Joseph Piercy
Author
Publisher
Michael O'Mara Books
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
"The Oxford English Dictionary contains 175,000 words in common usage and yet linguists estimate that a vocabulary of 3,000 is sufficient to cover ninety-five per cent of common usage in speech and print. Where have all those other words gone? The English language is a giant sponge, absorbing words from a multitude of different languages and cultures and yet it seems speakers of English are indolent at accessing the rich resources at our disposal....
Author
Publisher
Michael O'Mara Books Limited
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
Joseph Piercy outlines the 25 rules that should be adhered to in written and spoken English, defining the rules themselves and then decoding them for the reader so that he or she understands each rule and how it has been used and developed over time. In doing so, the author highlights the most common misuses -- or plain errors -- in the language, such as apostrophes, "who" and "whom, " and avoiding split infinitives and double negatives, while also...
Author
Publisher
Michael O'Mara Books
Pub. Date
2012.
Language
English
Description
This book tells the story of how the English language has developed over the last 15 centuries. Illustrating the compelling history of how the relatively obscure dialects spoken by tribes from what are now Denmark, the Low Countries, and northern Germany became the most widely spoken language in the world, this history also explores how that language evolved during the last two millennia. Chronologically ordered and divided into six main sections...
Author
Publisher
Michael O'Mara Books Limited
Pub. Date
2019.
Language
English
Description
It is estimated that on average an English-speaking adult has acquired a functioning vocabulary of 25,000 words by the time they reach middle age. That sounds like a lot - and more than enough for the daily purposes of communicating with each other in speech and writing. However, it is hard to feel quite so sanguine about our word power when considering those 25,000 words account for less than 15% of the total words in current usage in the English...