Can a bump on the head cause someone to speak with a different accent? Can animals, aliens, and objects talk? Can we communicate with gods, demons, and the dead? Language Myths, Mysteries and Magic is a curio shop full of colourful superstitions, folklore, and legends about language.

Responding to anti-Indianism in America, the wide-ranging perspectives culled in Unlearning the Language of Conquest present a provocative account of the contemporary hegemony still at work today, whether conscious or unconscious. Four Arrows has gathered a rich collection of voices and topics, including: Waziyatawin Angela Cavender Wilson's "Burning Down the House: Laura Ingalls Wilder and American Colonialism," which probes the mentality of hatred woven within the pages of this iconographic children's literature. Vine Deloria's "Conquest Masquerading as Law," examining the effect of anti-Indian prejudice on decisions in U.S. federal law. David N. Gibb's "The Question of Whitewashing in American History and Social Science," featuring a candid discussion of the spurious relationship between sources of academic funding and the types of research allowed or discouraged. Barbara Alice Mann's "Where Are Your Women? Missing in Action," displaying the exclusion of Native American women in curricula that purport to illuminate the history of Indigenous Peoples. Bringing to light crucial information and perspectives on an aspect of humanity that pervades not only U.S. history but also current sustainability, sociology, and the ability to craft accurate understandings of the population as a whole, Unlearning the Language of Conquest yields a liberating new lexis for realistic dialogues.

In Language in History, Tony Crowley provides the analytical tools for answering such questions. Using a radical re-reading of Saussure and Bahktin, he demonstrates, in four case studies, the ways in which language has been used to construct social and cultural identity in Britain and Ireland. For example, he examines the ways in which language was employed to construct a bourgeois public sphere in 18th Century England, and he reveals how language is still being used in contemporary Ireland to articulate national and political aspirations and why the Irish language died. By bringing together linguistic and critical theory with his own sharp historical and political consciousness, Tony Crowley provides a new agenda for language study; one which acknowledges the fact that writing about history has always been determined by the historical context, and by issues of race, class and gender. Language in History represents a major contribution to the field, and an essential text for anyone interested in language, discourse and communication.

Tears are a common experience we rarely discuss, and then only in relation to pain and loss. David Runcorn draws upon a long Christian tradition of seeing tears as a gift to explore their deeper meaning and purpose, their place in human life and their significance for prayer and spirituality. In the early centuries of the church tears were regarded as an extension of baptism or a gift of the Spirit. They were integral to prayer and a vital part of human integration and maturing. Jesus said that those who mourn were 'blessed'. The Language of Tears explores how tears are a natural and important way of processing loss, uncertainty and anxiety, drawing upon theology, scripture, psychology and biology. This accessible and sensitive guide is for all engaged in spiritual direction, counselling or pastoral care.

'Robert Almeder has clearly summarized an extensive body of evidence and argues its merits with the skill of a professional philosopher.'--Ian Stevenson, M.D., University of Virginia, Health Sciences Center

It is much easier to kill them if we cant understand them. We might begin to like and empathize with them if we do. That was the opinion of three quarters of an adult college class when faced with the awareness of their deficient linguistic survival skills. They are willing to forego self-preservation for the sake of warfare and annihilation of people that are different. Pressing reasons for looking into our world language needs and competencies have risen, but we prefer to bury our heads in the sand while ironically ofttimes entrusting the task of comprehending the outside world with our enemies. It is no wonder, on one hand, that paranoia ensues, for it becomes necessary to resort to dubious helpers in order to survive in hostile environments without the basic local linguistic skills; on the other hand, the author firmly asserts that the world would be a much better place if we became cognizant that we are one species imbued with the same universal feelings and needs. Languages and cultures only constitute a smoke screen. The reader will take a linguistic tour with the author as he shares experiences and opinions on our own language experiences and other cultures.

In the 1970s, the behavioral psychologist Herbert S. Terrace led a remarkable experiment to see if a chimpanzee could be taught to use language. A young ape, named “Nim Chimpsky” in a nod to the linguist whose theories Terrace challenged, was raised by a family in New York and instructed in American Sign Language. Initially, Terrace thought that Nim could create sentences but later discovered that Nim’s teachers inadvertently cued his signing. Terrace concluded that Project Nim failed—not because Nim couldn’t create sentences but because he couldn’t even learn words. Language is a uniquely human quality, and attempting to find it in animals is wishful thinking at best. The failure of Project Nim meant we were no closer to understanding where language comes from. In this book, Terrace revisits Project Nim to offer a novel view of the origins of human language. In contrast to both Noam Chomsky and his critics, Terrace contends that words, as much as grammar, are the cornerstones of language. Retracing human evolution and developmental psychology, he shows that nonverbal interaction is the foundation of infant language acquisition, leading up to a child’s first words. By placing words and conversation before grammar, we can, for the first time, account for the evolutionary basis of language. Terrace argues that this theory explains Nim’s inability to acquire words and, more broadly, the differences between human and animal communication. Why Chimpanzees Can’t Learn Language and Only Humans Can is a masterful statement of the nature of language and what it means to be human.

The volume contains 13 specially written specialist articles on a wide range of subjects within the ambit of the history of the English language and prominent literary uses of it. In uniting linguistic and literary pursuits in a single volume, it follows the noble Neapolitan scholar’s research interests, as well as representing topics that figure prominently in any comprehensive university course in English. Subjects range from the rise of the present progressive in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle via issues in Medieval English, concepts of language inherent in the Early Modern English grammatical treatises and an evaluation of their value as evidence for the development of the language, the “new science” and language in the 17th century, on literary issues like the “implied director” in Macbeth, Sir Elyot’s Enigmatic “Image of Governance”, English history reflected in Ben Jonson to the history of text types and Jespersen’s reading of Saussure’s “Cours”. Apart from an introductory section with articles on Frank’s biography, his scientific activities and his impact on the field, the book contains work by Susan Fitzmaurice, Nicola Pantaleo, Gabriella Di Martino, Konrad Koerner, Stefano Manferlotti, Uwe Baumann, Anna Maria Palombi Cataldi, Rosanna Sornicola and Dieter Stein.