基本説明
Publication delayed (Originally scheduled in June 2001). The book is an ideal text for first year undergraduate students of English language and literature, but also provides useful background knowledge for more advanced students.
Full Description
This is a introduction to the English language and its use, organised into 15 thematic chapters, each of which can be read at one sitting. How do dialects and accents affect our identity? Do men and women speak English differently? What do slips of the tongue reveal about language? Where did English come from? This book answers these questions and many more, at the same time providing a simple guide to relevant linguistic theory and research.
Contents
List of Figures - Acknowledgements - Preface - Space: The Diversity of English - Time: The History and Pre-History of English - Contact: The Case of Middle English - Signs: The Semiotic View of Language - Strange Orchestras: The Underlying Structure of Languages - Myth: Language and Reality - Sex: Language and Gender - Tyranny: The Oppressiveness of Language and what to do about it - Telling Stories: The Structure of Discourse in English - What's in a Norm? The Nature of Standard English - Language with Attitude: Dialect, Accent and Identity - Fixing: Language Planning and Regulation - Slippage: Slips of the Tongue and other Blunders - Communication Breakdown: Modelling what happens when we Communicate - The Nature of Language: Linguistic Theory and the Question of Origins - Bibliography - Index
