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Informationen zum Autor Barbara A. Fennell is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Aberdeen. She is the author of Language, Literature and the Negotiation of Identity (1998). Klappentext A History of English provides an intelligent and accessible synthesis of modern sociolinguistic approaches to the development of the English language. Beginning with the pre-history of English, each chapter provides sociohistorical context, an overview of the major structural changes at each stage of the language and discussion of topics of particular sociolinguistic interest. Textual examples are given from a number of genres of writing including classical literature, letters, prose writings, modern popular literature and software documentation. The volume concludes with a discussion of the future of English language. Zusammenfassung This work presents a concise account of the history of the English language, from the point of view of current theories of language variation and change. It provides a socio-historical background for each period, followed by a discussion of its major linguistic developments. Inhaltsverzeichnis List of Maps and Figures xii Acknowledgements xiii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 The Time Periods of English 1 1.2 Language Change 3 1.3 Sources of Information on Language Change 7 1.4 Linguistic Preliminaries 9 1.5 The Sounds of English, and Symbols Used to Describe Them 11 1.5.1 Consonants 11 1.5.2 Vowels 12 1.5.2.1 Monophthongs 12 1.5.2.2 Diphthongs 12 1.6 Structure of the Book 13 2 The Pre-history of English 15 Timeline: The Indo-European Period 15 2.1 The Indo-European Languages and Linguistic Relatedness 17 2.1.1 The Beginnings 17 2.1.2 The Development of Historical Linguistics 18 2.1.3 Genetic Relatedness 19 2.2 Linguistic Developments: The Indo-European Language Family 23 2.2.1 Family-Tree Relationships 23 2.2.2 The Indo-European Family 23 2.2.2.1 Indo-Iranian 25 2.2.2.2 Armenian 26 2.2.2.3 Albanian 26 2.2.2.4 Balto-Slavonic 26 2.2.2.5 Hellenic 28 2.2.2.6 Italic 28 2.2.2.7 Celtic 29 2.2.2.8 Germanic 31 2.3 From Indo-European to Germanic 34 2.3.1 Prosody 35 2.3.2 The Consonant System: Sound Shifts 35 2.3.2.1 Grimm's Law 36 2.3.2.2 Verner's Law 37 2.3.2.3 The Second Consonant Shift 38 2.3.3 The Vowel System 40 2.3.4 Morphology 40 2.3.5 Syntax 41 2.3.6 Lexicon 41 2.3.7 Semantics 42 2.3.8 Indo-European/Germanic Texts 42 2.3.9 Neogrammarians, Structuralists and Contemporary Linguistic Models 43 2.4 Typological Classification 44 2.4.1 Universals 45 2.4.1.1 Syntactic Universals 45 2.4.2 Morphological Typology 46 2.5 Sociolinguistic Focus. The Indo-European Tribes and the Spread of Language. Language Contact and Language Change. Archaeological Linguistics 49 2.5.1 Language Contact 50 2.5.2 Archaeological Linguistics 51 2.6 Conclusion 53 3 Old English 55 Timeline: The Old English Period 55 3.1 Social and Political History 55 3.1.1 Britain before the English 55 3.1.2 The Anglo-Saxon Invasions 56 3.1.3 Anglo-Saxon Influence 56 3.1.4 Scandinavian Influence 57 3.2 Linguistic Developments: The Sounds, Structure and Typology of Old English 59 3.2.1 The Structure of Old English 59 3.2.1.1 OE Consonants 60 3.2.1.2 Vowels: from Germanic to Old English 62 3.2.1.3 Old English Gender 64 3.2.1.4Inflection in Old English 64 3.2.1.5 Old English Syntax 72 3.2.1.6 Old English Vocabulary 77 3.3 Linguistic and Literary Achievements 79 3.3.1 Texts 79 3.3....
Table des matières
Part I: Introduction:.
Part II: The Pre-History of English:.
Part III: Old English 450-1100:.
Part IV: Middle English:.
Part V: Early Modern English:.
Part VI: Present Day English:.
Part VII: English In The United States:.
Part VIII: World-Wide English:.
Bibliography.
Index.
Commentaire
"[Fennell] gives an excellent account of the global spread of modern English." Times Higher Education Supplement
"Offers an excellent background in the history of the world's second language." Geolinguistics
