Introducing the History of the English Language

Author:   Seth Lerer
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
ISBN:  

9781032129716


Pages:   282
Publication Date:   29 January 2024
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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Introducing the History of the English Language


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Overview

This essential new text provides a comprehensive, modern account of how the English language originated, developed, changed, and continues to morph into new forms in contemporary society. Introducing the History of the English Language first offers a rigorous, approachable introduction to the building blocks of language itself and then traces English language usage’s messy development in society, beginning with its origins in the Indo-European language family and continuing chronologically through the Old, Middle, Modern, and present-day forms. Seth Lerer deftly tells this story not as a tale of standards and authority but of differences and diversity. He draws on public and private literary sources from different regions and those in different social classes, highlighting sources from women and people of color – and introduces readers to the effects of technology on English, and the politics of dialect and racial, gender, regional, and class identity across these periods. Further, this text extensively addresses the rich diversity of English varieties, with innovative, focused chapters dedicated to American English, African American English, Global English, and Virtual English. Requiring no prior knowledge of language history or linguistics, offering an array of supplemental activities as online support material, and taking a socially motivated approach to pedagogy that seeks to generate productive reflection and discussion about language difference and politics, this book enables and encourages the twenty-first century student in the United States to see their own language use as deeply implicated in power dynamics and social relationships.

Full Product Details

Author:   Seth Lerer
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.712kg
ISBN:  

9781032129716


ISBN 10:   1032129719
Pages:   282
Publication Date:   29 January 2024
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

List of Figures List of Tables Preface English Phonemes and Transcribing Speech Acknowledgments Introduction: What Is Language and How Do We Study It? Chapter 1: The Indo-European Languages Chapter 2: The Germanic Languages Chapter 3: The Old English Period Chapter 4: Middle English Chapter 5. From Middle English to Modern English Chapter 6. English in the Age of Shakespeare and the King James Bible Chapter 7: The Age of Regulation: British English, 1650-1800 Chapter 8. The Sounds and Shapes of English in Great Britain, 1800-2000 Chapter 9: American English: Origins, Varieties, and Attitudes Chapter 10: The English Language and the Black Atlantic Chapter 11: English in the World Chapter 12: Twenty-First-Century English Index

Reviews

With elegance and clarity, and relying on recent developments in sociolinguistic thinking and methodology, Lerer’s History rights the imbalances of previous accounts by stressing English’s constant diversity. This important book is likely to become the standard textbook for the foreseeable future. Tim William Machan, University of Notre Dame, USA


"""With elegance and clarity, and relying on recent developments in sociolinguistic thinking and methodology, Lerer’s Introducing the History of the English Language rights the imbalances of previous accounts by stressing English’s constant diversity. This important book is likely to become the standard textbook for the foreseeable future."" Tim William Machan, University of Notre Dame, USA ""Sensitive to both literature and lived experience, Seth Lerer’s Introducing the History of the English Language offers an accessible guide to English and its many voices. This is the modern, user-friendly textbook I have been waiting for."" Irina Dumitrescu, University of Bonn, Germany"


Author Information

Seth Lerer is Distinguished Professor of Literature Emeritus at the University of California at San Diego, where he has also served as Dean of Arts and Humanities. His publications include Chaucer and His Readers (1993), Error and the Academic Self (2002), Inventing English (revised edition, 2015), Children’s Literature: A Reader’s History from Aesop to Harry Potter (2008), and Shakespeare’s Lyric Stage (2018). He has published creative non-fiction in The American Scholar, The Yale Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and in his memoir, Prospero’s Son (2013).

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