1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910778113903321

Autore

Mair Christian

Titolo

Twentieth-century English : history, variation, and standardization / / Christian Mair [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2006

ISBN

1-107-16074-X

1-281-04028-2

9786611040284

1-139-13062-5

0-511-33463-X

0-511-33397-8

0-511-33329-3

0-511-48695-2

0-511-33521-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xvi, 244 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Studies in English language

Disciplina

420.904

Soggetti

English language - 20th century

English language - Standardization

English language - Variation

Linguistic change - History - 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 231-241) and index.

Nota di contenuto

; 1. Setting the scene -- ; 2. Ongoing language change : problems of detection and verification -- ; 3. Lexical change in twentieth-century English -- ; 4. Grammatical changes in twentieth-century English -- ; 5. Pronunciation -- ; 6. Language change in context : changing communicative and discourse norms in twentieth-century English -- ; App. 1. Brief survey of the corpora used for the present study -- ; App. 2. OED baseline corpora -- ; App. 3. Estimating text size in the newspaper archives and the World Wide Web -- ; App. 4. quarterly update of the OED online (new edition) -- 13 March 2003 : Motswana to mussy.

Sommario/riassunto

Standard English has evolved and developed in many ways over the



past hundred years. From pronunciation to vocabulary to grammar, this concise survey clearly documents the recent history of Standard English. Drawing on large amounts of authentic corpus data, it shows how we can track ongoing changes to the language, and demonstrates each of the major developments that have taken place. As well as taking insights from a vast body of literature, Christian Mair presents the results of his own cutting-edge research, revealing some important changes which have not been previously documented. He concludes by exploring how social and cultural factors, such as the American influence on British English, have affected Standard English in recent times. Authoritative, informative and engaging, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in language change in progress, particularly those working on English, and will be welcomed by students, researchers and language teachers alike.