This monograph is an important contribution to the study of lexical acquisition and the larger question of developing a standard Arabic as a second language through literacy. Since large numbers of individuals learn Arabic for religious as well as economic reasons in Africa , Central Asia and East Asia this topic has implications far beyond its focused discussion of semantic and formal properties in the process of analyzing Arabic words into patterns and underlying roots.

This work is a major contribution to the study of cliches and neologisms since it moves beyond considering them separately into their interlinked role in written,spoken and visual cultures in contemporary Britain, France and the United States.

Informed by analysis from classic and state of the art folklore scholarship, anthropological poetics, ethnic studies and recovery research on the Great Irish Famine(1845-1852),this scholarly monograph serves as a collection and analysis of "as-remembered" Irish-American folklore from New England and as such is an unparalleled study of Irish-American historical memory.