An Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, And Ethnic Slurs in the English-speaking World
This is the only encyclopedia and social history of swearing and foul language in the English-speaking world. It covers the various social dynamics that generate swearing, foul language, and insults in the entire range of the English language. While the emphasis is on American and British English, the different major global varieties, such as Australian, Canadian, South African, and Caribbean English are also covered.
This book is the first systematic account of the syntax and semantics of names. Drawing on work in onomastics, philosophy, and linguistics John Anderson examines the distribution and subcategorization of names within a framework of syntactic categories, and considers how the morphosyntactic behaviour of names connects to their semantic roles. He argues that names occur in two basic circumstances: one involving vocatives and their use in naming predications, where they are not definite; the other their use as arguments of predicators, where they are definite. This division is discussed in relation to English, French, Greek, and Seri, and a range of other languages. Professor Anderson reveals that the semantic status of names, including prototypicality, is crucial to understanding their morphosyntax and role in derivational relationships. He shows that semantically coherent subsets of names, such as those referring to people and places, are characterized by morphosyntactic properties which may vary from language to language. His original and important investigation will appeal to scholars and advanced students of linguistics and philosophy.
Grammar of Old English by Eduard Sievers (Rare Book Collection)
Hitherto, Old English grammars have virtually been founded upon the language of the poetical texts. This is to be deplored, especially when we consider that the manuscripts in which they are contained are uniformly late; that the texts themselves were composed at an earlier period, and frequently in another dialect; and that in our present versions ancient forms are almost hopelessly jumbled with more modern ones, and specimens of the most widely separated dialects are occasionally united in the same composition.
In the present treatise, on the other hand, the language of the older prose writings has, to a greater extent than heretofore, been chosen as the basis of grammatical investigation, since it is safe to assume that they represent in some measure a single dialect. Besides the characterization of the West Saxon, which is everywhere made the most prominent, an attempt has also been made to give, though in the most concise terms, the chief variations of the other dialects.
Sociolinguistics is the study of the different ways in which different groups of people use language. ’…the field that studies the relation between language and society, between the uses of language and the social structures in which the users...’
This book provides a brief but comprehensive introduction to the field, making links with related disciplines such as history, politics, and gender studies.
Lingua Franca looks at all aspects of language. Old languages, modern languages and even invented languages. Through interviews and prepared talks, experts analyse a single topic of interest to users and lovers of language traversing such linguistic territory as bi-lingual education, ebonics, the language of pornography, and the political use of words.
Lingua Franca also analyses the language employed in our public debates about controversial issues such as Aboriginal land rights, tax reform, and the meaning of the word 'sorry'. We have heard discussions about the place of minority mother tongues in early literacy programs – whether in isolated Aboriginal communities or in urban America where Black American English is the vernacular; about research into why boys who play up in school can't read; about the failure of German spelling reform, and about what the 'free speech' of the Internet means for authors' copyright.
