It’s been a long time in the making, but my latest title, Lexis – an introduction to English words is finally available.
You can see full details here.
Lexis takes a relaxed and – I hope – entertaining look at our vocabulary. It begins by asking, ‘How many words do you know?’ and offering one way of finding out the answer, before pulling the rug away from the whole idea! In fact the question is almost impossible to answer. For a start, what do you mean by word, and what do you mean by know? They seem straightforward enough, but as soon as you begin to examine them, you find they aren’t as simple as they might at first appear.
Then there are chapters on the way in which words can help and hinder effective communication, before we move on to the history of english words and the interesting topic of how new words are created. The first part of the book concludes with a quick and fairly painless look at the grammar of words, and offers a 10-point plan for ‘Getting a grip on words’.
The second part of the book is a reference section, with detailed information on:
- Word classes: nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, and determiners.
- Prefixes and their meanings.
- How suffixes are used to form new words.
- A list of words that are frequently confused, with definitions and examples.
- A glossary of technical terms.
- A list of print and online resources
Lexis is available as a printable PDF with interactive table of contents and hyperlinks. You can get from the Store, for just $4.50/£3.00.
Alternatively you can buy the Kindle version. For a limited period of time this is available for the giveaway price of $1.19/£0.77:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
But you’ll have to be quick, I shan’t be able to price it that low for long!