Michael Adams

A major introductory language/linguistics textbook written specifically for English and Education majors, this book is an engaging introduction to the structure of English, general theories in linguistics, and important issues in sociolinguistics. This accessible text provides more extensive coverage of issues of particular interest to English and Education majors. Tapping into our natural curiosity about language, it invites all students to connect academic linguistics to everyday use of the English language and to become active participants in the construction of linguistic knowledge. The second edition provides updated examples of language change-including new slang and other word coinages, grammatical developments, and sound changes-as well as new research findings on American dialects, language acquisition, language evolution, eggcorns, English and the Internet, and much more.

"Michael Adams's book is great fun No one intends to make a truly bad movie, but when they do, Michael Adams will be there to watch it...and make it entertaining " --John Landis, director of Trading Places and The Blues Brothers In Showgirls, Teen Wolves, and Astro Zombies, film critic Michael Adams embarks on a year-long odyssey to discover the worst movie ever made, which Mystery Science Theater 3000 star, writer, and director Kevin Murphy calls "disturbingly comprehensive, joyously critical, and the best of its kind." From all-time cult classics such as Reefer Madness and Plan 9 from Outer Space to new entries to the pantheon such as Gigli and Baby Geniuses, no genre, star, or director is safe from Adams's acerbic wit and hilarious observations. In the vein of A.J. Jacobs's New York Times bestselling book The Know-It-All, and with the snarky sarcasm of television's Mystery Science Theater 3000 and The Soup, Showgirls, Teen Wolves, and Astro Zombies leaves no stone unturned. With a foreword by cult director George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead).

Slang, writes Michael Adams, is poetry on the down low, and sometimes lowdown poetry on the down low, but rarely, if ever, merely lowdown. It is the poetry of everyday speech, the people's poetry, and it deserves attention as language playing on the cusp of art. In Slang: The People's Poetry, Adams covers this perennially interesting subject in a serious but highly engaging way, illuminating the fundamental question "What is Slang" and defending slang--and all forms of nonstandard English--as integral parts of the American language. Why is an expression like "bed head" lost in a lexical limbo, found neither in slang nor standard dictionaries? Why are snow-boarding terms such as "fakie," "goofy foot," "ollie" and "nollie" not considered slang? As he addresses these and other lexical curiosities, Adams reveals that slang is used in part to define groups, distinguishing those who are "down with it" from those who are "out of it." Slang is also a rebellion against the mainstream. It often irritates those who color within the lines--indeed, slang is meant to irritate, sometimes even to shock. But slang is also inventive language, both fun to make and fun to use. Rather than complain about slang as "bad" language, Adams urges us to celebrate slang's playful resistance to the commonplace and to see it as the expression of an innate human capacity, not only for language, but for poetry. A passionate defense of slang, jargon, argot and other forms of nonstandard English, this marvelous volume is full of amusing and even astonishing examples of all sorts of slang. It will be a must for students of language and a joy for word lovers everywhere.

"Napoleon and Russia" tells, for the first time, the full story of Napoleon and his crucial relationship with Russia, from the 1790s and Bonaparte's rise to power, through the period of Austerlitz, Tilsit and the Russian invasion, to the Emperor's fall and its aftermath. In doing so, it not only puts the critical events of 1812 in their proper context as part of an even greater tale - of peace as well as war, friendship as well as enmity - but also provides fresh insight into the Napoleonic period as a whole, questioning many of the assumptions about the era prevalent in the English-speaking world. The tale boasts a cast of fascinating characters to rival any novel: the rulers, Napoleon himself, Catherine the Great, 'Mad' Tsar Paul and the enigmatic Alexander I; generals such as Ney, Murat, Davout, Suvorov, Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly; statesmen like Talleyrand, Caulaincourt, Czartoryski and Rumiantsev; and, of course, the ordinary soldiers who fought some of the most intriguing, bloody and important campaigns in history. This is an enthralling story of fundamental importance in the history of Europe and, indeed, the world.

"Over the past half-century, and particularly since 1967, a deliberate and generally successful attempt has been made to cover up the truth about Palestine, with damaging consequences for the cause of peace and justice in the Middle East." In 1975 Michael Adams and Christopher Mayhew delivered their powerful indictment of Western media coverage of the Israel-Palestine issue. Both men, journalist and politician, had direct experience of the situation in Palestine and both felt passionately that a curtain of concealment and deceit had been drawn over media discussion of the Zionist colonization of Palestine, resulting in misinformed and biased perceptions. The importance of their discussion of the Zionist management of the British media in Publish it Not cannot be overstated. It was pivotal in the process that has unmasked a number of myths: - that Zionist intentions in Palestine were broadly benign and that the Zionist project was a 'liberation movement' and not a project to displace the indigenous population of Palestine; - that Palestine was 'a land without people' and Jewry 'a people without a land' before Zionist colonization; that Zionist endeavour 'made the desert bloom' in Palestine; - that 600,000 'Jews' opposed 40 million Muslims in 1947-9, that Israel was fighting a 'war of survival'; that Israel has always sought, and its Arab neighbours have always rejected peaceful relations. Thirty years on, a new edition of this classic expose reveals that little has changed in media treatment of the Palestine issue. An extensive introduction by former BBC correspondent Tim Llewellyn describes developments since 1975 and compares the issues that Mayhew and Adams addressed with those existing now.

Michael Adams begins his book with a synopsis of the programme's history and a defence of ephemeral language. He then moves to the main body of the work: a detailed glossary of slayer slang, annotated with actual dialogue and recorded in the style accepted by the American Dialect Society. The book concludes with a bibliography and a lengthy index, a guide to sources (novels based on the show, magazine articles about the show, and language culled from the official posting board) and an appendix of slang-making suffixes. Introduced by Jane Espenson, one of the show's most inventive writers (and herself a linguist), Slayer Slang offers a quintessential example of contemporary youth culture serving as a vehicle for slang. bitca n [AHD4 bitch n in sense 2.a + a] Bitch 1997 Sep 15 Whedon When She Was Bad "[Willow:] 'I mean, why else would she be acting like such a b-i-t-c-h?' [Giles:] 'Willow, I think we're all a little old to be spelling things out.' [Xander:] 'A bitca?'" break and enterish adj [AHD4 sv breaking and entering n + -ish suff in sense 2.a] Suitable for crime 1999 Mar 16 Petrie Enemies "I'll go home and stock up on weapons, slip into something a little more break and enterish." [B] carbon-dated adj [fr. AHD4 carbondating + -ed] Very out of date 1997 Mar 10 Whedon Welcome to the Hellmouth "[Buffy:] 'Deal with that outfit for a moment.' [Giles:] 'It's dated?' [Buffy:] 'It's carbon-dated.'" cuddle-monkey n [AHD4 cuddle v + monkey n in sense 2, by analogy fr. RHHDAS (also DAS3 and NTC) sv cuddle bunny 'an affectionate, passionate, or sexually attractive young woman'] Male lover 1998 Feb 10 Noxon Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered "Every woman in Sunnydale wants to make me her cuddle-monkey." [X]

Diese Arbeit stellt in einzelnen Aufsatzen praxisnahe Anwendungen der oekonomischen Theorie des Rechts dar. Die Aufsatze wurden so gewahlt, dass die Fulle der moeglichen Anwendungen und zugleich ihr unmittelbarer rechtspolitischer Nutzen deutlich werden. So werden Analysen und rechtspolitische Vorschlage zur Zerstoerung der Rauschgiftmarkte, der Struktur von Zivilprozessen, der Kontrolle der Unternehmensverwaltung und deren Vergutung, zur Wahl effizienter Haftungssysteme, der Abschreckung von Straftaten und der Regulierung der Glucksspielindustrie vorgelegt. Im Rahmen von Anwendungen werden auch die Konzepte der mit dem Nobelpreis ausgezeichneten Autoren des Fachgebietes wie Coase, Becker, Stigler, Akerlof, North und Kahneman dargestellt und erlautert. Sie machen die innovative Kraft und die Zukunftsfestigkeit der dargelegten Konzepte deutlich und belegen ihren Nutzen fur die Praxis der Jurisprudenz.