The proposition that there is a correlation between language and culture or culture-specific ways of thinking can be traced back to the views of Herder and von Humboldt in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It is generally accepted today that a language, especially its lexicon, influences its speakers' cultural patterns of thought and perception in various ways, for example through a culture-specific segmentation of the extralinguistic reality, the frequency of occurrence of particular lexical items, or the existence of keywords or key word combinations revealing core cultural values. The aim of this volume is to explore the cultural dimension of a wide range of preconstructed or semi-preconstructed word combinations in English. The 17 papers of the volume are divided into four sections, focusing on particular lexemes (e.g. enjoy and its collocates), types of word combinations (e.g. proverbs and similes), use-related varieties (such as the language of tourism or answering-machine messages), and user-related varieties (such as Aboriginal English or African English).

Varieties of English: An Introduction to the Study of Languages

A topic-based introduction to spoken and written English, providing a wide range of written texts and transcriptions of speech for commentary and analysis. The salient stylistic features are described in linguistic terms where this is relevant to the particular nature of the text or transcript. This second edition adds new material for study, and provides new sections on areas such as "politically correct" usage, language and racism and language and gender.