This volume investigates the Indo-European and Germanic background to the English language, looking at how inherited elements of phonology and morphology survived into the Old English period. It then considers various kinds of contact between the first speakers of English and speakers of Celtic, Latin and Scandinavian, under different sociolinguistic circumstances. The manner in which initial standardisation of English took place, with considerable code-switching, and the structural changes which the language underwent in this early period are discussed. The various analytical methods used to examine the available data are considered in a dedicated chapter on philology. The volume also contains a set of longer chapters. These take a detailed look at various levels of language from phonology, morphology, syntax through to semantics and pragmatics, and include reviews of historical sociolinguistics and onomastics.
Daugiau informacijos
A wide-ranging treatment of the historical background to English with an emphasis on language contact and its effects.
Volume I: General Editor's introduction Raymond Hickey; Introduction to
volume I Laura Wright and Raymond Hickey; Part I. The Context of English:
1.
The IndoEuropean framework Donald Ringe;
2. English in its Germanic
surrounding Wayne Harbert;
3. Language development in the old English period
Julia Fernįndez Cuesta;
4. The geography of English in England Merja
Steenroos;
5. Philology and the history of English Laura Wright and Raymond
Hickey; Part II. Contact and External Influences:
6. Early contact with
Celtic Raymond Hickey;
7. Latin in the early history of English Olga
Timofeeva;
8. The Scandinavian period Richard Dance and Sarah PonsSanz;
9.
French and English in the later middle ages Geert de Wilde;
10.
Codeswitching and language mixing Herbert Schendl;
11. Early standardisation
Louise Sylvester;
12. Neoclassical borrowings and their influence on English
Letitia Vezzosi and Luca Baratta; 13.Typological reorientation in the history
of English Marion Elenbaas; Part III. The Long View by Levels and Areas of
Language:
14. Historical phonology Donka Minkova;
15. Historical Morphology
Elbieta Adamczyk;
16. Historical syntax Bettelou Los;
17. Historical
semantics Kathryn Allan;
18. Historical pragmatics Andreas Jucker;
19.
Historical sociolinguistics Terttu Nevalainen and Tanja Säily;
20. Historical
onomastics Richard Coates; Appendix: Recommended reading.
Laura Wright is Professor of English Language at the University of Cambridge. Among her recent book publications are English Grammar for Literature Students (2024), 'Social Life of Words (2023), The Multilingual Origins of Standard English (2020) and Sunnyside: A Sociolinguistic History of British House Names (2020). Raymond Hickey is Adjunct Professor at the University of Limerick, Ireland and former Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. His recent publications include Listening to the Past (2017), The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics (2017), English in Multilingual South Africa (2020), The Handbook of Language Contact (2020), Sounds of English Worldwide (2023) and The Oxford Handbook of Irish English (2024).
