New Releases by Leonard Cohen

The monograph aims for a comprehensive look at the history of «The Big Apple», incorporating material that has come to light since the first edition of this work was published in 1991. The overall picture now is: Apples, always important, became especially so with the appearance of the Big Red Delicious Apple in Iowa, 1870''s. «The Big Apple» therefore came to refer to somebody or something very important. In 1920 an African-American stablehand in New Orleans mentioned in conversation: «We''s goin'' to ''the big apple''» (NYC racetracks as the big time in horseracing). Turf writer John J. Fitz Gerald overheard this statement and adopted «The Big Apple» (1921ff.) in his columns, popularizing it to refer particularly to the NYC tracks. Secondarily it could refer to big time horseracing in general. In the 1930''s «The Big Apple» was picked up by black jazz musicians to designate NYC in general (and Harlem in particular) as the place where the greatest jazz in the world was being played. And in 1971 Charles Gillett revived «The Big Apple» as part of a public-relations campaign on behalf of NYC. Despite the increasingly clear picture of what happened, various incorrect etymologies have arisen about «The Big Apple». The monograph addresses and rejects them in some detail.

The present monograph lays the groundwork for a revived study of syntactic blending by emphasizing its frequency in everyday speech and providing considerable raw material for analysis. Attention is also drawn to the possibility of idioms arising from successive changes and to the relevance of blends for evaluating the various main theories of general linguistics.

The Studies in Slang monographs are a forum for the detailed discussion of slang items, an activity of worth in itself and for the insight it can bring to broader issues in linguistics. We deal here in particular with the study of languages in their social context and the role of the individual in linguistic innovation.

Shyster has been one of the most difficult items for etymologists of English, but a Rosetta Stone to its origin exists: the previously overlooked 1843-1844 material in a New York City newspaper. This material contains an all-important conversation on shyster at the moment of its inception and permits the unearthing of the detailed story behind this term; very briefly, shyster arose as part of the editor''s crusade against legal and political corruption in NYC and the attempts of the authorities to silence him. The present monography discusses the earlier unsuccessful attempts to find the term''s etymology and then sets forth (and analyzes) the new material.

Digte.

Published in 1956 to immediate acclaim, the singer/songwriters first published book, now released for a new generation, contains poems written between the ages of 15 and 20.