, thousands of constructions and idiomatic phrases, clear signposting of meanings and style level, help with pronunciation and hundreds of widely-used abbreviations and acronyms explained and translated.
Helps visitors to England, be they English speakers or not, to understand the natives. This title covers everything from catchphrases to rhyming slang, from cultural references to truncated idioms, from Whittington to Del Boy and beyond.
This the ideal two-in-one reference tool for learners of Spanish has over 80,000 references and 115,000 translations. It includes the vocabulary needed for effective communication in Spanish and English, such as terms relating to the Internet and to Euroland. The grammar, which has been updated to present information in a clearer, more user-friendly manner and which contains a host of examples, is the complement to the dictionary.
Enormously rich and wide-ranging, The Routledge Companion to Britain in the Eighteenth Century brings together, in one handy reference, a wide range of essential information on the major aspects of eighteenth century British history. The information included is chronological, statistical, tabular and bibliographical, and the book begins with the eighteenth century political system before going on to cover foreign affairs and the empire, the major military and naval campaigns, law and order, religion, economic and financial advances, and social and cultural history. Key features of this user-friendly volume include: wide-ranging political chronologies major wars and rebellions key treaties and their terms chronologies of religious events approximately 500 biographies of leading figures essential data on population, output and trade a detailed glossary of terms a comprehensive cultural and intellectual chronology set out in tabular form a uniquely detailed and comprehensive topic bibliography. All those studying or teaching eighteenth century British history will find this concise volume an indispensable resource for use and reference.
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: THE NEW YORK TIMES, NPR • WINNER OF THREE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS • Finalist for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction • A stirring account of how music bears witness to history and carries forward the memory of the wartime past • SUNDAY TIMES OF LONDON HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR In 1785, when the great German poet Friedrich Schiller penned his immortal “Ode to Joy,” he crystallized the deepest hopes and dreams of the European Enlightenment for a new era of peace and freedom, a time when millions would be embraced as equals. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony then gave wing to Schiller’s words, but barely a century later these same words were claimed by Nazi propagandists and twisted by a barbarism so complete that it ruptured, as one philosopher put it, “the deep layer of solidarity among all who wear a human face.” When it comes to how societies remember these increasingly distant dreams and catastrophes, we often think of history books, archives, documentaries, or memorials carved from stone. But in Time’s Echo, the award-winning critic and cultural historian Jeremy Eichler makes a passionate and revelatory case for the power of music as culture’s memory, an art form uniquely capable of carrying forward meaning from the past. With a critic’s ear, a scholar’s erudition, and a novelist’s eye for detail, Eichler shows how four towering composers—Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Benjamin Britten—lived through the era of the Second World War and the Holocaust and later transformed their experiences into deeply moving, transcendent works of music, scores that echo lost time. Summoning the supporting testimony of writers, poets, philosophers, musicians, and everyday citizens, Eichler reveals how the essence of an entire epoch has been inscribed in these sounds and stories. Along the way, he visits key locations central to the music’s creation, from the ruins of Coventry Cathedral to the site of the Babi Yar ravine in Kyiv. As the living memory of the Second World War fades, Time’s Echo proposes new ways of listening to history, and learning to hear between its notes the resonances of what another era has written, heard, dreamed, hoped, and mourned. A lyrical narrative full of insight and compassion, this book deepens how we think about the legacies of war, the presence of the past, and the renewed promise of art for our lives today.
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