|
Also Recommended
|
|
|
A Guide
Barry J. Blake
£60.00
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge
K. David Harrison
£11.99
|
|
|
|
|
Language Anxiety
Conflict and Change in the History of English
Tim William Machan
312 pages
|
234x156mm
978-0-19-923212-3
|
Hardback
|
29 January 2009
|
|
|
|
|
- First history of the causes and effects of anxiousness about language change
- Ranges through literature, politics, and history
- Moves from Alfred the Great to the internet
- Covers varieties of English all over the world
- Relates to current discussions of rights, national identity, educational standards, etc.
- Combines scholarship and learning with an engaging style
This book looks at the ever-present anxieties associated with language change. Focusing on English from Alfred the Great to the present, Tim Machan offers a fresh perspective on the history of language. He reveals amusing and sometimes disconcerting aspects of our linguistic and social behavior and suggests that anxiety about language has sometimes allowed us to avoid the issues we really find disturbing: when speakers of English worry over grammar, sounds, or words the real source of their anxiety is often not language at all but issues like immigration or social instability.
Drawing on an array of evidence from archives, literature,
history, polemics, and the press, as well as centuries of legislation, Tim Machan uncovers the perennial nature of concerns about the poverty and purity of English. There has never been a time, he shows, when we weren't worried about the corruption of language and its apparent connections with educational standards, the morality of youth, the integrity of society, and the identity of our nations. This is a fascinating story, told here in consummate fashion, combining insight and anecdote, and learning with wit - a book for everyone interested in languages and the people who speak them.
Readership: Anyone interested in social attitudes to language and in how language changes, or concerned with how the
use of English is linked to issues of education, immigration, and ethnic or national identity. Scholars and students of the history of English, language change and variation, historical linguistics, and language contact, in departments of literature, linguistics, history, education, and sociology.
|
|
|
Tim William Machan, Marquette University
|
|
|
"...an admirable sweep and a nutritious density" - Stephen Poole, The Guardian
|
|
|
1: Language, Change, and Response
2: A Moveable Speech
3: Narratives of Change
4: Policy and Politics
5: Say the Right Thing
6: Fixing English
Bibliography
Index
|
|
|
|
Recently Viewed
|
|
|
The Last Days of London
Patrick Wright
£9.99
|
|
|
|
|
James Morwood
£11.99
|
|
|
|
|
Organ Transplantation and Blood Transfusion in 20th Century America
Susan E. Lederer
£22.50
|
|
|
|
|
The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
|
|
