YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN? by Ruth Wajnryb ( 9780521703741 ) - Books & Audio Books at Pickabook.co.uk

Item Details

Title:

YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?
WORDS, CONTEXTS AND COMMUNICATION

By:

Ruth Wajnryb

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£24.99

Our price:

£21.87

Discount:

12.5% off

You save:

£3.12

ISBN 10:

0521703743

ISBN 13:

9780521703741

Availability:

Usually dispatched within 1-3 weeks.

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Stock:

Currently 0 available

Publisher:

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

25 September, 2008

Pages:

240

Description:

Celebrated writer and linguist Ruth Wajnryb explores how and why our language works the way it does.

Synopsis:

Does a word mean what it says? Sometimes - but not always. Everyone thinks that meaning is contained within words - like sardines in a tin, or milk in a bottle. After all, words are nice stable things that you can look up in a dictionary aren't they? But dictionaries only take us so far...If you eavesdropped on a teenage conversation, rushing to a dictionary - with its definitions frozen in time - wouldn't help much. Who's using a word and to whom, in what context, for what purpose - all these influence the meaning of the language we use. The word's origins and history (its 'genetics') also help. Try teaching yourself another language from a phrasebook and you'll soon learn that you can be correct, in the formal sense, but still way behind the times in reality. In this book Wajnryb considers these and other questions to explore how and why our language works the way it does.

Publication:

Imprint:

Cambridge University Press

Returns:

Returnable

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