Much ADO About English - Hardcover

Did you know that 'rhinoceros' has four possible plurals or that 'silly" has had nine different meanings? Can you guess what 'zenzizenzizenzic' and 'tatterdemalion' mean? Would you talk about an 'ambush of tigers' or a 'shrewdness of apes' or, how about an 'absence of waiters'? If we say one mouse and two mice, why don't we say one house and two hice? Can you tell a Tom Swifty from a Colemanball or a mondegreen? "Much Ado About English" strolls through the vast landscape of the English language and wanders down its most illogical, peculiar and idiosyncratic byways. It ranges from where words have come from and how they've changed, to why spelling and pronunciation don't match up, and the myriad ways we use this flexible and fascinating language. Whether your interest is neologisms or pleonasms, sobriquets or oxymorons, tongue-twisters or palindromes, "Much Ado About English" is a tantalising taste of the massive range and downright bloody-mindedness of English, written in a lighthearted and engaging style.

Richard Watson Todd was born in Shrewsbury and graduated from Lancaster University with a BA in Accounting & Finance before realising that accounting did not provide the most interesting of careers (apologies to accountants). He took a TEFL course and after several years working abroad, obtained a Master's Degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from the University of North Wales in Bangor, after which he returned to Thailand where he has been ever since. He is currently Head of the Centre for Research and Services at the School of Liberal Arts at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) in Bangkok. He has acted as a consultant to both the World Bank and the Thai Ministry of Education, is the author of several books, a regular contributor to the Bangkok Post, and runs the Big Applied Linguistics Database. Despite all this work, Richard finds enough time to keep his two dogs happy, enjoy reading and play darts.