Merchants of Innovation: The Languages of Traders

Book 6 of 8: Studies in Language Change [SLC]

Esther-Miriam Wagner, Ben Outhwaite, Bettina Beinhoff (eds)

ISBN 10: 1501511602 ISBN 13: 9781501511608

Published by De Gruyter Mouton, Boston, 2017

Language: English

Condition: Used - Fine Hardcover

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23.0 x 15.0cms, 275pp, Studies in Language Change, Volume 15.

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Bibliographic Details

Title

Merchants of Innovation: The Languages of Traders

Publisher

De Gruyter Mouton, Boston

Publication Date

2017

Language

English

ISBN 10

1501511602

ISBN 13

9781501511608

Binding

Hardcover

Condition

Fine

Dust Jacket Condition

No jacket

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Linguistics

About this title

Synopsis

Traders around the world use particular spoken argots, to guard commercial secrets or to cement their identity as members of a certain group. The written registers of traders, too, in correspondence and other commercial texts show significant differences from the language used in official, legal or private writing. This volume suggests a clear cross-linguistic tendency that mercantile writing displays a greater degree of language mixing, code-switching and linguistic innovations, and, by setting precedents, promote language change.

This interdisciplinary volume aims to place the traders' languages within a wider sociolinguistic context. Questions addressed include: What differences can be observed between mercantile registers and those of court or legal scribes? Do the traders' texts show the early emergence of features that take longer to permeate into the 'higher' varieties of the same language? Do they anticipate language change in the standard register or influence it by setting linguistic precedents? What sets traders' letters apart from private correspondence and other 'low' registers? The book will also examine bilingualism, semi-bilingualism, reasons for code-switching and the choice of particular languages over others in commercial correspondence.

About the Author

Esther-Miriam Wagner, Ben Outhwaite, University of Cambridge, UK; Bettina Beinhoff, Anglia Ruskin University, UK

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Specialising in Australian studies, history, philosophy, photography, literature, rare and antiquarian books, signed books and first editions. Carmela's Books is named after Carmela Scoppa, who came to Australia from Italy in 1953. Despite only having gone to school until the third grade, she inspired a love of reading in her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

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