検索キーワード： 言語学

After a meteoric rise, China today is one of the world’s most powerful nations. Just a century ago, it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, as the world underwent a massive technological transformation that threatened to leave them behind. In Kingdom of Characters, Jing Tsu argues that China’s most daunting challenge was a linguistic one: the century-long fight to make the formidable Chinese language accessible to the modern world of global trade and digital technology.

Most of us give little thought to the back of the book - it's just where you go to look things up. But here, hiding in plain sight, is an unlikely realm of ambition and obsession, sparring and politicking, pleasure and play. Here we might find 'Butchers, to be avoided', or 'Cows that sh-te Fire', or even catch 'Calvin in his chamber with a Nonne'. This is the secret world of the index: an unsung but extraordinary everyday tool, with an illustrious but little-known past. Here, for the first time, its story is told.

Kingsley Amis' authoritative and witty guide to the use and abuse of the English language. A scourge of illiteracy and a thorn in the side of pretension, Amis provides indispensable advice about the linguistic blunders and barbarities that lie in wait for us, from danglers, four-letter words to jargon and even Welsh rarebit. By turns reflective, acerbic and provocative, The King's English is for anyone who cares about how the English language is used.

The internationally acclaimed author harnesses his brilliant imagination and masterful storytelling ability to create a catalog of new words inspired by stories of real people in this wondrous book reminiscent of Italo Calvino's mesmerizing Invisible Cities.

This 1880 book is about the Pepper family of five children and their widowed mother, Mamsie, a seamstress in a small New England town. Mamsie faces poverty with a brave heart, a smiling face, and the help of her children Ben, the eldest at the age of 11; Polly, always eager to cook for the family; the two little ones, Joel and Davie, and the baby Phronsie. The book has been a favorite of children, parents, and teachers for generations, and has inspired countless imaginations with its tender tales of the ways in which courage and good cheer overcome adversity.

Varna Shiksha describes the qualities, colors, genders, and devatas of the 50 letters of the Sanskrit alphabet and the unique and profound benefits of speaking the different letters of Sanskrit. This ancient text shows that every letter of the Sanskrit alphabet is a particle of infinity - a treasure of knowledge and organizing power.

Vera; or, The Nihilists is Oscar Wilde’s first play. It features Russian revolutionaries who seek to assassinate a reform-minded Emperor, and is loosely based on the life of Vera Zasulich who shot the Governor of St. Petersburg in 1878. Contemporary events in Russia, as published in the British press of the time, clearly influenced the plot and characters. The first public performance of Vera; or, The Nihilists was in New York City in 1883. The play was a failure and folded after one week. It remains fascinating as part of a study into the development of Wilde's work.

On Heroes, Hero Worship, and The Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle, is a collection of six lectures given in May 1840 about prominent historical figures. It sets out Carlyle's belief in the importance of heroic leadership, his view of how the world would be if powerful and inspired men were to have the power he thought they deserved. The collection includes figures ranging from religion to literature and politics, and the figures chosen were presented by Carlyle as archetypal examples of individuals who had dramatically impacted history for good or ill.

George Gissing’s 1893 gripping novel The Odd Women explores themes like the role of women in society, marriage, morals, and the nascent feminist movement. Set in London, Gissing's women range from the independent free-thinker Rhoda Nunn and the idealistic Mary Barfoot to the Madden sisters who struggle to make a living. The characters make their choices - some traditional and some bravely non-traditional, in two main plot lines. A remarkable late Victorian narrative, The Odd Women chronicles the shifting roles of women in a changing society in a most arresting way.

Fresh off his victory at The Battle of Lodi, Napoleon is planning to enjoy his lunch when a lieutenant arrives with the bad news that the dispatches he had been carrying were stolen. Infuriated, Napoleon threatens him with being court-martialed unless he can recover them. A woman appears who claims to know about the theft. Unconvinced of her story, Napoleon and the woman enter into a battle of wits in true Shaw style. Will the conqueror of worlds end up conquered by a woman?

This novel, set in 1920s California, tells the tale of Linda Strong who shares her father’s love for the beauty of nature in California. When her parents suddenly pass away, she is left with her sister Eileen, a huge house, and much wealth. Eileen goes on a spending spree, dissipating the inheritance at an alarming pace. When Linda eventually finds out, she meets with their banker and finds a way to earn money in a manner that she enjoys. The narrative includes romance, murder, and delightful descriptions of the state’s fauna and flora.

"The Song of the Cardinal" by Gene Stratton-Porter is the story of a big male Cardinal bird in the Wabash Valley, Indiana. Living in a tree near the home of a farmer and his wife, the bird sings with passion and joie de vivre to attract a mate, which he finds, and a charming romance develops. Unfolding at a leisurely pace, the story portrays the varied natural settings of the region in a most engaging way. The theme of nature and mankind’s responsibility to care for it, is present throughout the narrative.

The tale begins with an experiment to enable a woman named Mary to experience the supernatural realm, which turns her into an idiot. Then follows an account of a series of mysterious occurrences and deaths surrounding a sinister woman named Helen Vaughan. The protagonists eventually confront Helen and forces her to kill herself. Before dying, she undergoes a series of spooky transformations that reveals her to be the daughter of the ill-fated Mary and the god Pan.

A dead woman is discovered in the parlor of an empty luxury home in New York's famed Gramercy Park. Thus opens Anna Katharine Green's popular detective novel That Affair Next Door.

In a genteel ABC teashop on the Norfolk Road, Miss Polly Burton (of the Evening Observer) spends her lunch breaks listening to a mysterious old man, as he unravels cases of murder, blackmail, theft, and deceit that have filled the headlines, and baffled police and public alike. But to him, they are not "mysteries" at all - for Polly's brilliant but eccentric companion, "There is no such thing as a mystery in connection with any crime, provided intelligence is brought to bear upon its investigation."

Lucy Maud Montgomery was a beloved and prolific Canadian author, best known for her Anne of Green Gables series. She was also the author of over 500 short stories, poems, and essays. This delightful collection includes 20 of her earliest short stories, ranging from tales of fated romance to school friendships to Christmas miracles, all touching on the narrative themes of class, family, belonging, and romance that characterize her work.

This book will show how the Egyptians had various modes of writings for various purposes, and how the Egyptian modes were falsely designated as "separate languages" belonging to others, and how this one original language came to be called Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and other "languages" throughout the world - through deterioration of sound values via "sound shifts", as well as foreign degradation of the original Egyptian writing forms.

This biography describes the intellectual and political milieus that helped shape Noam Chomsky, a pivotal figure in contemporary linguistics, politics, cognitive psychology, and philosophy. It also presents an engaging political history of the last several decades, including such events as the Spanish Civil War, the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the march on the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War.

English is the world language, except that most of the world doesn’t speak it - only one in five people does. Dorren calculates that to speak fluently with half of the world’s 7.4 billion people in their mother tongues, you would need to know no fewer than 20 languages. He sets out to explore these top 20 world languages, which range from the familiar (French, Spanish) to the surprising (Malay, Javanese, Bengali).

When Mike Jackson's father suffers a serious financial setback, all Mike's hopes of "Varsity Blue" and a career playing his beloved cricket are dashed. Instead, he must go out and earn his living - in the alien world of the New Asiatic Bank, under the management of his nemesis Mr. John Bickersdyke. At first, all seems black; but then Mike finds that he has an ally, in the immaculate form of the irrepressible Psmith, who is likewise sentenced to a career in commerce. And Psmith has plans for the reform of Mr Bickersdyke....