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The miniatures in the first part of this book all involve perspective. The perspective in all of them is in one way or another unusual: sometimes frame by frame, sometimes macroscopic, sometimes microscopic, sometimes it is the thing perceived that does the perceiving, and sometimes two or more perspectives are superimposed or blended. The metamorphoses of the second part are less to do with transformations of beings - divine or otherwise - th...

These short pieces all involve unusual perspectives on time and space, on memory and perception, and on other people's inner selves. They are interconnected beneath the surface by a number of related motifs. Sometimes it is the thing perceived that seems to do the perceiving, and sometimes two or more perspectives are superimposed. The ensemble constitutes a kind of amusing musical divertissement of ideas and images.

This volume is about the surprises lurking behind the genealogies of English words, often obscured by sound changes and borrowings from other languages. Though surprising - and often amusing - these etymologies are part and parcel of the history of the language. They encompass interesting shifts in meaning through the ages, and reflect the multiple sources that have added to the richness of English vocabulary.

The planet is becoming increasingly uninhabitable thanks to escalating climate change, dwindling resources, and the anarchy resulting from the breakup of the World Federation. Humanity faces a dilemma: which way to escape total disaster? There are two possible routes: the long one via interplanetary migration, and the short one - the inner one - via direct communication with an alien civilization based on quantum cognition. The first of these ...

This book contains an innovative approach to the semantics and diachronic source of cognitive verbs across a representative array of the world's languages.

This collection of short short tales presents some of the stranger consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on individuals in the UK. Ranging from the pathetic to the hilarious, some are more credible than others, but all have an ironic twist to them. Entertaining reading for a difficult time.

These curious tales all have something to do with language: Does one really have to queue to be assigned a language at birth? How could one go about communicating with an alien but sentient 'thing'? Are words sufficient to navigate through the numerical labyrinth of Manhattan? Can the sum total of all human knowledge be transferred to electromagnetic circuits in rock? Can one improve one's memory by acquiring a conservatory in one's autumn yea...

Words are escaping from the flagship project of the prestigious House of Words. Something must be done fast to get them back before a rival company is brought in to take over the project. But the lexicographers below deck are not being cooperative. Treated as slaves they use their time when not supervised to play word games, facing the threat of the overseer?s whip if discovered. The management suspects that they may be aiding the leakage and ...

James, an IT consultant engaged in upgrading the computer system of the Brain Imaging Institute at Cambridge, discovers something strange in the institute's server - a number of encrypted titles of books. But before he can investigate further the institute's director is dismissed for appropriating institute funds to acquire a large quantity of beryllium fluoride from Russia for his own obscure ends. He disappears. Since James' company is engag...

Each of the prose poems that constitute the first part of this volume juxtaposes at least two widely different images and ways of reading them. The result - an either/or choice between incompatibles - can be surprising. Those of the second part are based on more free-wheeling association and word play. All good fun.

Keine Beschreibung.

An engaging study of the mental lexicon: the way in which the form and meaning of words is stored by speakers of specific languages.

This volume is the first comprehensive comparative dictionary to cover the whole of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan family. The genealogical status of this family (whether from a common source or due to convergence) has long been controversial, but its coherence as a family can now be taken as proven. Its geographical position between Siberia and northernmost America renders it crucial in any attempt to relate the languages and peoples of these large ...

Keine Beschreibung.

This unconventional introduction to the linguistic discipline of semantics - and pragmatics - takes the form of a series of zany dialogues, each illustrating a particular topic. They do this by breaking the rules that govern language usage in such a way as to bring home their hidden existence with a jolt. The intention is to render the significance of these abstractions more tangible and to sharpen the reader's awareness of what lurks beneath ...

Annie is about to start her last year at boarding school in Abingdon when Uncle George, whom she barely remembers, shows up out of the blue. He is drunk and starts off on an elaborate confabulation about an event he has been witness to on Abingdon Bridge. His appearance in Annie's life will turn her life upside down and provide her with a seemingly endless source of entertainment. He has returned to his old stomping ground after a mysterious s...

A grumpy old hypochondriac is led into a world of dream and memory by certain pieces he finds separated out from the puzzle he is putting together. They are the key to the walled town represented in the surface of the puzzle - and to a secret locked within it. The book itself constitutes a puzzle: the 'solution' is a fully interlocking picture of the tragi-comic narrator, as he tries to make head or tail of his aimless life. Amongst the ambigu...

The walled - and very private - village of Greendale is not all that it appears to be from the outside. Superficially it embodies all that is quaint and desirable in the English country way of life. Within it is concealed an exclusive language academy catering for wealthy foreigners. This curious institution purports to teach 'perfect' English - with a 100 % success rate - and successful graduation holds out the promise of integration into the...

Keine Beschreibung.

This tightly constructed novel is set in the fictitious village of Slatefield, where dinosaur bones were first found in England. The arrival of a writer of popular books at the house of his brother, an Oxford archaeologist, stirs up an old rivalry. A strange stone has been unearthed from a local quarry bearing what looks like an ancient script and the two brothers have very different interpretations of its contents. For the archaeologist it is...