The English Language: A Guided Tour of the Language
Page 31
Braj B. Kachru, The Alchemy of English (Pergamon Press, 1986, 200 pp.). A scholarly study of the spread of non-native varieties of English, with particular reference to their impact on other languages, the emergence of new standards, and their role in literary creativity.
Roger Lass, The Shape of English: Structure and History (J. M. Dent, 1987, 384 pp.). A synthesis of ideas and techniques relating to the history and present structure of the language. Particular reference is made to grammar and pronunciation, and to regional and social varieties.
Dick Leith, A Social History of English (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 2nd edition 1997, 312 pp.). An introductory account of the development of the language, paying particular attention to the historical and social circumstances that affect linguistic change; makes use of relevant concepts in sociolinguistics.
Tom McArthur, The Oxford Companion to the English Language (Oxford University Press, 1992, 1184 pp.). An encyclopedic account of the language, written by over 100 contributors in short alphabetically organized articles.
Tom McArthur, The English Languages (Cambridge University Press, 1998, 247 pp.) An account of the current trends affecting the English language, with particular reference to the emerging range of ‘new Englishes’ the world over.
Tom McArthur (ed.), English Today (Cambridge University Press, four issues yearly since 1985). An international review of the English language, aiming to provide a popular but responsible account of important issues in English language development and use around the world; contains articles, reviews, discussion pieces, a correspondence column, and many illustrations of English in use.
Robert McCrum, William Cran and Robert McNeil, The Story of English (Faber and Faber, and BBC Publications, 1986, 384 pp.). The book based on the BBC television series, with full-colour maps and illustrations, emphasizing the regional and social diversification of spoken English, and especially the varieties which have developed in recent years.
Leonard Michaels and Christopher Ricks (ed.), The State of the Language (University of California Press, 1980, 609 pp.). A collection of essays and poems on all aspects of the contemporary language; a mixture of objective and subjective observations contributed by linguists, novelists, broadcasters, critics, and many others. Second edition, 1989.
J. Platt, H. Weber and M. L. Ho, The New Englishes (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984, 225 pp.). A thematic treatment of the way new varieties of English have developed in non-native situations, giving detailed analyses and illustrations of the linguistic characteristics of several varieties.
Randolph Quirk and Gabriele Stein, English in Use (Longman, 1990, 262 pp.) An introductory text, giving an account of the structure and uses of the modern language, with particular reference to the realities of English usage and the styles and varieties which are to be observed.
Randolph Quirk and H. G. Widdowson (ed.), English in the World (Cambridge University Press, and The British Council, 1985, 275 pp.). A collection of papers by linguistic and literary scholars on the teaching of English language and literature around the world; a text which stresses the history of ideas and current trends in analysis.
Peter Trudgill and Jean Hannah, International English: A Guide to Varieties of Standard English (Edward Arnold, 3rd edition 1994, 176 pp.). A succinct account of the main differences in pronunciation, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary in the chief regional varieties of English; largely devoted to description and illustration of these differences.
Appendix C
Data Sources
The following sources of data are referred to in the book.
p. 62 Robert Burchfield, The Spoken Word: A BBC Guide. London: BBC Publications, 1981.
p. 91 The sociolinguistic data is from J. K. Chambers and P. Trudgill, Dialectology. Cambridge: CUP, 1980.
p. 98 G. N. Leech, English in Advertising. London: Longman, 1966.
p. 102 W. O’Barr, Linguistic Evidence: Language, Power and Strategy in the Courtroom. London: Academic Press, 1982.
p. 105 J. Kettle-Williams, ‘CB Rubber Duck. 10–10’. Language Monthly, 13, 1984, 20–22.
p. 111 R. K. Gordon, Anglo-Saxon Poetry. London: Dent, 1926.
p. 113 Afferbeck Lauder, Let Stalk Strine. Sydney: Ure Smith, 1965.
Frank Shaw, Fritz Spiegl and S. Kelly, Lern Yerself Scouse. Liverpool: The Scouse Press, 1966.
Jim Everhart, The Illustrated Texas Dictionary of the English Language, Vol. 2. Lincoln: Cliff’s Notes, 1968.
Sam Llewellyn, Yacky dar moy bewty! London: Elm Tree Books, 1985.
p. 114 Eric Partridge, Comic Alphabets. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1961.
p. 128 Bob Cotton and Malcolm Garrett, You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet: The Future of Media and the Global Expert System. London: Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1999.
p. 129 John Naughton, A Brief History of the Future: The Origins of the Internet. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1999, p. 150.
Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web. London: Orion Business Books, 1999.
p. 146 A. Ellegård, Who was Junius? Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1962.
p. 147 C. B. Williams, Style and Vocabulary: Numerical Studies. London: Griffin, 1970.
p. 148 J. Svartvik, The Evans Statements: A Case for Forensic Linguistics. Gothenburg: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1968.
p. 159 A. Zettersten, A Statistical Study of the Graphic System of Present-day American English. Lund: Studentlitteratur, 1968.
p. 160 Written word-count data from Thorndike and Lorge (see p. 157), and R. Edwards and V. Gibbon, Words Your Children Use. London: Burke Books, 2nd edn., 1973. Spoken data from surveys carried out at Lund University and Reading University
p. 181 Bengt Odenstedt, The Inscription on the Undley Bracteate and the Beginnings of English Runic Writing. Umeå University, 1983.
p. 230 A. S. C. Ross, ‘U and non-U’, in Nancy Mitford (ed.), Noblesse Oblige, London: Hamish Hamilton, 1956.
p. 276 R. L. Cooper, ‘The avoidance of androcentric generics’, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 50 (1984), 5–20.
p. 278 B. B. Kachru, ‘South Asian English’, in Bailey and Görlach (see p. 301).
p. 283 F. Weeks, A. Glover, P. Strevens and E. Johnson, Seaspeak Reference Manual. Oxford: Pergamon, 1984.
p. 289 J. Dayananda, ‘Plain English in the United States’. English Today, 5, 1986, 13–16.
Index
The alphabetical arrangement of this index is word-by-word
a, pronunciation of, 88–90
abbreviations, 38, 41, 222; in Netspeak, 135–6; scribal, 165
Aboriginal borrowings, 258
Academy, 223
accents, 64–7, 88–91, 113–15, 259–60, 296
acronyms, 135–6
acrostics, 116
adjectives, use of, 32–3
advertising, 151, 253–4
Africa, English in, 3
air-traffic control, 281–2
Alfred, King, 171, 186
alliteration, 154
American Dialect Society, 139
American English, 240–48; dialects of, 243–5; State names, 245–6; v. British English, 77, 249, 264–9, 292–3
anagrams, 117
Anglo-Saxon see Old English
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 186
assimilation, 57–9
assonance, 154
at (@), 135, 139
aureate terms, 194
Australian English, 113, 256–60
Authorized Version of the Bible, 214–20, 235–6
authorship research, 145–50
aygo-paygo speech, 123
back slang, 123
Bacon v. Shakespeare, 147–8
Bailey, Nathaniel, 221
BBC English, 59–65, 90
Bede, the Venerable, 164–5
Beowulf, 171–3
Berners-Lee, Tim, 129
between you and I, 30
Bible translation, 194, 214–20
bicapitalization, 137
bidialecticism, 294
> bilingualism, 284, 294
Birmingham, 67
Black English, 252–6; vernacular, 155–6
‘Blankety Blank’, 115
blending of words, 135
Bombaugh, C. C., 119
Book of Common Prayer, 218
Boorde, Andrew, 236
borrowing, 39–41, 80, 174–7, 192–5, 210–13, 247–8; in Europe, 271–4
Britain, early languages of, 170–71
British Council, 6
Burchfield, Robert, 62
Burns, Robert, 236
Caedmon story, 165
‘Call My Bluff’, 115
calypso, 111
Canadian English, 250–52
Caribbean English, 252–5
Carroll, Lewis, 119, 126
Cawdrey, Robert, 221–22
Caxton, William, 79, 205–9
CB codes, 105
Celtic languages, 170–71, 234
centre slang, 123
chatgroups, 129–30, 133–8
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 197–201
Chaucerisms, 210
Cheke, John, 210–11
China, English in, 6–7
code games, 123
comic alphabets, 114
commentary, 128
commuting, 67
complaints about grammar, 30–31
compound words, 41; on the Net, 135
Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, The, 21
confusion between words, 81
consonants, 55–9
conversation, 24–6, 94–6
conversion, 41, 213–14
Cotton, Bob, 128
courtroom strategies, 102–3
creoles, 16–17, 254–6
crosswords, 115–16
cummings, e. e., 151
Danes, 174–8
Das, Kamala, 280
Dayananda, James, 289–90
decimate, use of, 44
Defoe, Daniel, 223
description v. prescription, 28–9, 226–7
deviant English, 150–56
dialects, 36–7, 91–3, 158–9, 243–4, 252, 274; Estuary English, 66; future for, 296; jokes about 113–15; Middle English, 203–6; Old English, 171–3
dictionaries, 221–27, 248–9; choice between, 50–51
different from/to/than, 30–31
Donne, John, 151
dotcom, 139
doublets, 119
Dryden, John, 223
duels, linguistic, 111–12
Dunbar, William, 111–12, 235
e-, 139
Early Modern English, 207–32
eggy-peggy speech, 123
Eliot, T. S., 154
elision, 57–9
Elizabethan literature, 221
Ellegård, Alvar, 146
Elyot, Thomas, 210
e-mail, 129–34, 136–8
emoticons, 131–2
English Now, 30, 63
Estuary English, 65–7
etymological fallacy, 44
etymology, 39–41, 79
Evans, Timothy, 148–9
Exeter Book, 111
feminism, 275–6
Flower, Kathy, 7
flyting, 111–12
Follow Me, 7
foreign-language use, 4–8
forensic linguistics, 147–50
Franglais, etc., 273
French: English influence on, 271–3; influence on English, 78, 189–94, 210–11
future of English, 11–12, 292–7
g dropping, 61
Gadsby, 118
Gaelic, 234–40
Garrett, Malcolm, 128
Gates, Bill, 139
gematria, 121–2
glottal stops, 65–6
gobbledegook, 285
Goh Chok Tong, 296
Golden Bull Awards, 285
Gowers, Ernest, 43–5
graffiti, 108
grammar, 21–33; Middle English, 188–9, 195–6; Old English, 168–70; preferences in, 32–3; regional, 239, 255–6, 266–7, 277; and sexism, 275–6
grammars, early, 27–8, 226–7
graphology, 136–8
Graves, Robert, 156
Great Vowel Shift, 79, 201–2
Greek, borrowings from, 210–11
grid games, 121
The Guardian, 95
Guest, E., 292
h dropping, 61, 91
Hart, John, 222
Henryson, Robert, 235
Herbert, George, 152–3
history of English, 161–300
Hogan, Paul, 260
hopefully, use of, 31
Hopkins, Gerard Manley, 156
humour, 107–15, 151
Humphreys, Barry, 260
identity, 11, 96–103, 274–80, 295
idioms, 216
The Independent, 296
India Today, 4
Indian English, 3–4, 277–80
inflections, 169–70
information explosion, 281
inkhorn terms, 210–13
intelligibility, 11, 280–97
Internet, 128–39, 229
intrusive r, 60–61
Irish English, 237–40; Northern, 239–40
irregular words, 196
-ize verbs, 43–5
Jamaican English, 254–5
John of Trevisa, 205
Johnson, Samuel, 223–6
jokes, 107–9
Joyce, James, 155–6
Junius letters, 146–7
Kentish dialect, 173, 203
King James Bible, 214–20
‘knowing about’ grammar, 26–31
Lallans, 236
Langland, William, 197
Latin, 11, 22, 44, 78, 79, 167, 170–74, 194–5, 210–13, 293
law, language of, 100–103
Leech, Geoffrey, 98
Lern Yerself Scouse, 113
Let Stalk Strine, 113
letters, silent, 79
letters v. sounds, 54, 60
lines of poetry, 152–4
linking r, 59
lip rounding, 58
lipograms, 118
literature, 150–56
Liverpool, 37, 67, 113
Lowth, Robert, 27, 226
Malenglish, 295
man, use of, 275
meaning, changes in, 43–5
Mendenhall, T. G., 147–8
Mercian dialect, 173
Middle English, 184–206; history of, 190–91; spelling, 79; v. Old English, 190
Midland dialects, 203–4
Milton, John, 154
missionaries, 171, 173–4
Mitford, Nancy, 230
MOOs, 129–30
morphology, 23
Morse, Samuel, 159
mother-tongue use, 2
MUDs, 129–30
Mulcaster, Richard, 213, 221
Murray, Lindley, 27, 226
names, 38–9, 177; see also place names
National Curriculum, 296
Naughton, John, 129
negatives, double, 31, 188, 256
Netspeak, 129–38, 141; abbreviations in, 142–3
New Zealand English, 257–60
Newcastle, 67
nice, use of, 44
none, use of, 30
Norman invasion, 189–91
normative thinking, 222–7
Northern dialect, 203–5
Northumbrian dialect, 173
Nue Spelling, 83
O’Barr, William, 102–3
Odenstedt, Bengt, 181
Old English, 163–83; history of, 170–73; spelling of, 78
only, use of, 30
onomatopoeia, 124
Orwell, George, 288–9
Oxford Dictionary of New Words, 139
palindromes, 118
pangrams, 118
Partridge, Eric, 114
pauses and punctuation, 95
personal English, 144–60
Peterborough Chronicle, 185–90
phon
etic transcription, 54–6
pidgins, 13–17, 254
pig Latin, 123
Pilgrim Fathers, 241
Pitman, James, 83
place names, 171, 175–6, 245–8
Plain English, 285–91
playing with English, 107–26
poetry, 151–6, 197–8
Pope, Alexander, 154
prefixation, 41, 135
prepositions at ends of sentences, 31
Priestley, Joseph, 227
printing, 78–9, 205–9
printing, impact of, 127
pronouns and sexism, 275–6
pronunciation, 52–68; complaints about, 59–63; controversies, 62; Estuary English, 67; history of, 168, 196–7, 201–2; regional standards of, 234, 241, 252, 254, 257–65, 277
punctuation, 95; on the Net, 137–8
puns, 112
purists, 210, 213, 223–7
Puritan settlers, 241–3
Quirk, Randolph, 21
r, pronunciation of, 59–61, 89
radio, 128
Rao, Raja, 280
rapping, 110–11
readability scores, 289–91
rebus, 117–18
Received Pronunciation, 54–5, 64–8, 88, 128, 259–60, 263
regional varieties of language see dialects
religious language, 99, 151, 173–4
Renaissance, the, 209–14
rhyme, 154
rhythm, 152–3, 255, 277
riddles, 108–11
Roanoke settlement, 240–41
Rolle, Richard, 204–5
Ross, A. S. C., 230
Royal Society, 223
rules of grammar, 26–31, 226–7
runes, 171, 179–83
Ruthwell Cross, 182
Scandinavian names, 175–7
Schonell, F., 74
scientific vocabulary, 228–9
Scots English, 234–7
Scott, Walter, 236
Scrabble, 120, 121
Seaspeak, 282–4
second language use, 2–4, 276–80
sexism and language, 275–6
Shakespeare, William, 27, 214–18; authorship of, 147–8
shall/will, use of, 26, 31
Shavian, 83
Shaw, George Bernard, 83–4, 88
short messaging service (SMS), 141
Singapore, 296
Singlish, 296
slang, 36–7, 229
smileys, 131–2
social status, 63–7, 230–32, 260–63, 271–80
sound symbolism, 124–6
South African English, 260–3
South Asian English, 277–80
Southern dialect, 203–5