Read complete books and articles on: Word Origins

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16 of the Best Books and Articles on: Word Origins

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

English Words: History and Structure » Read Now
by Donka Minkova, Robert Stockwell. 208 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

English Words: History and Structure is concerned primarily with the learned vocabulary of English, the words borrowed from the classical languages and French. It is both an introduction to some of the basic principles of linguistic analysis and a helpful manual for vocabulary discernment and...
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English Words: History and Structure is concerned primarily with the learned vocabulary of English, the words borrowed from the classical languages and French. It is both an introduction to some of the basic principles of linguistic analysis and a helpful manual for vocabulary discernment and enrichment. Designed to deepen and strengthen the knowledge acquired in the classroom, exercises to accompany each chapter and further readings on recent loans and the legal and medical vocabulary of English are available online at http://uk.cambridge.org/linguistics/resources/englishwor ds.
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2.

Dictionary of Word Origins (1945) » Read Now
by Joseph T. Shipley. 430 pgs.

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...DICTIONARY of WORD ORIGINS -II- DICTIONARY of WORD ORIGINS by JOSEPH T. SHIPLEY Second Edition The Philosophical...themselves: these are some of the byproducts of a look...
3.

Unusual Words and How They Came About (1946) » Read Now
by Edwin Radford. 318 pgs.

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...in any book of origins, because it shows...introduced the word to describe "the...any compiler of "origins" should go abroad for a word which already...The suggested...
4.

English Words and Their Background (1923) » Read Now
by George H. McKnight. 449 pgs.

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5.

The Origins of Complex Language: An Inquiry into the Evolutionary Beginnings of Sentences, Syllables, and Truth » Read Now
by Andrew Carstairs-McCarthy. 260 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

This book proposes a new theory of the origins of human language ability and presents an original account of the early evolution of language. It explains why humans are the only language-using animals, challenges the assumption that language is a consequence of intelligence, and offers a new...
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This book proposes a new theory of the origins of human language ability and presents an original account of the early evolution of language. It explains why humans are the only language-using animals, challenges the assumption that language is a consequence of intelligence, and offers a new perspective on human uniqueness. The author draws on evidence from archaeology, linguistics, cognitive science, and evolutionary biology. Making no assumptions about the reader's prior knowledge he first provides an introductory but critical survey of all sources of evidence for language evolution. He then considers what language itself reveals about its own and human origins and evolution. He shows that certain central aspects of language do not, unexpectedly, reflect what they are used for, are maladapted for their function. He considers why this should be, and argues that these odd aspects of language reveal important clues about its evolutionary origin. The Origins of Complex Language fulfils the promise of its title. In doing so it turns upside down conventional theories about the relation between cognition and expression, truth and reference, and the co-evolution of mind and body. Original in conception, brilliantly executed, stylishly written, this book will attract a wide range of readers interested in the evolution and origins of language.
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6.

The Language of Ethnic Conflict: Social Organization and Lexical Culture » Read Now
by Irving Lewis Allen. 164 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
7.

Language Change: Progress or Decay? » Read Now
by Jean Aitchison. 312 pgs.

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This book gives a lucid and up-to-date overview of language change, discussing where our evidence about language change comes from, how and why changes happen, and how languages begin and end. It considers both changes that occurred long ago, and those currently in progress. This substantially...
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This book gives a lucid and up-to-date overview of language change, discussing where our evidence about language change comes from, how and why changes happen, and how languages begin and end. It considers both changes that occurred long ago, and those currently in progress. This substantially revised third edition includes two new chapters on change of meaning and grammaticalization. New sections have been added to other chapters, as well as over 150 new references. The work remains nontechnical in style and accessible to the reader with no previous knowledge of linguistics.
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8.

Lexicography: An Introduction » Read Now
by Howard Jackson. 198 pgs.

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This book is an accessible introduction to lexicography - the study of dictionaries.Dictionaries are used at home and at school, cited in law courts, sermons and parliament, and referred to by crossword addicts and scrabble players alike. Lexicography provides a detailed overview of the history...
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This book is an accessible introduction to lexicography - the study of dictionaries.Dictionaries are used at home and at school, cited in law courts, sermons and parliament, and referred to by crossword addicts and scrabble players alike. Lexicography provides a detailed overview of the history, types and content of these essential references. Howard Jackson analyses a wide range of dictionaries, from those for native speakers to thematic dictionaries and those on CD-ROM, to reveal the ways in which dictionaries fulfil their dual function of describing the vocabulary of English and providing a useful and accessible reference resource.Beginning with an introduction to the terms used in lexicology to describe words and vocabulary, and offering summaries and suggestions for further reading, Lexicography: An Introduction is highly student-friendly. It is ideal for anyone with an interest in the development and use of dictionaries.
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9.

What's in a Word? On Etymological Slurs, in ETC.: A Review of General Semantics » Read Now
by Michael Moore. 5 pgs.

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...Whats in a word? On etymological slurs. by Michael...Russian and other Slavic languages, the word for German, nemec, derives from the root...Hungarianize; in a similar...
10.

Worries about Words, in ETC.: A Review of General Semantics » Read Now
by Toby Lester. 5 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

...of personality. Explanations of word origins make connections that we may not...any one behavior pattern, any one word, and its bound to lead in all sorts...personality are...
11.

Linguistic Change: An Introduction to the Historical Study of Language ("Sources of New Words-Analogical Creation" begins on p. 109 and "Original Creation" begins on p. 127) » Read Now
by E. H. Sturtevant. 192 pgs.

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...Significant Change in the Body of a Word 118 d Inverse Derivation...Repetition 172 2 Significant Word-Order 172 3 Short Words...widespread impression that the written word...
12.

The English Language in Modern Times (since 1400) » Read Now
by Margaret Schlauch. 318 pgs.

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...punctus . Diphthongs of various origins may be summarised briefly as follows: ai ai had several origins. It came from: Earlier ME...Troye < Troia a learned word ; also royal < reial...loan words it has several origins: nevew...
13.

Sources of London English: Medieval Thames Vocabulary » Read Now
by Laura Wright. 248 pgs.

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The macaronic (mixed-language) business texts of London for the period 1275 to 1500 present a rich source of evidence for the medieval dialect of London English. Hitherto they have been ignored because of mistaken ideas about their value, but Laura Wright offers a reassessment of their importance in...
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The macaronic (mixed-language) business texts of London for the period 1275 to 1500 present a rich source of evidence for the medieval dialect of London English. Hitherto they have been ignored because of mistaken ideas about their value, but Laura Wright offers a reassessment of their importance in the development of the English language. The book focuses on terminology surrounding the River Thames to present a study of the medieval dialect of London. The vocabulary survey lists many words which had previously been lost to us, and the illustrative extracts from the texts present a fascinating picture of life in medieval times on the River Thames. The author's analysis covers the orthography, phonology, and morphology of the dialect as revealed in these texts.
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14.

Composition of Scientific Words: A Manual of Methods and a Lexicon of Materials for the Practice of Logotechnics (1956) » Read Now
by Roland Wilbur Brown. 882 pgs.

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...greatly enlarged version of my Materials for word-study, published in 1927, but retains the...abstractly, denoted the spoken or written word; and a logotechnes was an...
15.

The Wonder of Words: An Introduction to Language for Everyman (1938) » Read Now
by Isaac Goldberg. 485 pgs.

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...which to us is the study of word-origins. Etymos is Greek for...with both kinds of true origins -- the history of the word as sound, and the history...onomatopoetic theory...
16.

Word-Power, Performance, and Tradition, in Journal of American Folklore » Read Now
by John Miles Foley. 27 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...the same kind of quantum, with Greek"epos" and Old English "word" similarly naming units of performed utterance rather than...emphasis was redistributed -- perma nently --...