Risks and uncertainties play a role in virtually all of our decisions. Quantitative models have so far been either too unrealistic or too complex. This graduate textbook presents modern models that are both realistic and tractable. All mathematical tools are related to real-life processes, ensuring accessibility to a wide audience.

Optimality Theory's central idea is that surface forms of language reflect resolutions of conflicts between competing constraints. Exercises with chapters 1-7 and sections on further reading. For linguists with a knowledge of derivational Generative Phonology.

In its original edition, Bruce Trigger's book was the first ever to examine the history of archaeological thought from medieval times to the present in world-wide perspective. Now, in this new edition, he both updates the original work and introduces new archaeological perspectives and concerns.

The study of human origins is one of the most fascinating branches of anthropology, yet it has rarely been considered by social anthropologists. This powerful study aims to bridge this gap, addressing the fundamental questions surrounding human evolution from the perspective of social anthropology.

The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodernism surveys the full spectrum of postmodern culture - high and low, avant-garde and popular, famous and obscure - across a range of fields, from architecture and visual art to fiction, poetry, and drama. It deftly maps postmodernism's successive historical phases, from its emergence in the 1960s to its waning in the first decades of the twenty-first century. Weaving together multiple strands of postmodernism - people and places from Andy Warhol, Jeffers...

Just about everyone seems to have views about language. Language attitudes and language ideologies permeate our daily lives. Our competence, intelligence, friendliness, trustworthiness, social status, group memberships, and so on, are often judged from the way we communicate.

Even the speed at which we speak can evoke reactions. And we often try to anticipate such judgements as we communicate. In this lively introduction, Peter Garrett draws upon research carried out over recent decades in or...

Disasters and History offers the first comprehensive historical overview of hazards and disasters. Drawing on a range of case studies, including the Black Death, the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and the Fukushima disaster, the authors examine how societies dealt with shocks and hazards and their potentially disastrous outcomes. They reveal the ways in which the consequences and outcomes of these disasters varied widely not only between societies but also within the same societies according to so...

The success of the Apgar score demonstrates the astounding power of an appropriate clinical instrument. This down-to-earth book provides practical advice, underpinned by theoretical principles, on developing and evaluating measurement instruments in all fields of medicine. It equips you to choose the most appropriate instrument for specific purposes.

The book covers measurement theories, methods and criteria for evaluating and selecting instruments. It provides methods to assess measurement p...

A Student Grammar of Turkish is a concise introduction to Turkish grammar, designed specifically for English-speaking students and professionals. Written with the needs of the learner very much in mind, it sets out the grammar of the language in a clear and jargon-free style.

Adopting the same approach used in his highly popular A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations, Fleisch explains vectors and tensors in plain language to give undergraduate and beginning graduate students a better understanding of how to use vectors and tensors to solve problems in physics and engineering.