David Crystal

Meet the happy crafter who believes every mystery should be unraveled. Meet the happy crafter who believes every mystery should be unraveled.Molly Pink’s crochet group has a new mystery on their hands when they find a paper bag that contains a note that speaks of remorse, a diary entry of the sorrow of parting, and a complicated piece of filet crochet that offers an obscure clue in pictures. Things get even more complicated when they find the talented crocheter—murdered by a box of poisoned marzipan apples.

"What precisely are structuralism, semiotics and sociolinguistics? What distinguishes pidgins from creoles, gerunds from gerundives, and the hard palate from the soft palate? How many people speak Macedonian, Malay or Makua? Now in its second edition, David Crystal's authoritative dictionary provides answers to all these questions and to many hundreds of others concerned with language and linguistics."--BOOK JACKET.

Presents a history of English spelling through chapters that cover such topics as the introduction of the Roman alphabet, each letter's origins, and the development of long and short vowels.

Explores the world of work in general and the education and training necessary for achieving specific career goals.

"We all know eloquence when we hear it. But what exactly is it? And how might we gain more of it for ourselves? This entertaining and, yes, eloquent book illuminates the power of language from a linguistic point of view and provides fascinating insights into the way we use words. David Crystal, a world-renowned expert on the history and usage of the English language, probes the intricate workings of eloquence. His lively analysis encompasses everyday situations (wedding speeches, business presentations, storytelling) as well as the oratory of great public gatherings. Crystal focuses on the here and now of eloquent speaking--from pitch, pace, and prosody to jokes, appropriateness, and how to wield a microphone. He explains what is going on moment by moment and examines each facet of eloquence. He also investigates topics such as the way current technologies help or hinder our verbal powers, the psychological effects of verbal excellence, and why certain places or peoples are thought to be more eloquent than others. In the core analysis of the book, Crystal offers an extended and close dissection of Barack Obama's electrifying "Yes we can" speech of 2008, in which the president demonstrated full mastery of virtually every element of eloquence--from the simple use of parallelism and an awareness of what not to say, to his brilliant conclusion constructed around two powerful words: dreams and answers"--

This new edition of his classic book includes material on the vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation of New Englishes, footnotes and full bibliography.