A Cultural History of the English Language! Gerry Knowles
First published in Great Britain in 1979 by Arnold, a member of the Hodder Headline Group. 338 Huston Road, London NW1 3BH Fourth impression 1999.
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A Cultural History of the English Language
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Contents
In this book, you will learn the following topics:
1 Introduction
1.1 An outline history
1.2 Language and social change
1.3 Language, evolution, and progress
1.4 Language and myth
1.5 Language superiority
2 The origins of the English language
2.1 The linguistic geography of Europe
2.2 Language in Britain
2.3 Early English
2.4 The survival of the Celtic
2.5 The British people
3 English and Danish
3.1 Old English and Old Norse
3.2 Norse immigration
3.3 The Anglo-Saxon written tradition
3.4 English in the Danelaw
3.5 Norse influence on English
4 English and French
4.1 England and France
4.2 Literacy in the medieval period
4.3 The reemergence of English
4.4 English under French influence
4.5 Printing
5 English and Latin
5.1 The Lollards
5.2 Classical scholarship
5.3 Scholarly writing in English
5.4 The English Bible
5.5 The legacy of Latin
6 The language of England
6.1 Saxon English
6.2 The language arts
6.3 English spelling and pronunciation
6.4 The study of words
6.5 Elizabethan English
7 The language of revolution
7.1 The Norman yoke
7.2 The Bible and literacy
7.3 Language, ideology, and the Bible
7.4 The intellectual revolution
7.5 The linguistic outcome of the English revolution
8 The language of learned and polite persons
8.1 Language and science
8.2 The improving language
8.3 The uniform standard
8.4 A controlled language
8.5 A bourgeois language
9 The language of Great Britain
9.1 The codification of Standard English
9.2 London and the provinces
9.3 English beyond England
9.4 English pronunciation
9.5 Change in Standard English
10 The language of the empire
10.1 The international spread of English
10.2 The illustrious past
10.3 Working-class English
10.4 The standard of English pronunciation
10.5 Good English
11 Conclusion
11.1 The aftermath of the empire
11.2 English in the media
11.3 Speech and language technology
11.4 The information superhighway
11.5 English in the future
Preface
The growth of computer-based technology has already fundamentally changed the role of the textbook. In view of the amount of information now available, particularly the kind of detail appearing in the more specialist literature, it is impossible for one short textbook to provide an exhaustive account of the history of English. The analysis of historical corpora is making us reconsider issues that were previously thought to be long since established. Much historical information does not properly belong in a book at all. Sound changes, for example, belong in a relational database, and they are better presented in hypertext with linked sound files than in a conventional book. The aim of this book is therefore to provide a general framework that will be of assistance in the interpretation of historical data.
