The world's foremost expert on the English language takes us on an entertaining and eye-opening tour of the history of our vernacular through the ages.In this entertaining history of the world’s most ubiquitous language, David Crystal draws on one hundred words that best illustrate the huge variety of sources, influences and events that have helped to shape our vernacular since the first definitively English word—‘roe’—was written down on the femur of a roe deer in the fifth century.  Featuring ancient words (‘loaf’), cutting edge terms that relfect our world (‘twittersphere’), indispensible words that shape our tongue (‘and’, ‘what’), fanciful words (‘fopdoodle’) and even obscene expressions (the "c word"...), David Crystal takes readers on a tour of the winding byways of our language via the rude, the obscure and the downright surprising.

Product Description: For decades, people have been studying Shakespeare's life and times, and in recent years there has been a renewed surge of interest in aspects of his language. So how can we better understand Shakespeare? David Crystal provides a lively and original introduction to Shakespeare's language, making his plays easily accessible to modern-day audiences...read more

Product Description: David Crystal's classic English as a Global Language considers the history, present status and future of the English language, focusing on its role as the leading international language. English has been deemed the most 'successful' language ever, with 1500 million speakers internationally, presenting a difficult task to those who wish to investigate it in its entirety...read more

Product Description: "Let there be light," "A fly in the ointment," "New wine in old bottles," "How are the mighty fallen," "The salt of the earth." All these everyday phrases owe their popularity to the King James Bible. Indeed, it is said that this astonishing Bible has contributed more to the color and grace of the English language than almost any other literary source...read more

David Crystal's A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics has long been the standard single-volume reference for its field. Now available in its sixth edition, it has been revised and updated to reflect the latest terms in the field.Includes in excess of 5,100 terms, grouped into over 3,000 entriesCoverage reflects recommendations by a team of experts in phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, making it exceptionally comprehensiveIncorporates new ideas stemming from the minimalist programContains a separate table of abbreviations and table of symbols, along with an updated International Phonetic AlphabetUpdates entries to reflect the way established terms are now perceived in light of changes in the field, providing a unique insight into the historical development of linguisticsRemains the standard single-volume reference for the field of linguistics and phonetics.

Product Description: The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, today a world-famous bestseller, has always been a ground-breaking dictionary. In its first edition, The Concise Oxford Dictionary was adapted by Henry Watson Fowler and Francis George Fowler from The Oxford Dictionary (now known as the Oxford English Dictionary)...read more

Product Description: ‘A brilliantly accessible introduction to core topics in English language and linguistics. My students loved it.’ David Adger, Queen Mary, University of London, UK ‘Entertaining, clear and informative. David Crystal’s lectures demystify and enrich the English language for students of all levels...read more

Product Description: With a language disappearing every two weeks and neologisms springing up almost daily, an understanding of the origins and currency of language has never seemed more relevant. In this charming volume, a narrative history written explicitly for a young audience, expert linguist David Crystal proves why the story of language deserves retelling...read more

Product Description: The Internet is now an integral part of contemporary life, and linguists are increasingly studying its influence on language. In this student-friendly guidebook, leading language authority Professor David Crystal follows on from his landmark bestseller Language and the Internet and presents the area as a new field: Internet linguistics...read more

Product Description: One-third of the world’s population can speak or write in English, which is an unprecedented achievement for a language. How did this enormous reach come about? And what happens to a language when it is used by so many? In Evolving English, David Crystal, the leading authority on the development of the English language, answers these questions and more...read more

Product Description: No book had more influence on twentieth-century writers of English than Henry Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage. It rapidly became the standard work of reference for the correct use of English in terms of choice of words, grammar, and style...read more

Product Description: This new, thoroughly revised edition of the acclaimed Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language incorporates the major developments in language study which have taken place since the mid 1990s. Two main new areas have been added: the rise of electronic communication in all its current forms from email to texting, and the crisis affecting the world's languages, of which half are thought to be so seriously endangered that they will die out this century...read more

Product Description: Text messaging has spread like wildfire. Indeed texting is so widespread that many parents, teachers, and media pundits have been outspoken in their criticism of it. Does texting spell the end of western civilization? In this humorous, level-headed and insightful book, David Crystal argues that the panic over texting is misplaced...read more

Product Description: A fascinating and insightful romp through the language we speak every day, by the linguistic expert who ?succeeds again and again with clarity, wit and enthusiasm? (New York Times) In this discursive jaunt through the groves and thickets of the English language, David Crystal creates a mesmerizing and entertaining narrative account of his encounters with the language and its speakers...read more

Kidnapping, attempted assassination, espionage … not the answers you’d expect to the question ‘what happens when you become a linguist?’ But now, reflecting on a long and hugely successful career at the forefront of the field of English Language and Linguistics, David Crystal answers this question and offers us a special look behind the scenes at the adventures, rewards, challenges and pitfalls of his life in language. Both an autobiography and a highly accessible introduction to the field of linguistics, Just a Phrase I’m Going Through illuminates and entertains us with its many insights into the ever-fascinating subject of language. David Crystal is synonymous with language, both as a great populariser and linguistic pioneer, and his contribution to the field is unparalleled. This is a book not just for students and teachers but for all lovers of language. For more about David Crystal at Routledge, visit: www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415485746.

Product Description: For the first time, The Future of Language brings together three of Professor David Crystal’s most popular lectures on the future of language. One of the world’s foremost experts on language and English language, and arguably the most accessible and entertaining writer and lecturer in this area, Crystal delivers these informative and highly enjoyable performance lectures exploring key contemporary language issues: 'The Future of Englishes', 'Language Death' and 'Internet Linguistics'...read more

Product Description: In this captivating tour of humanity's received wisdom, one of Britain's best-known and best-selling authorities on language, David Crystal, brings together more than 2,000 delightful proverbs from 110 countries--the first new book of world proverbs to appear in nearly eighty years...read more

Product Description: After Overlook's amazing success with The Stories of English and How Language Works, David Crystal has been described by the Times Higher Education Supplement as a "latter-day Samuel Johnson." Now, in a delightfully discursive journey through the groves and thickets of the English language, Crystal sets off again, combining personal reflections, historical allusions, and traveler's observations to create a mesmerizing and entertaining narrative account of his encounters with the language and its speakers...read more

Product Description: Weve all been taught that this sentence--"Driving in from the airport, the flags flapped furiously"--is wrong, wrong, wrong. But is it, asks David Crystal. Everyone knows what this sentence means. No one actually thinks that the flags were driving the car...read more

'Samuel Johnson's Dictionary', published in 1755, marked a milestone in English language which was in need of standards. This work contains a selection from the original, offering passages on subjects ranging from books and critics to dreams and ethics.

Product Description: "Lexicography is not just an exercise in linguistic accounting," writes preeminent English language scholar David Crystal in this exceptionally lively and erudite little book. "It is a voyage of lexical exploration and discovery." In Words, Words, Words, Crystal takes readers on a fascinating linguistic adventure, exploring the English language in all its oddity, complexity, and ever-changing beauty...read more

Product Description: Steven Pinker meets Bill Bryson in this landmark exploration of language. In the author's own words, "How Language Works is not about music, cookery, or sex. But it is about how we talk about music, cookery, and sex-or, indeed, anything at all...read more