The Penguin Dictionary of Language

"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.