A Biography of the English Language, Volume 1The second edition of A Biography of the English Language continues to examine the structure of language. The textbook discusses three important issues: languages and language change are systematic; the inner history of a language is profoundly affected by its outer history of political and culural events; and the English of the past has everywhere left its traces on present-day English. By uncovering the language's past, one can better communicate with it. |
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User Review - radstar121 - LibraryThingAn engaging textbook on the history of the English language, from its earliest roots until today this book is a joy for anyone who loves the semantics of language. Read full review
Contents
Changes in Language | 8 |
Demarcating the History of English | 16 |
Phonology | 22 |
Copyright | |
53 other sections not shown
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Common terms and phrases
adjective adverb affixes allophones alphabet American English Anglo-Saxon appear auxiliary became become borrowed called Celtic century clause common compound consonants dative declension developed dialects dictionary diphthongs distinction earlier Early Modern English EMnE EMnE period England English speakers English words especially Figure forms French loans fricatives gender genitive Germanic languages grammar graphemes Greek guage indicate Indo-European inflections influence instance Irish late Latin lexical lexicon linguistic loanwords lost major meaning Middle English modified morphology mutation nasal native speakers noun Old English Old Norse original past participle past tense personal pronouns phonemic phonology phrase plural prepositions Present-Day English probably pronunciation prose represent Scots semantic change sentence shift singular sound changes speech spelling spoken standard stress strong verbs subjunctive suffix surviving syllable syntax tended texts tongue translation unstressed usage usually variation vocabulary voiced voiceless vowel weak verbs Welsh English writing written
Bibliographic information
| Title | A Biography of the English Language, Volume 1 |
| Author | Celia M. Millward |
| Edition | 2, illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996 |
| ISBN | 0155016458, 9780155016453 |
| Length | 441 pages |
| Subjects | › › Education / Higher Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |