English Language: Description, Variation and Context - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1137571829 ISBN 13: 9781137571823

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018

Synopsis

The second edition of this hugely successful textbook provides comprehensive coverage of a wide range of topics in theoretical and applied linguistics. Written by leading academics in the field, this text offers a firm grounding in linguistics and includes engaging insights into current research.

It covers all the key areas of linguistic analysis, including phonetics, morphology, semantics and pragmatics, and core domains of study, comprising the history of the English language, regional and social variation, style and communication and interaction. Fresh material on research methods outlines key areas for consideration when carrying out a research project, and provides students with the framework they need to investigate linguistic phenomena for themselves.

This is an invaluable resource for both undergraduate and postgraduate students on English Language and Linguistics degree programmes. 

About this title

From the Back Cover

'This is a rare beast – a comprehensive, authoritative and up-to-date survey of English Language and Linguistics that will provide students and researchers alike with a rich context for their work' – Professor Michael Hoey, University of Liverpool

'This volume proves that it is still possible to make a difference in a world flooded by introductory textbooks - giving the English language in all its fascinating richness centre stage...written in an accessible style that makes for an attractive read, this will be a most useful companion for any student, undergraduate or graduate, of English and the linguistics of English.' - Professor Bernd Kortmann, Department of English, University of Freiburg, Germany

What is the English language like, why is it like that and what do we need to know in order to study it? This wide ranging introductory textbook not only presents the English language from multiple perspectives, but provides the reader with the necessary grounding in linguistics to investigate it for themselves.

Written by a team of experts in diverse fields, English Language: Description, Variation and Context:

· Covers both traditional topics and topics that have more recently come to prominence, notably concerning language use in context
· Includes 'Advances' boxes, designed to give readers a sense of controversies, debates and further research in the area, and 'Illustrations' boxes, which contain extended and additional examples
· Employs a research-led approach, making the latest developments in the field highly accessible for an undergraduate audience, yet fruitful for more advanced readers.

Comprehensive and engaging, this invaluable textbook provides an ideal starting point for those new to the subject, straightforward progression for those who have studied it before and cutting-edge insights for more seasoned scholars.

Edited by Jonathan Culpeper, Senior Lecturer in English Language, Francis Katamba, Professor of Linguistics, Paul Kerswill, Professor of Sociolinguistics, Ruth Wodak, Distinguished Professor of Discourse Studies and Tony McEnery, Professor of English Language and Linguistics and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, all in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University.

About the Author

Jonathan Culpeper is Professor of English Language and Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University, UK. Spanning pragmatics, stylistics and the history of English, his major publications include Early Modern English Dialogues: Spoken Interaction as Writing (2010, CUP; co-authored with Merja Kytö), Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence (2011, CUP), and most recently Pragmatics and the English Language (2014, Palgrave; with Michael Haugh). He is currently leading the AHRC-funded Encyclopaedia of Shakespeare's Language project, which will provide evidence-based and contextualised accounts of Shakespeare's language.

Paul Kerswill is Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of York. His research has focused on migration and dialect contact in both Norway and Britain, including Bergen and the New Town of Milton Keynes. He has worked on projects on the emergence of Multicultural London English. His publications include work on the role of children in language change, the phonology of new dialects and the representation of youth language in the media. He has co-edited Dialect Change: Convergence and Divergence in European Languages (with Frans Hinskens and Peter Auer, 2005) and The Sage Handbook of Sociolinguistics (with Ruth Wodak and Barbara Johnstone, 2010).

Ruth Wodak is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Discourse Studies at Lancaster University, UK, and affiliated to the University of Vienna. Besides various other prizes, she was awarded the Wittgenstein Prize for Elite Researchers in 1996 and an Honorary Doctorate from University of Örebro in Sweden in 2010. She is member of the British Academy of Social Sciences and of the Academia Europaea.  Currently, she is PI of a three-year research project on ‘The Discursive Construction of Austrian identity – 2015.’ (http://nationale-identitaet-2015.univie.ac.at/) Recent book publications include The Politics of Fear. What Right-wing Populist Discourses Mean (Sage, 2015; translation into the German 2016); The Discourse of Politics in Action: ‘Politics as Usual’ (Palgrave), revised edition (2011); Migration, Identity and Belonging (with G. Delanty, P. Jones, 2011); The Discursive Construction of History. Remembering the German Wehrmacht’s War of Annihilation (with H. Heer, W. Manoschek, A. Pollak, 2008); and The SAGE Handbook of Sociolinguistics (with Barbara Johnstone and Paul Kerswill, 2010).

Tony McEnery is Distinguished Professor of English Language and Linguistics at Lancaster University. His research interests include English corpus linguistics as well as corpus linguistics applied to languages other than English. He has wide experience of editing and authoring, and is currently editor of the book series Advances in Corpus Linguistics (Routledge). His books include Corpus Linguistics: Method, Theory and Practice (with Andrew Hardie, CUP, 2011) and Discourse Analysis and Media Attitudes (With Paul Baker and Costas Gabrielatos, CUP, 2013).

Francis Katamba is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at the University of Lancaster, UK. His research interests are in the areas of phonology and morphology. His publications include An Introduction to Phonology (1989), Morphology: Critical Concepts in Linguistics (2004), English Words (2nd edition, 2005), Morphology (2nd edition with John Stonham, 2006) and Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction (2nd edition, with William O'Grady and John Archibald, 2011).

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1137571829
• ISBN 13: 9781137571823
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 686
• Editor: Culpeper Jonathan, Kerswill Paul, Wodak Ruth, McEnery Anthony, Katamba Francis