What do English-speaking Canadians sound like and why? Can you tell the difference between a Canadian and an American? A Canadian and an Englishman? If so, how? Linguistically speaking is Canada a colony of Britain or a satellite of the United States? Is there a Canadian language? Speaking Canadian English, first published in 1971, in a non-technical way, describes English as it is spoken in Canada – its vocabulary, pronunciation, syntax, grammar, spelling, slang. This title comments on the history of Canadian English – how it came to sound the way it does – and attempts to predict what will happen to it in the future. This book will be of interest to students of linguistics.
This set reissues 29 books on the English language, originally published between 1932 and 2003. Together, the volumes cover key topics within the larger subject of the English Language, including grammar, dialect and the history of English. Written and edited by an international set of scholars, particular volumes employ comparisons with other languages such as French and German, whilst other volumes are devoted to specific English dialects such as Cockney and Canadian English, or English in general. This collection provides insight and perspective on various elements of the English language over a period of 70 years and demonstrates its enduring importance as a field of research.
Routledge English Language Introductions cover core areas of language study and are one-stop resources for students. Assuming no prior knowledge, books in the series offer an accessible overview of the subject, with activities, study questions, sample analyses, commentaries and key readings – all in the same volume. The innovative and flexible ‘two-dimensional’ structure is built around four sections – introduction, development, exploration and extension – which offer self-contained stages for study. Each topic can also be read across these sections, enabling the reader to build gradually on the knowledge gained. Introducing English Language: is the foundational book in the Routledge English Language Introductions series, providing an accessible introduction to the English language contains newly expanded coverage of morphology, updated and revised exercises, and an extended Further Reading section comprehensively covers key disciplines of linguistics such as historical linguistics, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, as well as core areas in language study including acquisition, standardisation and the globalisation of English uses a wide variety of real texts and images from around the world, including a Monty Python sketch, excerpts from novels such as Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, and news items from Metro and the BBC provides updated classic readings by the key names in the discipline, including Guy Cook, Andy Kirkpatrick and Zoltán Dörnyei is accompanied by a website with extra activities, project ideas for each unit, suggestions for further reading, links to essential English language resources, and course templates for lecturers. Written by two experienced teachers and authors, this accessible textbook is an essential resource for all students of the English language and linguistics.
A History of English, first published in 1970, is a book for beginners in linguistic history. This title examines the changes in English language speech and writing over a period of almost 2000 years, whilst also exploring more recent changes within the author’s living memory. This title aims to raise countless issues for enquiry and discussion, and its purpose is to serve as a springboard for language history learning rather than a textbook.
First published in 1967, this book was based on new descriptions of English emerging from recent research. It provides an introduction to the study of the English language for the first-year university student. It will also be invaluable to all those concerned with the teaching and learning of English as a foreign or second language, particularly the teacher in training and the university student.
First published in 1980, this book provides a clear and practical introduction to a wide variety of English structures. It concentrates on a large and crucial area of English grammar, which covers units of higher rank than words, and structures that have verbs rather than nouns as their nuclear elements. Throughout the book, David Young focuses on the English language as it is actually spoken. At every point his discussion of syntax is closely integrated with meaning, and he pays particular attention to the ways in which speakers of English signal their intensions. The author points out how verbal patterning is meaningful, and outlines the criteria used by grammarians to distinguish one structure from another. The result is an analytical framework that can be applied to any real-life text in order to understand its structure. This is a book that will encourage a realistic, exploratory and investigative attitude towards the English language.
With some 7000 entries in each language, this dictionary, first published in 1986, gives clear and comprehensive coverage of all vocabulary areas connected with defence, for military personnel and for anyone who is directly or indirectly involved in military technology. Areas covered extend throughout the sphere of the armed forces of the world, including arms and armaments, land-based weapons and equipment, aircraft, warships and submarines, as well as communications and training and terms in everyday use in the field.
Originally published in 1979. This book studies language variation as a part of social practice - how language expresses and helps regulate social relationships of all kinds. Different groups, classes, institutions and situations have their special modes of language and these varieties are not just stylistic reflections of social differences; speaking or writing in a certain manner entails articulating certain social meanings, however implicit. This book focuses on the repressive and falsifying side of linguistic practice but not without recognising the power of language to reveal and communicate. It analyses the language used in a variety of situations, including news reporting, interviews, rules and regulations, even such apparently innocuous language as the rhymes on greetings cards. It argues for a critical linguistics capable of exposing distortion and mystification in language, and introduces some basic tools for a do-it-yourself analysis of language, ideology and control.
First published in 1977, this book presents a comprehensive and lucid guide through the labyrinths of semiology and structuralism — perhaps the most significant systems of study to have been developed in the twentieth century. The authors describe the early presuppositions of structuralism and semiology which claim to be a materialist theory of language based on Saussure’s notion of the sign. They show how these presuppositions have been challenged by work following Althusser’s development of the Marxist theory of ideology, and by Lacan’s re-reading of Freud. The book explains how the encounter of two disciplines — psychoanalysis and Marxism — on the ground of their common problem —language — has produced a new understanding of society and its subjects. It produces a critical re-examination of the traditional Marxist theory of ideology, together with the concepts of sign and identity of the subject.
Originally published in 1990. Each of the 12 chapters in this book build upon an approach to the analysis of spoken and written texts that is centred upon the recipient rather than the producer, for the abilities of listeners and readers deserve much attention. This book should be of interest to students and lecturers of linguistics, literary studies, English, education, communication studies and psychology.
