Why do we say a person is a 'wally'? Or makes money 'hand over fist'? Or is the 'spitting image' of someone else? Why is a 'loo' so called? Why do we 'take a rain-check'? Why shouldn't you 'teach your grandmother to suck eggs'?
These are the sort of questions that normal dictionaries duck out of by saying 'orig. obsc.' or 'orig. uncert.' or 'orig. unknown'.
The purpose of Why Do We Say . . . ? is to compare the many explanations on offer and to test them, even if in the end it serves to emphasize that in this field hard and fast conclusions are difficult to come by.

Language Use and Language Learning in CLIL Classrooms

This volume explores a highly topical issue in second and foreign language education: the spreading practice in mainstream education to teach content subjects through a foreign language. CLIL has been enthusiastically embraced as a language enrichment measure in many contexts and finally research can offer principled insights into its dynamics and potentials. The editors’ introductory and concluding chapters offer a synthesis of current CLIL research as well as a critical discussion of unresolved issues relating both to theoretical concerns and research practice.

The How to Be British Collection

A perennially popular collection of colour cartoon illustrations, with accompanying texts, on the endearing oddities of our British life and character. Drawing on their many years' experience of teaching English as a Foreign Language the authors also offer the wider world a tongue-in-cheek guide on how to get around in English and at the same time make sense of our 'funny ways'.

Voice and Grammatical Relations (Typological Studies in Language)

This volume presents thirteen original papers dealing with various aspects of two related areas of research of major concern to linguists of all theoretical persuasions: voice and grammatical relations. The papers are written from typological, functional, and cognitive perspectives, and contain a number of general studies as well as studies focusing on specific issues, and offer a wealth of data from a broad range of languages.

Written for students by students, Up Your Score is the book kids will actually want to use to help them ace the test. Its four authors and guest editor—who each achieved perfect or close-to-perfect scores and got into the college of their choice—offer expert advice and proven strategies, laced with an edgy wit.