Michael Fortescue

This monograph investigates for the first time words like ‘thing’ of maximal semantic generality across languages. Not all languages have exact equivalents of English ‘thing’ – in some, for instance, the nearest equivalent is an interrogative stem (‘what?’). Few languages extend their ‘thing’ words into indefinite ‘something’, ‘anything’, ‘nothing’, as in English. As regards Indo-European languages, Buck (1988) points out that such words typically derive from a more abstract source than that of simple material objects. In the case of ‘thing’, the earliest source usually given is the Germanic word for a ‘judicial assembly’. How does such a word develop the most general sense of ‘thing’ today? Do all languages follow this kind of pattern? These questions lead into an investigation of the concept of ‘thing’ in a wide range of contexts and in a wide variety of languages, involving both typological and cognitive aspects. The results have sometimes been unexpected. Buck, C. D. 1988. A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo -European Languages. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

The miniatures in the first part of this book all involve perspective. The perspective in all of them is in one way or another unusual: sometimes frame by frame, sometimes macroscopic, sometimes microscopic; sometimes it is the thing perceived that does the perceiving, and sometimes two or more perspectives are superimposed or blended. The metamorphoses of the second part are less to do with transformations of beings - divine or otherwise - than with the metamorphoses of words, by association of meaning. In short, the volume as a whole constitutes a divertissement of intertwined ideas and images.

This volume is about the surprises lurking behind the genealogies of English words, often obscured by sound changes and borrowings from other languages. Though surprising - and often amusing - these etymologies are part and parcel of the history of the language. They encompass interesting shifts in meaning through the ages, and reflect the multiple sources that have added to the richness of English vocabulary.

This volume presents the up-to-date results of investigations into the Asian origins of the only two language families of North America that are widely acknowledged as having likely genetic links in northern Asia. It brings together all that has been proposed to date under the respective rubrics of the Uralo-Siberian (Eskimo-Yukaghir-Uralic) hypothesis and the Dene-Yeniseian hypothesis. The evolution of the two parallel research strategies for fleshing out these linguistic links between North America and Asia are compared and contrasted. Although focusing on stringently controlled linguistic reconstructions, the volume draws upon archaeological and human genetic data where relevant.

The planet is becoming increasingly uninhabitable thanks to escalating climate change, dwindling resources, and the anarchy resulting from the breakup of the World Federation. Humanity faces a dilemma: which way to escape total disaster? There are two possible routes: the long one via interplanetary migration, and the short one - the inner one - via direct communication with an alien civilization based on quantum cognition. The first of these seems more and more unlikely to succeed, but Professor Thorvald's experiments with Controlled Lucid Dreaming opens the door to the latter a crack...

Verbs of mental states or activity constitute a subject of considerable interest to both Cognitive Linguistics and Linguistic Typology. They promise to open a window on the invisible workings of the mind, while at the same time displaying a wide variety of historical sources across languages. In this book Michael Fortescue presents an innovative approach to the semantics and diachronic source of cognitive verbs across a representative array of the world’s languages. The relationship among the cognitive verbs of individual languages is essentially one of metonymy, and the book investigates in detail the specific metonymic relationships involved, as revealed largely by the polysemous spread of word meanings. The data is projected against a circular ‘map’ of interrelated cognitive categories.

These curious tales all have something to do with language: Does one really have to queue to be assigned a language at birth? How could one go about communicating with an alien but sentient 'thing'? Are words sufficient to navigate through the numerical labyrinth of Manhattan? Can the sum total of all human knowledge be transferred to electromagnetic circuits in rock? Can one improve one's memory by acquiring a conservatory in one's autumn years? Can language be acquired by a vegetal implant? The stories comprising this volume do not answer any of these questions, but considering them at least provides food for thought.

Words are escaping from the flagship project of the prestigious House of Words. Something must be done fast to get them back before a rival company is brought in to take over the project. But the lexicographers below deck are not being cooperative. Treated as slaves they use their time when not supervised to play word games, facing the threat of the overseer's whip if discovered. The management suspects that they may be aiding the leakage and their ringleader is clapped in irons. Emissaries are sent to negotiate with the words now living in riotous anarchy in the wild woods, but with little success. The words have certain demands if they are to return. An ultimatum is relayed to the irascible editor-in-chief, who cannot allow this undermining of editorial policy. His aging boss, the publisher, who is himself having difficulty remembering words, is only interested in cost-efficiency. A solution of a surprising kind is finally brokered by a humble female servitor sympathetic to the lexicographers? cause.

James, an IT consultant engaged in upgrading the computer system of the Brain Imaging Institute at Cambridge, discovers something strange in the institute's server - a number of encrypted titles of books. But before he can investigate further the institute's director is dismissed for appropriating institute funds to acquire a large quantity of beryllium fluoride from Russia for his own obscure ends. He disappears. Since James' company is engaged in nanotechnological research involving this substance he is more than a little curious to know what the director has been up to. A visit to the local library in order to track down one of the encrypted titles - "Christina's Book" - leads to an initial dead-end: no such book exists, although the title appears as an otherwise blank catalogue entry under the director's name. What does it refer to? James will finally discover - but only after a massive solar storm has undermined the intended results of an extraordinary clandestine experiment...

Each of the prose poems that constitute the first part of this volume juxtaposes at least two widely different images and ways of reading them. The result - an either/or choice between incompatibles - can be surprising. Those of the second part are based on more free-wheeling association and word play. All good fun.

In this tongue-in-cheek novel there is a diabolical plot afoot to detonate a dirty bomb on the lawn of the White House involving of all things the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. Brent, Senator Barrington's na ve twit of a son, is an unwitting part of the plot - and its ultimate backfiring. There are dark forces at work beneath the surface and they have their claws in the senator's son - or so they think. We follow Brent's chaotic journey in search of material on global warming for his thesis at Shenektekoot Community College. The senator willingly finances his travels, hoping to keep him out of his hair while he is up for re-election. The tale starts in Copenhagen, whence Brent intends - after interviewing the Danish queen - to go straight to Greenland, but he is fated first to circumnavigate the globe, meeting some odd characters and managing to upset world leaders galore. He leaves a trail of destruction in his wake wherever he goes, much to the dismay of his father. The devils trying to control him for their own ends can zip back and forth through time and space by 'black matter transport', but they can only affect events by influencing the minds of human protagonists. The clownish pair Azi and Belz prove in the long run to be as incompetent as Brent himself.

This tightly constructed novel is set in the fictitious village of Slatefield, where dinosaur bones were first found in England. The arrival of a writer of popular books at the house of his brother, an Oxford archaeologist, stirs up an old rivalry. A strange stone has been unearthed from a local quarry bearing what looks like an ancient script and the two brothers have very different interpretations of its contents. For the archaeologist it is clearly a fake, but for his brother and his artist wife it opens a window to a prehistoric civilization, going back even to the age of the giant dragonflies. There is also a land dispute over the site of a Roman villa, and disagreement among the villagers over the possible reopening of the slate mines. A humorous element is introduced by the bumbling new vicar who tries to smooth over all these disputes with words of unorthodox Whiteheadian wisdom. Science and imagination are at loggerheads, and their resolution (of sorts) provides a surprising ending.

The walled - and very private - village of Greendale is not all that it appears to be from the outside. Superficially it embodies all that is quaint and desirable in the English country way of life. Within it is concealed an exclusive language academy catering for wealthy foreigners. This curious institution purports to teach 'perfect' English - with a 100 % success rate - and successful graduation holds out the promise of integration into the English upper crust. Everything seems light and amusing at the onset, and the latest electronic technology is regarded just as fun by the new intake of students. But gradually the gadgetry grows more and more intrusive into their private lives and it emerges that both the teaching staff and the 'villagers' are more eccentric than either the students or the naive new teacher Adrian have bargained for. Trying to enter the village under false pretences can lead to unpleasant consequences, but when students try to escape things can grow nasty indeed...

A grumpy old hypochondriac is led into a world of dream and memory by certain pieces he finds separated out from the puzzle he is putting together. They are the key to the walled town represented in the surface of the puzzle - and to a secret locked within it. The book itself constitutes a puzzle: the 'solution' is a fully interlocking picture of the tragi-comic narrator, as he tries to make head or tail of his aimless life. Amongst the ambiguous denizens of the puzzle world he glimpses a girl he once loved and lost...

This unconventional introduction to the linguistic discipline of semantics - and pragmatics - takes the form of a series of zany dialogues, each illustrating a particular topic. They do this by breaking the rules that govern language usage in such a way as to bring home their hidden existence with a jolt. The intention is to render the significance of these abstractions more tangible and to sharpen the reader's awareness of what lurks beneath the surface of more 'normal' human communication. The notion of context is crucial throughout: it is the key to understanding the richer meaning of both individual words and whole utterances. Following each dialogue there are some definitions and a brief discussion of the topics concerned, together with references for more serious reading. The collection arose from the author's experience as professor of linguistics at the University of Copenhagen, in particular with the functional and cognitive aspects of language.

Annie is about to start her last year at boarding school in Abingdon when Uncle George, whom she barely remembers, shows up out of the blue. He is drunk and starts off on an elaborate confabulation about an event he has been witness to on Abingdon Bridge. His appearance in Annie's life will turn her life upside down and provide her with a seemingly endless source of entertainment. He has returned to his old stomping ground after a mysterious spell 'abroad'. He evidently has an intimate knowledge of all aspects of the town's life, its history and local characters and, above all, a thorough knowledge of the town's pubs. Annie, embarrassed by his behaviour in front of others, keeps her meetings with him secret. Uncle George is chronically incapable of sticking to the truth, but one of the few definite things one learns about his past is that his connection to Annie's family is more complicated than she suspected. But who exactly is this disreputable, loveable, but ultimately pathetic character...?