More than a million words, weird spellings, words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently or vice versa. Where on Earth did the English language come from? The answer is that English isn’t just the speech of one nation. It’s the memory of thousands of years of history. It tracks the places people came from, the places they went, the adventures they had, the friends and enemies they made, the battles they won and lost.

Translation affects every aspect of your life - and we're not just talking about the obvious things, like world politics and global business.
Translation affects you personally, too. The books you read. The movies you watch. The food you eat. Your favorite sports team. The opinions you hold dear. The religion you practice. Even your looks and, yes, your love life. Right this very minute, translation is saving lives, perhaps even yours.

Most people think of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) as a distinctly British product. Begun in England 150 years ago, it took more than 60 years to complete and, when it was finally finished in 1928, the British prime minister heralded it as a 'national treasure.' It maintained this image throughout the twentieth century, and in 2006 the English public voted it an 'Icon of England', alongside Marmite, Buckingham Palace, and the bowler hat. But this book shows that the dictionary is not as 'British' as we all thought.

Written in a funny, charming, and conversational style, Word Origins is the first book to offer a thorough investigation of the history and the science of etymology, making this little-known field accessible to everyone interested in the history of words.
Partly a history, partly a how-to, and completely entertaining, Word Origins invites readers behind the scenes to watch an etymologist at work.

Cross-linguistic Similarity in Foreign Language Learning (Second Language Acquisition)

This book explores the importance of cross-linguistic similarity in foreign language learning. Similarities can be perceived in the form of simplified one-to-one relationships or merely assumed. The book outlines the different roles of L1 transfer on comprehension and on production, and on close and distant target languages.