The series is a platform for contributions of all kinds to this rapidly developing field. General problems are studied from the perspective of individual languages, language families, language groups, or language samples. Conclusions are the result of a deepened study of empirical data. Special emphasis is given to little-known languages, whose analysis may shed new light on long-standing problems in general linguistics.
The English language in its complex shapes and forms changes fast. This thoroughly revised edition has been refreshed with current examples of change and has been updated regarding archeological research. Most suggestions brought up by users and reviewers have been incorporated, for instance, a family tree for Germanic has been added, Celtic influence is highlighted much more, there is more on the origin of Chancery English, and internal and external change are discussed in much greater detail. The philosophy of the revised book remains the same with an emphasis on the linguistic history and on using authentic texts. My audience remains undergraduates (and beginning graduates). The goals of the class and the book are to come to recognize English from various time periods, to be able to read each stage with a glossary, to get an understanding of typical language change, internal and external, and to understand something about language typology through the emphasis on the change from synthetic to analytic. This book has a companion website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/z.183.website
A series to meet the need for books on modern English that are both up-to-date and authoritative.For the scholar, the teacher, the student and the general reader, but especially for English-speaking students of language and linguistics in institutions where English is the language of instruction, or advanced specialist students of English in universities where English is taught as a foreign language
In view of the numerous books that already exist on the subject, it may not be immediately obvious to the layman why scholars should feel the need to continue to write on the history of the English language. However, the flood of writing continues and bears witness to an incessant demand and an unabating interest. As this author demonstrates in his opening chapter, the relevance of English language history is as great as ever, not least as a central key to the understanding of cultural history. In conjunction with two further volumes scheduled to appear at a later date, this volume gives a comprehensive survey of salient aspects of English language history from its embryonic stages to the language spoken today in England and America. The volume spans the period up to 1154, the year which saw the inauguration of the Plantagenet era in England and the last year to be recorded in the annals of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.
From Dialect to Standard: English in England 1154–1776 is the second volume of a set of three offering a comprehensive survey of what by the author is seen as the most interesting aspects of the long history of English from its embryonic stages to the language spoken today in England and America.The present book spans the period up to 1776, the year of the American Declaration of Independence and the year in which Adam Smith published his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The title of the first volume from 1998 was The Continental Backgrounds of English and its Insular Development until 1154, the third and final volume being scheduled for publication later under the title The Development of American and British English from 1776 to the Present Day.
Linguistics, as a social science, should have something to teach us about humans as social beings. However, modern grammatical theories regard languages as autonomous systems, so these theories are little concerned with speakers and hearers, their interactions, and their relationship to the world around them. Further, these theories tend toward excessive concern with methodology and the properties of linguistic systems, neglecting, in fact, the languages themselves and those who use them in everyday life. Even the shift toward cognitive approaches, promising for their new insights into the brain, still misses an equally important aspect of language, namely a framework which would account for the social activity by which speakers build linguistic structures in order to meet the requirements of communication. Based on a wide range of languages, Hagège's work sheds light on the human language building activity. He argues that the conscious and unconscious 'signatures' of human nature are written everywhere in language. The study of these signatures gives insight into basic characteristics of human beings, tends to re-humanize linguistics, and stresses the importance of language as a dynamic activity as opposed to a self-contained system.
In this lively and engaging textbook, Rob Penhallurick introduces readers to the diversity and history of the English language, and to relevant contemporary and classic work in linguistics. Organised into eighteen thematic chapters, each of which can be read in one sitting, it covers topics such as the effects of dialect and accent on identity, swearing and offensive names in English, language and gender, language planning and theories about the origin of language. Chapters are full of entertaining examples, illustrations and suggestions for further reading. This is an ideal companion for all those new to the study of the English language, and essential reading for anyone with a general interest in the subject. New to this Edition: - Three new chapters on the story of American English, the spread of English across the world and the work of Noam Chomsky
