Description
Book SynopsisThis Companion, now available in a paperback format, brings together more than 60 distinguished contributors to offer a wide-ranging survey of the history of the English language. Many of the essays investigate regional and ethnic varieties and take up issues of and gender.
Trade Review“In conclusion, this book succeeds in doing what it intended, to provide linguistic grounding for readers primarily interested in the literature and culture of English past and present. It deserves a place in libraries and classrooms, to be read cover to cover or dipped into for specific topics . . . Because it is readable and has good chapter bibliographies and a detailed index, it might also serve as a reference for students researching a topic within the history of English.” (Linguist, 20 January 2013)
"Readers will find clear guides to basic information.... Editorial introductions to the various sections clarify and summarise the material. Each chapter ends with extensive lists of references and further reading. A glossary of linguistic terms, reflecting 'the terms as used by the authors,' is included. As with all the Blackwell Companions, the presentation of this substantial volume is of the highest standard." (
Reference Reviews, November 2009)
"Anyone with even a passing interest in the history of the language, whether an old-fashioned description of Middle English morphology or an au courant discussion of global Englishes, will be glad to have [this] Companion on the shelf." (Times Literary Supplement, May 2009)
Momma (New York Univ.) and Matto (Adelphi Univ.) draw on an international cast of scholars to present 59 essays on the history of the English language. Part of the "Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture" series, this substantial volume is organized in nine sections and certainly covers the field. The first three sections provide essential linguistic concepts and a survey of the history of words, sounds, and grammar. Sections 4-6 deal with the Indo-European and Germanic roots of English, the history of English in England and the US, and English in British colonies and the postcolonial world. The last three sections cover literary language (including Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Toni Morrison), language variation and language teaching, and approaches to language study such as stylistics and cognitive linguistics. The editors provide brief contextual commentary for each section, and each essay has its own bibliography to facilitate further reading. All the contributions are readable and concise. This comprehensive picture of English and its history is a must for scholars. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. -- E. L. Battistella, Southern Oregon University (Choice, February, 2009)
Table of ContentsList of Figures xi
Notes on Contributors xiii
Acknowledgments xxii
Note on Phonetic Symbols and Orthography xxiv
A Timeline for HEL xxix
Part I Introduction 1
1 History, English, Language: Studying HEL Today 3
Michael Matto and Haruko Momma
2 History of the History of the English Language: How Has the Subject Been Studied? 11
Thomas Cable
3 Essential Linguistics 18
Mary Blockley
Part II Linguistic Survey 25
4 Phonology: Segmental Histories 29
Donka Minkova and Robert Stockwell
5 History of English Morphology 43
Robert McColl Millar
6 History of English Syntax 57
Olga Fischer
7 A History of the English Lexicon 69
Geoffrey Hughes
8 History of English Prosody 81
Geoffrey Russom
Part III English Semantics and Lexicography 89
9 Dictionaries Today: What Can We Do With Them? 93
Reinhard R. K. Hartmann
10 English Onomasiological Dictionaries and Thesauri 103
Werner Hüllen
11 Johnson, Webster, and the Oxford English Dictionary 113
Charlotte Brewer
Part IV Pre-history of English 123
12 English as an Indo-European Language 127
Philip Baldi
13 English as a Germanic Language 142
R. D. Fulk
Part V English in History: England and America 151
Section 1 Old English in History (ca. 450–1066) 153
14 Early Old English (up to 899) 156
Daniel Donoghue
15 Late Old English (899–1066) 165
Mechthild Gretsch
16 Topics in Old English Dialects 172
Lucia Kornexl
Section 2 Middle English in History (1066–1485) 181
17 Early Middle English (1066–ca. 1350) 184
Thorlac Turville-Petre
18 Late Middle English (ca. 1350–1485) 191
Seth Lerer
19 Varieties of Middle English 198
Jeremy J. Smith
Section 3 Early Modern English in History (1485–1660) 207
20 Early Modern English (1485–1660) 209
Terttu Nevalainen
21 Varieties of Early Modern English 216
Jonathan Hope
Section 4 Modern British English in History (1660–present) 225
22 British English in the Long Eighteenth Century (1660–1830) 228
Carey McIntosh
23 British English Since 1830 235
Richard W. Bailey
24 The Rise of Received Pronunciation 243
Lynda Mugglestone
Section 5 American English in History 251
25 American English to 1865 254
David Simpson
26 American English Since 1865 263
Walt Wolfram
27 American English Dialects 274
Gavin Jones
Section 6 Topics in History 281
28 Early Modern English Print Culture 284
John N. King
29 Issues of Gender in Modern English 293
Deborah Cameron
30 Class, Ethnicity, and the Formation of "Standard English" 303
Tony Crowley
31 The Transplantation of American English in Philippine Soil 313
Br. Andrew Gonzalez, FSC
32 English, Latin, and the Teaching of Rhetoric 323
Michael Matto
33 English in Mass Communications: News Discourse and the Language of Journalism 334
Philippa K. Smith and Allan Bell
Part VI English in History: English Outside England and the United States 345
Section 1 British Isles and Ireland 347
34 English in Wales 350
Marion Löffler
35 English in Scotland 358
J. Derrick McClure
36 English in Ireland 366
Terence Patrick Dolan
Section 2 English in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand 377
37 English in Canada 380
John Edwards
38 Australian and New Zealand English 389
Pam Peters
Section 3 Colonial and Post-colonial English 401
39 South Asian English 404
Kamal K. Sridhar
40 English in the Caribbean 413
Donald Winford
41 English in Africa 423
Alamin M. Mazrui
Part VII Literary Languages 431
42 The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Tradition 435
Fred C. Robinson
43 "In swich englissh as he kan": Chaucer's Literary Language 445
John F. Plummer
44 Shakespeare's Literary Language 455
Adam N. McKeown
45 Jane Austen's Literary English 464
Mary Poovey
46 Joyce's English 471
Laurent Milesi
47 Faulkner's Language 479
Noel Polk
48 Twixt the Twain: East-West in Rushdie's Zubaan-Tongue 487
Tabish Khair
49 Toni Morrison: The Struggle for the Word 495
Justine Tally
Part VIII Issues in Present-Day English 505
50 Migration and Motivation in the Development of African American Vernacular English 509
Mary B. Zeigler
51 Latino Varieties of English 521
Robert Bayley
52 Teaching English to Native Speakers: The Subject Matter of Composition (1970–2005) 531
Mary Soliday
53 Earning as well as Learning a Language: English and the Post-colonial Teacher 541
Eugene Chen Eoyang
54 Creoles and Pidgins 553
Salikoko S. Mufwene
55 World Englishes in World Contexts 567
Braj B. Kachru
Part IX Further Approaches to Language Study 581
56 Style and Stylistics 585
David L. Hoover
57 Corpus-Based Linguistic Approaches to the History of English 596
Anne Curzan
58 Sociolinguistics 608
Robin Tolmach Lakoff
59 Cognitive Linguistics 618
Dirk Geeraerts
Glossary of Linguistic Terms 630
Haruko Momma
Index 646
