Language Invention

An insider’s tour through the construction of invented languages from the bestselling author and creator of languages for Legendary's Dune, the HBO series Game of Thrones and the Syfy series Defiance From master language creator David J. Peterson comes a creative guide to language construction...

Through vivid stories studded with insights, award-winning author Tamim Ansary tells the story of how humans invented history, from the Stone Age to the Virtual Age. Fifty thousand years ago, we roamed the world as countless autonomous bands of hunter-gatherers, each one telling itself a story...

Finalist for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography Finalist for the Mark Lynton History Prize “Meticulously researched, crackling with insights, and rich in novelistic detail” (Steve Silberman), this “provocative, sensitive, beautifully written biography” (Sylvia Nasar)...

James Gleick, the author of the best sellers Chaos and Genius, now brings us a work just as astonishing and masterly: a revelatory chronicle and meditation that shows how information has become the modern era’s defining quality—the blood, the fuel, the vital principle of our world. The...

Mankind has a distinct advantage over other terrestrial species: we talk to one another. But how did we acquire the most advanced form of communication on Earth? Daniel L. Everett, a "bombshell" linguist and "instant folk hero" (Tom Wolfe, Harper's), provides in this sweeping history a comprehensive examination of the evolutionary story of language, from the earliest speaking attempts by hominids to the more than 7,000 languages that exist today.

Ready to be blown away? Welcome to a book full of fun facts, incredible anecdotes, and things so strange you'll wonder if they're real (but they are!). There’s no boring theory or tests here—just a collection of fascinating facts that will make you laugh, marvel, and want to share them with everyone. Did you know that the human body glows in the dark, even if we can’t see it? Or that octopuses have 3 hearts and 9 brains? Or that in some cities it’s actually illegal to die? And that there are countries where you can be fined for carrying chickens in your pockets? Yes, you read that ...

Have you ever wondered about the place-names that appear on Scotch whisky bottles? What language the names come from, what they mean, or if they are even real places? If you feel baffled about where to start looking for such information, then this reliable and informative book is for you. This book discusses each place-name that is concerned in some way with Scotch whisky, either as the name of the whisky itself, or as the name of the distillery.

This twelfth e-book in the Dominating Discourses series concerns invention, which constitutes the very core of persuasive rhetoric. It is through invention that we decide precisely what we are going to say in order to lead the thoughts of our listeners toward our goals. Through invention we define the terms of the argument, creating a sense of urgency and commitment. We compare our argument to similar prior condition which comfirm our stance. We make connections which support our argument, making it more compelling. All of these things produce a strong argument, but we are still not ...