Milestones in the History of English in America

Milestones in the History of English in America PDF Author: Allen Walker Read
Publisher: Publication of the American Di
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
This collection centers on the work of Allen Walker Read, an employee of the Dictionary of American English at the University of Chicago in the 1930s. Read's first nine essays pick up themes in Early American English such as the impact of ethnicity on language attitudes, English on both sides of the Atlantic, distinguishing features of American talk, and milestones in the branching of British and American English. Subsequent discussion includes the history of o.k., taboo words (including the history of fuck), and Read's autobiographical account about his development as a linguist, presented in two addresses to the renegade Linguistic Association of Canada and the US, and to the American Dialect Society. Articles are preceded by introductory remarks from the editor, and the volume includes a bibliography of Read's papers. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

Milestones in the History of English in America

Milestones in the History of English in America PDF Author: Allen Walker Read
Publisher: Publication of the American Di
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 488

Get Book Here

Book Description
This collection centers on the work of Allen Walker Read, an employee of the Dictionary of American English at the University of Chicago in the 1930s. Read's first nine essays pick up themes in Early American English such as the impact of ethnicity on language attitudes, English on both sides of the Atlantic, distinguishing features of American talk, and milestones in the branching of British and American English. Subsequent discussion includes the history of o.k., taboo words (including the history of fuck), and Read's autobiographical account about his development as a linguist, presented in two addresses to the renegade Linguistic Association of Canada and the US, and to the American Dialect Society. Articles are preceded by introductory remarks from the editor, and the volume includes a bibliography of Read's papers. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

The Hidden History of Coined Words

The Hidden History of Coined Words PDF Author: Ralph Keyes
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190466766
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
"How do words get coined? That question is explored in Ralph Keyes's latest book, The Hidden History of Coined Words. Based on meticulous research, Keyes has determined that successful neologisms are as likely to be created by chance as by intention. A remarkable number of new words were coined whimsically, he's discovered, to taunt, even to prank. Knickers resulted from a hoax, big bang from an insult. Wisecracking produced software, crowdsource, and blog. More than a few neologisms weren't even coined intentionally: they resulted from happy accidents such as typos, mistranslations, and misheard words like bigly and buttonhole, or from an unintended coinage such as Isaac Asimov's robotics. Many of the word coiners Keyes writes about come from unlikely quarters. Neologizers (a Thomas Jefferson coinage) include not just learned scholars and literary lions but cartoonists, columnists, children's authors, and children as well. Wimp, Keyes tells us, originated with an early 20th century book series on The Wymps, goop from a series about The Goops, and nerd from a book by Dr. Seuss. Competing claims to have coined terms like gonzo, mojo, and booty call are assessed, as is epic battles fought between new word partisans, and those who think we have enough words already. A concluding chapter offers pointers on how to coin a word of one's own. Written in a reader-friendly manner, The Hidden History of Coined Words will appeal not just to word lovers but history buffs, trivia contesters, and anyone at all who is interested in a well-informed good read"--

What is English?

What is English? PDF Author: Tim William Machan
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191668362
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
What is English? Can we be as certain as we usually are when we say something is not English? To find some answers Tim Machan explores the language's present and past, and looks ahead to its futures among the one and a half billion people who speak it. His search is fascinating and important, for definitions of English have influenced education and law in many countries and helped shape the identities of those who live in them. Finding an account that fits the constantly changing varieties of English is, Tim Machan finds, anything but simple. But he rises to the challenge, grappling with its elusive essence through episodes in its history. He looks at the ambitions of Caxton, the preoccupations of Johnson, and the eloquence of Churchill, tussles with the jargons of contemporary business, and pursues his object from rural America to James Cook's Australia. He examines creoles, pidgins, and dialects, and takes apart competing histories showing their assumptions and prejudices. Finally he reveals the stable category English, resting paradoxically within its constantly mutating forms and varieties. This is a book for everyone interested in English and the role of language in society and culture.

Language Anxiety

Language Anxiety PDF Author: Tim William Machan
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191552488
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
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.

A History of American English

A History of American English PDF Author: J. L. Dillard
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317899598
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
This impressive volume provides a chronological, narrative account of the development of American English from its earliest origins to the present day.

Language in the USA

Language in the USA PDF Author: Edward Finegan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521777476
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 524

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Book Description
Publisher Description

The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life in America [4 volumes]

The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life in America [4 volumes] PDF Author: Randall M. Miller
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313065365
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 2658

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Book Description
The course of daily life in the United States has been a product of tradition, environment, and circumstance. How did the Civil War alter the lives of women, both white and black, left alone on southern farms? How did the Great Depression change the lives of working class families in eastern cities? How did the discovery of gold in California transform the lives of native American, Hispanic, and white communities in western territories? Organized by time period as spelled out in the National Standards for U.S. History, these four volumes effectively analyze the diverse whole of American experience, examining the domestic, economic, intellectual, material, political, recreational, and religious life of the American people between 1763 and 2005. Working under the editorial direction of general editor Randall M. Miller, professor of history at St. Joseph's University, a group of expert volume editors carefully integrate material drawn from volumes in Greenwood's highly successful Daily Life Through History series with new material researched and written by themselves and other scholars. The four volumes cover the following periods: The War of Independence and Antebellum Expansion and Reform, 1763-1861, The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Industrialization of America, 1861-1900, The Emergence of Modern America, World War I, and the Great Depression, 1900-1940 and Wartime, Postwar, and Contemporary America, 1940-Present. Each volume includes a selection of primary documents, a timeline of important events during the period, images illustrating the text, and extensive bibliography of further information resources—both print and electronic—and a detailed subject index.

The Dictionary Wars

The Dictionary Wars PDF Author: Peter Martin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691210179
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Peter Martin recounts the patriotic fervor in the early American republic to produce a definitive national dictionary that would rival Samuel Johnson's 1755 Dictionary of the English Language. But what began as a cultural war of independence from Britain devolved into a battle among lexicographers, authors, scholars, and publishers, all vying for dictionary supremacy and shattering forever the dream of a unified American language.

A History of the English Language

A History of the English Language PDF Author: Albert Croll Baugh
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780133891553
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 506

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Book Description


Global Events

Global Events PDF Author: Gale
Publisher: Global Events
ISBN: 9781414491271
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Global Events: Milestone Events Throughout History is a six-volume set featuring more than 830 entries covering key global historical events from a regional perspective. Covering ancient civilizations to the present, important events in history are explored with an emphasis on their significance to overall world history. Volumes are chronologically arranged by region: Africa, Asia and Oceania, Central and South America, Europe, Middle East, and North America"--