Description
A Survey of Modern English covers a wide selection of aspects of the modern English language. Fully revised and updated, the major focus of the third edition lies in Standard American and British English individually and in comparison with each other. Over and beyond that, this volume treats other Englishes around the world, especially those of the southern hemisphere countries of Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa as well as numerous varieties spoken in southern, eastern and western Africa, south and southeast Asia, and the Pacific. The main areas of investigation and interest include:
- pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary;
- multiple facets of English dialects and sociolects with an emphasis on gender and ethnicity;
- questions of pragmatics as well as a longer look at English-related pidgin and creole varieties.
This authoritative guide is a comprehensive, scholarly, and systematic review of modern English. In one volume, the book presents a description of both the linguistic structure of present-day English and its geographical, social, gender, and ethnic variations. This is complemented with an updated general bibliography and with exercises at the end of each chapter and their suggested solutions at the end of the volume, all intended to provide students and other interested readers with helpful resources.
Table of Contents
Chapter one: The English Language: Standards and Variation
Chapter two: Vocabulary
Chapter three: The Pronunciation and Spelling of English
Chapter four: Grammar
Chapter five: Written and Spoken Language Use: Diatypes
Chapter six: Dialectal and Sociolinguistic Variation: Users
Chapter seven: English in the British Isles
Chapter eight: English in America
Chapter nine: Standard British and American English in Comparison
Chapter ten: English in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa
Chapter eleven: Pidgin and Creole English
Chapter twelve: English as a Second Language
Key to the Excercises
