Books & Articles

Use the Category browser to select a subject area, and the Type filter to break down the results by document type. Results can be sorted either alphabetically by title or by date of publication. For articles, click on the icon to download.

Sort by: 
Category: 
Type: 
1 result found
The story of English - topic summary
The story of English - topic summary1  General approach, statistics on world use, difficulties of arriving at a precise figure.
2  The history of English up to 1066 - Old English, Celtic, Latin, Old Norse, reasons for grammatical change.
3  The history of English from 1066 - French and its replacement by English, other languages, varieties of French, Scots, English, beginnings of diaspora.
4  Early Modern English - early US accents, Elizabethan English, vocabulary growth, early dictionaries.
5  Controversies in the 17th and 18th century over language change and 'corruption', an academy, Johnson's dictionary, standardization, Caxton, Walker's dictionary.
6  American English variation, Scots-Irish immigration, truckers, Europeans, vocabulary, Americanisms from indigenous languages, Spanish, Yiddish etc, Webster, World Standard.
7  Black American English, Gullah, pidgin and creole, insult language, capping, Glasgow, relation to standard English as a second dialect.
8  Canadian, Australian, Indian English and other world Englishes, Jack Chambers, Braj Kachru.
9  English pidgins and creoles, Sierra Leone, Jamaica, Tok Pisin.
10  English in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Wales, global diversity.
11  Pronunciation, origins of RP, accents, language change, ELT issues.
12  History of English spelling, spelling patterns, spelling reform.
13  English grammar, history of attitudes, descriptive vs prescriptive, reading the news in different styles, educational approaches, usage issues.
14  English vocabulary, reasons for its size, regional and stylistic variation, levels of accessibility, technical terms, plain English.
15  Regional dialects and identity, rural and urban, changes, history in Britain, American dialect dictionary, idiolects, language awareness.
16  Varieties expressing social identity, Irish English, Seamus Heaney, Jamaican creole, Cockney slang, feminism, communicatio and identity, change in British standard.
17  International English, Seaspeak, commerce, conferences, Singapore, India, Italy, Randolph Quirk, Robert Burchfield, William Safire, good and bad effects, language endangerment, benefits of bilingualism.
18  Review of the series, number of speakers, history, global spread, British varieties, structure, accents, vocabulary, intelligibility and identity, world English, sources of further information.
 
The recordings can be heard here:https://www.davidcrystal.com/GBR/Books-and-Articles?itemId=1150
 06.01.1987