Download or read book Language Change written by Jean Aitchison and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a lucid and up-to-date overview of language change. It discusses where our evidence about language change comes from, how and why changes happen, and how languages begin and end. It considers both changes which occurred long ago, and those currently in progress. It does this within the framework of one central question - is language change a symptom of progress or decay? It concludes that language is neither progressing nor decaying, but that an understanding of the factors surrounding change is essential for anyone concerned about language alteration. For this substantially revised third edition, Jean Aitchison has included two new chapters on change of meaning and grammaticalization. Sections on new methods of reconstruction and ongoing chain shifts in Britain and America have also been added as well as over 150 new references. The work remains non-technical in style and accessible to readers with no previous knowledge of linguistics.
Download or read book Understanding Language Change written by April M. S. McMahon and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1994-03-17 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This textbook analyses changes from every area of grammar and addresses recent developments in socio-historical linguistics.
Download or read book Why Do Languages Change written by Robert Lawrence Trask and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Packed with fascinating examples, this entertaining book explores changes in the English language over time.
Download or read book Millennia of Language Change written by Peter Trudgill and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-04-16 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection brings together Peter Trudgill's essays on the sociolinguistic aspects of historical linguistics for the first time.
Download or read book The Unfolding of Language written by Guy Deutscher and published by Metropolitan Books. This book was released on 2006-05-02 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blending the spirit of Eats, Shoots & Leaves with the science of The Language Instinct, an original inquiry into the development of that most essential-and mysterious-of human creations: Language "Language is mankind's greatest invention-except, of course, that it was never invented." So begins linguist Guy Deutscher's enthralling investigation into the genesis and evolution of language. If we started off with rudimentary utterances on the level of "man throw spear," how did we end up with sophisticated grammars, enormous vocabularies, and intricately nuanced degrees of meaning? Drawing on recent groundbreaking discoveries in modern linguistics, Deutscher exposes the elusive forces of creation at work in human communication, giving us fresh insight into how language emerges, evolves, and decays. He traces the evolution of linguistic complexity from an early "Me Tarzan" stage to such elaborate single-word constructions as the Turkish sehirlilestiremediklerimizdensiniz ("you are one of those whom we couldn't turn into a town dweller"). Arguing that destruction and creation in language are intimately entwined, Deutscher shows how these processes are continuously in operation, generating new words, new structures, and new meanings. As entertaining as it is erudite, The Unfolding of Language moves nimbly from ancient Babylonian to American idiom, from the central role of metaphor to the staggering triumph of design that is the Semitic verb, to tell the dramatic story and explain the genius behind a uniquely human faculty.
Download or read book Historical Linguistics written by Donald A. Ringe and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-24 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This innovative textbook demonstrates the mutual relevance of historical linguistics and contemporary linguistics.
Download or read book The Language Web written by Jean Aitchison and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Language is like a vast spider's web. In this volume Jean Aitchison explores the different facets of this web. She begins with the cobweb of false worries which surrounds language. She then discusses how language evolved in the human species, how children acquire it, and how educated English speakers remember 50,000 or more words. Finally, she argues that people are right to be concerned about language, though not in the ways traditionally assumed. This is the text of the 1996 BBC Reith lectures, slightly revised for publication, with illustrations and full references, and an afterword which looks at the reception of the lectures.
Download or read book Linguistics written by Jean Aitchison and published by Teach Yourself. This book was released on 1992 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a straightforward introduction to linguistics for those approaching this fascinating and fast-expanding field of study for the first time.
Download or read book Language written by Otto Jespersen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-05-24 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book was first published in 1922, Language is a valuable contribution to the field of English Language and Linguistics.
Download or read book Gender Shifts in the History of English written by Anne Curzan and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-04-24 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How and why did grammatical gender, found in Old English and in other Germanic languages, gradually disappear from English and get replaced by a system where the gender of nouns and the use of personal pronouns depend on the natural gender of the referent? How is this shift related to 'irregular agreement' (such as she for ships) and 'sexist' language use (such as generic he) in Modern English, and how is the language continuing to evolve in these respects? Anne Curzan's accessibly written and carefully researched study is based on extensive corpus data, and will make a major contribution by providing a historical perspective on these often controversial questions. It will be of interest to researchers and students in history of English, historical linguistics, corpus linguistics, language and gender, and medieval studies.
Download or read book The Language Revolution written by David Crystal and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-05-08 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are living through the consequences of a linguistic revolution. Dramatic linguistic change has left us at the beginning of a new era in the evolution of human language, with repercussions for many individual languages. In this book, David Crystal, one of the world’s authorities on language, brings together for the first time the three major trends which he argues have fundamentally altered the world’s linguistic ecology: first, the emergence of English as the world’s first truly global language; second, the crisis facing huge numbers of languages which are currently endangered or dying; and, third, the radical effect on language of the arrival of Internet technology. Examining the interrelationships between these topics, Crystal encounters a vision of a linguistic future which is radically different from what has existed in the past, and which will make us revise many cherished concepts relating to the way we think about and work with languages. Everyone is affected by this linguistic revolution. The Language Revolution will be essential reading for anyone interested in language and communication in the twenty-first century.
Download or read book Standard Languages and Language Standards Greek Past and Present written by Michael Silk and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-01 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Standard Languages and Language Standards: Greek, Past and Present is a collection of essays with a distinctive focus and an unusual range. It brings together scholars from different disciplines, with a variety of perspectives, linguistic and literary, historical and social, to address issues of control, prescription, planning and perceptions of value over the long history of the Greek language, from the age of Homer to the present day. Under particular scrutiny are the processes of establishing a standard and the practices and ideologies of standardization. The diverse points of reference include: the Hellenistic koine and the literary classics of modern Greece; lexicography in late antiquity and today; Byzantine Greek, Pontic Greek and cyber-Greek; contested educational initiatives and competing understandings of the Greek language; the relation of linguistic study to standardization and the logic of a standard language. The aim of this ambitious project is not a comprehensive chronological survey or an exhaustive analysis. Rather, the editors have set out to provide a series of informed overviews and snapshots of telling cases that both illuminate the history of the Greek language and explore the nature of language standardization itself. The volume will be important for students and scholars of the Greek language, past and present, and, beyond the Greek example, for sociolinguists, historians and social scientists with interests in the role of language in the construction of identities.
Download or read book You Just Don t Understand written by Deborah Tannen and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of New York Times bestseller You're Wearing That? this bestselling classic work draws upon groundbreaking research by an acclaimed sociolinguist to show that women and men live in different worlds, made of different words. Women and men live in different worlds...made of different words. Spending nearly four years on the New York Times bestseller list, including eight months at number one, You Just Don't Understand is a true cultural and intellectual phenomenon. This is the book that brought gender differences in ways of speaking to the forefront of public awareness. With a rare combination of scientific insight and delightful, humorous writing, Tannen shows why women and men can walk away from the same conversation with completely different impressions of what was said. Studded with lively and entertaining examples of real conversations, this book gives you the tools to understand what went wrong -- and to find a common language in which to strengthen relationships at work and at home. A classic in the field of interpersonal relations, this book will change forever the way you approach conversations.
Download or read book The Articulate Mammal written by Jean Aitchison and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic that did much to establish the field of psycholinguistics Regularly updated over the years and remains unrivalled Jean Aitchison's name and profile will help sell this Routledge Classics edition Includes a new foreword by the author for the RC edition
Download or read book Language Endangerment written by David Bradley and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-11-21 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Investigates the endangerment of languages and the loss of traditional cultural diversity, and how to respond.
Download or read book LANGUAGE CHANGE PROGRESS OR DECAY written by and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Word Weavers written by Jean Aitchison and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-05-31 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Publisher description
