Banter, chit-chat, gossip, natter, tete-a-tete: these are just a few of the terms for the varied ways in which we interact with one another through conversation. David Crystal explores the factors that motivate so many different kinds of talk and reveals the rules we use unconsciously, even in the most routine exchanges of everyday conversation.

This book examines data from a multilingual Content and Language Integrated Learning context, where Spanish adolescents simultaneously study English and French as foreign languages. It demonstrates the positive effect that receiving content classes in multiple target languages has on vocabulary acquisition and, in particular, lexical availability.

This Element introduces Lexical Multidimensional Analysis (LMDA) for the identification and analysis of discourses and ideologies, offering insights into how lexis marks discourse formations and ideological alignments. Two case studies on climate change and migrant education demonstrate the application of LMDA.

This Element introduces Lexical Multidimensional Analysis (LMDA) for the identification and analysis of discourses and ideologies, offering insights into how lexis marks discourse formations and ideological alignments. Two case studies on climate change and migrant education demonstrate the application of LMDA.

Based on the author's life-long research experience, this book unearths the linguistic history of 66 unwritten and under-researched Central Chadic languages in West- and Central Africa. It describes the complex historical development of the modern languages from the common proto-language and reconstructs 228 lexical items of their basic vocabulary.

Legal professionals in the United States have increasingly relied on dictionaries, both current and historical, in court cases. This Element first contextualizes several issues in early English dictionaries and eighteenth-century language that illustrate how using eighteenth-century dictionaries in questions of law can be problematic.