A Biography of the English Language - Hardcover

Millward, C.M.; Hayes, Mary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0495906417 ISBN 13: 9780495906414

Publisher: Cengage Learning, 2011

Synopsis

The third edition of A BIOGRAPHY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE continues to examine the structure of English, from its Indo-European pre-history, through the invasions that shaped Old and Middle English, through its speakers' conscious efforts to police it in the Early Modern period, through its present-day transformations manifest in urban slang and text-messaging. The textbook explores three important issues: how languages and language change are systematic; how the inner history of a language is profoundly affected by its outer history of political and culural events; and how the English of the past has everywhere left its traces on present-day English. By uncovering the language's past, one can better use it to communicate as well as speculate about its future use in ever-changing globalized media.

About this title

About the Author:

PHD in linguistics and English from Brown University; taught at U of Edinburgh, Univerisite Paul Valery in Monpelllier, France, and at Huazhon U of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China; recipient of many awards including a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, a Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching, and a Humanities Foundation grant. She was a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh and was a member of many professional organizations.

Ph.D. from Univ of Iowa; now Director of Medieval Studies at the University of Mississippi.

Review:

"The book is very well written with a very appealing "voice" and is very clear in its explanations. It focuses appropriately on the most significant changes in the history of English."

"The text introduces concepts basic to the study of the development of any language, and then uses the concepts as a lens to specifically view the developmental periods of English."

About this edition

• Publisher: Cengage Learning
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0495906417
• ISBN 13: 9780495906414
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 496