The Superior Person S Field Guide To Deceitful Deceptive Downright Dangerous Language

"With his customary wit and clear-sightedness, Bowler cuts a swath through the thickets of popular jargon, casting daylight on such linguistic deformities as "interrogate with prejudice" (that is, torture) and "unforeseen geological event" (a mining disaster). Impatient with euphemism, he examines ugly specimens forced into bloom in the interests of political correctness - "waitperson," "developmentally challenged" - designed to help the squeamish avoid direct confrontation with the simple facts of sex and disability. Here are circumlocutions that make the disagreeable seem agreeable, the unacceptable acceptable, and here is Peter Bowler, as always, trying to set the record, and the English language, straight."--BOOK JACKET.

“Bethumpt The Best and Worst of the Wördos” is a collaborative effort of Jerry Reedy, Ph.D. and Professor Emeritus of Classical Languages and Fred Webber, B.A., Journalism. The authors hope this book will give readers an understanding of the origin of words and their past and present meanings and usage. They also hope readers will enjoy the book. It’s not intended to be pedantic or instructional... just interesting and sometimes fun. Both authors belong to Wördos, a group of people who meet monthly to talk about the often careless use of English in the media. We believe that the failure to write clearly jeopardizes understanding and believability, and that writing well is important in establishing credibility and competence. There’s more about the Wördos in the book. And speaking of the book, if you’re wondering about the origin of “Bethumpt,” you’ll have to buy the book to find out!

Keys to Academic English presents Academic English and its building blocks in an accessible, easy-to-use format.

The English language arrived in Australia with the first motley bunch of European settlers on 26 January 1788. Today there is clearly a distinctive Australian regional dialect with its own place among the global family of ‘Englishes’. How did this come about? Where did the distinctive pattern, accent, and verbal inventions that make up Aussie English come from? A lively narrative, this book tells the story of the birth, rise and triumphant progress of the colourful dingo lingo that we know today as Aussie English.

Book Review Index provides quick access to reviews of books, periodicals, books on tape and electronic media representing a wide range of popular, academic and professional interests. The up-to-date coverage, wide scope and inclusion of citations for both newly published and older materials make Book Review Index an exceptionally useful reference tool. More than 600 publications are indexed, including journals and national general interest publications and newspapers. Book Review Index is available in a three-issue subscription covering the current year or as an annual cumulation covering the past year.

Do unto others as you would others should do to you. You can never be rude if you bear the rule always in mind, for what lady likes to be treated rudely? True Christian politeness will always be the result of an unselfish regard for the feelings of others, and though you may err in the ceremonious points of etiquette, you will never be im polite. Politeness, founded upon such a rule, becomes the expression, in graceful manner, of social virtues. The spirit of politeness consists in a certain attention to forms and ceremonies, which are meant both to please others and ourselves, and to make others pleased with us ;a still clearer definition may be given by saying that politeness is goodness of heart put into daily practice; the.re can be no true, politeness without kindness, purity, singleness of heart, and sensibility. Many believe that politeness is but a mask worn in the world to conceal bad passions and impulses, and to make a show of possessing virtues not really existing in the heart; thus, that politeness is merely hypocrisy and dissimulation. Do not believe this; be certain that those who profess such a doctrine are practising themselves the deceit they condemn so much.

Overview of the interface of language and the law, illustrated with authentic data and contemporary case studies. Topics include collection of evidence, discourse, courtroom interaction, legal language, comprehension and forensic phonetics.

Hugo and Shirley Jackson award-winning Peter Watts stands on the cutting edge of hard SF with his acclaimed novel, Blindsight Two months since the stars fell... Two months of silence, while a world held its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune's orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever's out there isn't talking to us. It's talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions with unknown and unknowable alien intellect that doesn't wish to be met? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won't be needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist—an informational topologist with half his mind gone—as an interface between here and there. Pray they can be trusted with the fate of a world. They may be more alien than the thing they've been sent to find. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.