Catalog Search Results
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 2
Language
English
Description
Improve your ability to navigate the conversational floor by exploring turn-taking devices as well as techniques for opening conversations and monitoring or reducing your "talk time." Weigh the pros and cons of using discourse markers and fillers such as "well," "um," and "like," and understand why being an active listener and back-channeling are crucial to being a good conversationalist.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 4
Language
English
Description
Situations that threaten another's "face" or dignity are particularly complicated. Explore methods for managing this difficult social territory, including guidance on enhancing positive face, respecting personal space, offering a successful apology, and navigating the politics of giving a compliment. Consider how cultural differences of politeness affect expectations in this area.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 5
Language
English
Description
Turn to hierarchical relationships and self-promotion in the workplace with an investigation of the language of sophisticated ingratiation. Get strategies for making presentations feel more like conversations, ensuring listeners are engaged, and interviewing effectively - on both sides of the desk. Then, delve into the dynamics of doctor-patient communication.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 1
Language
English
Description
Discover why the simple act of talking is so important to your success professionally and personally as the professor introduces you to the idea of becoming conversationally aware. Learn and analyze techniques for doing your share of conversational work and consider how gender affects the way we converse.
5) How Conversation Works: 6 Lessons for Better Communication: How and When to Be Direct and Indirect
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 3
Language
English
Description
Interpreting the meaning behind the words that people say is key to making conversations work well. Consider the logic of conversation and understand more consciously the way we use explicit and implicit meanings - direct and indirect speech - to accomplish things through conversation. Also learn ways to redirect conversations that feel inappropriate or questions you find overly personal.
6) How Conversation Works: 6 Lessons for Better Communication: How to Maintain Relationships with Talk
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 6
Language
English
Description
Understand how discourse can simply relay information or build intimacy with a friend or romantic partner. Look at the fascinating research on how cooperative and competitive speaking styles differ, how parents model conversation for children from infancy, how language alignment can predict relationship success, and how electronic communications follow prescribed patterns.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 1
Language
English
Description
Where do words come from? How do they change over time? What counts as a word, anyway? Language is one of the things that reveal how our minds work, and by exploring the "secret life of words," you'll see the power of words - and what words can tell us about human history, technology, and culture.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 15
Language
English
Description
Linguists have borrowed the language of biology to trace the history of words - ancestors, family trees, variation, and selection. This lecture reflects on the blurry distinction between a dialect and a new language, then shows how systemic sound changes explain the etymological relationship between seemingly different - but related - words such as "hearty" and "cordial."
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 24
Language
English
Description
How is the tone of "bootylicious" different from "incentivize"? Youthful, undignified, playful, and irreverent, slang is hard to define but serves an important purpose in our communications. Unlike jargon, slang is decidedly informal, and it has the power to oppose established authority and establish rapport.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 7
Language
English
Description
Turn from the origins of words to pronunciation and the system that underlies the variations in dialects. This lecture dives into such regionalisms as the Southern pen-pin merger and the Midwest vowel shift, as well as the socially constructed judgments people make about different dialects.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 5
Language
English
Description
Did you know that "girl" used to mean "a child of either sex" or that "nice" used to mean "silly, foolish"? While some words are remarkably stable, many undergo semantic shifts. This lecture surveys the five major categories of semantic change: generalization, narrowing, amelioration, pejoration, and metaphorical extension.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 12
Language
English
Description
English is truly a world language. Your study of borrowed words concludes with an A-to-Z look at world languages and their influence on contemporary English. You'll be delighted to learn the origins of words such as "monkey business," "flamingo," "alligator," and more.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 17
Language
English
Description
Shift your attention to Greek, which also heavily influenced the English language of learning. Here you'll uncover a Greek treasury of language - including the word web around the root of "lexicon" ("lexicography," "lexus," "lexeme"). Then you'll turn to the influence of Greek mythology on English.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 2
Language
English
Description
Open the Oxford English Dictionary and you'll find dead words such as "wittol" and distinctly contemporary words such as "ginormous" and "multislacking." In addition to looking at the lifespan of words from birth to death, this lecture also considers "semantics" - the study of how words mean what they mean.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 16
Language
English
Description
Unlock the English vocabulary with Latin "word webs," a series of derivations that come from the same root. Knowing your Latin bases can help you solve puzzles about the relationship between English words such as "insult" and "resilient," and it helps linguists trace a word's meaning as it changes over time.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 21
Language
English
Description
Adjectives and adverbs are often the source of prescriptive angst. This lecture starts with the distinction between them before charting the history of the sentence adverb "hopefully" and intensifiers such as "really" and "wicked." These examples, as well as concerns about fun/funner/funnest, reveal how people feel about changes in language.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 30
Language
English
Description
Contemplate the jargon and euphemisms that reflect the intense relationships and horrifying realities of war. Linguistic play has led to slang words such as "snafu" and "fubar," while euphemisms such as "daisy cutter" and "collateral damage" add a layer of abstraction to the violence and death of war.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 31
Language
English
Description
Political language matters. The terms you use shape the frame of the debate, which, in turn, can sway voters. Take a glimpse behind the stage of debate and learn about the surprising history of terms such as "right," "left," "liberal," "lobbyist," and more, and see how language brands hot-button issues such as the "death tax."
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 33
Language
English
Description
In the most decorous of ways, delve into the world of taboo language - the inappropriate lexicon that has the power to make us laugh or blush, to offend or hurt, and to establish solidarity. After learning about the utility and ubiquity of such language, you'll have the opportunity to reflect on the changing standards of What makes a word taboo.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 34
Language
English
Description
Which phrase is correct? And does it matter? Idioms often take on meaning beyond the sum of their individual words. Step back from the language we use in everyday speech and discover the origins - and sometimes the false histories - of many of our common idioms. Then consider the importance of "lexical bundles" to language more generally.
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