Unlocking the English Language

Burchfield, Robert W

ISBN 10: 0809094908 / ISBN 13: 9780809094905

Published by Hill & Wang, 1991

About this Item

202 p. Audience: General/trade. No previous owner's name. Clean, tight inside pages. No bent corners. No remainder mark. Closed pages have shelf wear spots on top pages. HC 390.

Seller Inventory # Alibris.0050624

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Unlocking the English Language
• Publisher: Hill & Wang
• Publication Date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0809094908
• ISBN 13: 9780809094905
• Binding: Hard cover
• Edition: American ed.
• Condition: Very good in fine dust jacket.

About this title

Synopsis

An historical account of the English language examines the roles of lexicographers, educators, literary critics, and computers in expanding the English vocabulary

Reviews

"Phooey," "airport" and "pacifism" are among the words that entered the English language between 1900 and 1930; more recent coinages include "hi-fi," "baby boom" and "yuppie." Language, we are shown here, is a fast-changing medium, and not only in the area of vocabulary: lexicography is a battlefield where different social classes, schools of grammar, philosophies and far-flung speakers vie to impose their viewpoints. In an elegant, involving introduction to some of the thorniest issues in modern language use and abuse, Burchfield, who has served as chief editor of the Oxford English Dictonary , ponders the "fast speech rules" that govern daily conversation and bemoans the "devastating loss of religious mystery" in modernized versions of sacred texts. How should lexicographers deal with derogatory racial, ethnic and religious terms? At what historical point did American English become different from British English? Burchfield tackles these and other questions in scholarly essays sure to intrigue anyone who loves words and language.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.