101 American English Idioms: Understanding and Speaking English Like an American

American idioms can cause confusion and frustrate many English language learners. This thin, delightful collection 101 idioms uses humor, clear drawings, and witty captions to illustrate the real meanings of odd phrases. Many English teachers love the verbal and visual humor, and add it as a supplemental text for intermediate or advanced ESL students. The mocking tone, however, probably annoys the more prudish folks. Other adult educators might also feel that their precious class time is better spent on more practical life skills.

I understand their reservations, but still strongly recommend it as a real treat. The author, Harry Collis, deserves great praise for creating a very entertaining, informative ESL book.
This satisfying collection seems ideal for self-study, college students, and tutors. Do yourself a favor - read this book!

The Penguin Dictionary of English Idioms (Penguin Reference Books)

"Power nap," "the Oprah effect," "girl power"-these are just some of the recent figures of speech to have entered our language. This dictionary has been completely revised for its second edition and includes 2,000 new idioms. It provides clear and concise definitions and explains how the idioms should be used. At the same time, the dictionary's thematic arrangement makes it possible not only to study and compare all the idioms in a given subject area, but to match the right one to the right occasion.

English Words (Paperback)

Description
From nonsense verse to journalism, from poetry to advertising, Katamba gracefully explores the history of the English language, identifying particular words whose genealogy is marked by sometimes astonishing differences in their past and present usage. Whether Katamba's concern is the cultural logic of the English language or its complex syntaxical roots, English Words proves an introduction which is delightfully lucid and descriptive.

About the Author
Francis Katamba is a Lecturer in Linguistics and English at Lancaster University.

Deconstructing Morphology: Word Formation in Syntactic Theory (Paperback)

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Description
One of the major contributions to theoretical linguistics during the twentieth century has been an advancement of our understanding that the information-bearing units which make up human language are organized on a hierarchy of levels. It has been an overarching goal of research since the 1930s to determine the precise nature of those levels and what principles guide interactions among them.

Linguists have typically posited phonological, morphological, and syntactic levels, each with its own distinct vocabulary and organizing principles, but in Deconstructing Morphology Rochelle Lieber persuasively challenges the existence of a morphological level of language. Her argument, that rules and vocabulary claimed to belong to the morphological level in fact belong to the levels of syntax and phonology, follows the work of Sproat, Toman, and others. Her study, however, is the first to draw jointly on Chomsky's Government-Binding Theory of syntax and on recent research in phonology.

Ranging broadly over data from many languages—including Tagalog, English, French, and Dutch—Deconstructing Morphology addresses key questions in current morphological and phonological research and provides an innovative view of the overall architecture of grammar.

English Words: History and Structure (Paperback)

Description English Words: History and Structure is concerned primarily with the learned vocabulary of English, the words borrowed from the classical languages and French. It is both an introduction to some of the basic principles of linguistic analysis and a helpful manual for vocabulary discernment and enrichment. Designed to deepen and strengthen the knowledge acquired in the classroom, exercises to accompany each chapter and further readings on recent loans and the legal and medical vocabulary of English are available online at http://uk.cambridge.org/linguistics/resources/englishwor ds.

Word-Formation in English (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics)

This textbook provides an accessible introduction to the study of word-formation, focussing specifically on English. Assuming no prior Linguistic knowledge, Ingo Plag explains the fundamentals of word-formation, showing how morphemes--the elements of a word's internal structure--can function both to relate words to other words, and to create new words. Students are encouraged to undertake their own morphological analyses of English words, and are familiarised with the methodological tools to obtain and analyse relevant data. Word-Formation in English will be welcomed by all students of English Language and Linguistics.