The Social Art: Language and Its Uses - Tapa blanda

"As familiar and pedestrian as it seems, everyday speech conceals a world of mystery. Macaulay invites the reader to explore this world....Whether the topic is nursery rhymes, literature, dialects, rhetoric, or profanity, Macaulay sweeps aside the obvious and uncovers riddles and surprises....A delightful introduction to linguistics."-- Booklist"[Macaulay] covers...just about every aspect of language you can imagine...[with] consummate, usually amusing examples of the topic at hand....He's a good synthesizer, citing interesting research."--Los Angeles Times "As familiar and pedestrian as it seems, everyday speech conceals a world of mystery. Macaulay invites the reader to explore this world....Whether the topic is nursery rhymes, literature, dialects, rhetoric, or profanity, Macaulay sweeps aside the obvious and uncovers riddles and surprises....A delightful introduction to linguistics."-- Booklist "[Macaulay] covers...just about every aspect of language you can imagine...[with] consummate, usually amusing examples of the topic at hand....He's a good synthesizer, citing interesting research."--Los Angeles Times "As familiar and pedestrian as it seems, everyday speech conceals a world of mystery. Macaulay invites the reader to explore this world....Whether the topic is nursery rhymes, literature, dialects, rhetoric, or profanity, Macaulay sweeps aside the obvious and uncovers riddles and surprises....A delightful introduction to linguistics."-- Booklist "[Macaulay] covers...just about every aspect of language you can imagine...[with] consummate, usually amusing examples of the topic at hand....He's a good synthesizer, citing interesting research."--Los Angeles Times "As familiar and pedestrian as it seems, everyday speech conceals a world of mystery. Macaulay invites the reader to explore this world....Whether the topic is nursery rhymes, literature, dialects, rhetoric, or profanity, Macaulay sweeps aside the obvious and uncovers riddles and surprises....Adelightful introduction to linguistics."-- Booklist"[Macaulay] covers...just about every aspect of language you can imagine...[with] consummate, usually amusing examples of the topic at hand....He's a good synthesizer, citing interesting research."--Los Angeles Times

This engagingly-written, highly readable volume introduces lay readers to the fascinating world of language. Replete with jokes, anecdotes, quotations, and readily intelligible examples, it offers a painless entree to the full range of linguistic knowledge. In thirty-one brief chapters, Macaulay delves into such topics as language acquisition, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, social dialects, sex differences, writing, style, register, conversation, narrative, swearing, rhetoric, second language learning, and linguistic change. The reader comes away with a new appreciation of the pleasure to be derived from the study of this complex and uniquely human phenomenon.