The earliest English : an introduction to Old English language / / Chris McCully and Sharon Hilles

• Autore: McCully C. B.
• Pubblicazione: London ; ; New York : , : Routledge, , 2014
• Edizione: 1st ed.
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (303 p.)
• Disciplina: 429/.82; 429
• Soggetto topico: English language - Old English, ca. 450-1100; English language - Old English, ca. 450-1100 - Grammar; English language - Middle English, 1100-1500
• Altri autori: HillesSharon
• Note generali: First published 2005 by Pearson Education.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Acknowledgements; Terminology; List of symbols and a note on conventions; Abbreviations; Using this book; UNIT 1: Thinking about the earliest English; 1.0 Preliminaries; 1.1 Uniformity and change; 1.2 Initial terminology; 1.3 Old English poetry; 1.4 Reading passage; 1.5 Words, words, words; 1.6 Pronouncing Old English; Summary; Study questions; websites; further reading; UNIT 2: History, culture, language origins; 2.0 Reading passage; 2.1 Some history; 2.2 A language-family tree; 2.3 The Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy; Summary ; Study questions websites; further reading; UNIT 3: Nouns; 3.0 Mercenaries and settlers; 3.1 The Germania; 3.2 The Germania and the Anglo-Saxons; 3.3 Local shires and their politics; 3.4 Women; 3.5 Reading passage; 3.6 Inflections, nouns and grammatical roles; 3.7 Inflections in other languages; 3.8 Articles in OE; 3.9 More on OE articles, noun inflections and grammatical case; 3.10 Inflections on OE nouns; 3.11 Additional noun declensions in OE; 3.12 Pronouns; 3.13 NPs, nominals, strong and weak adjectives; Summary; Study questions; websites; further reading ; Appendix 1: At-a-glance guide to OE inflections - nouns and adjectivesUNIT 4: Verbs; 4.0 The conversion of England; 4.1 Influence of the Celtic church; 4.2 The convergence of the Celtic and Roman traditions; 4.3 Reading passage (1); 4.4 Word order and pronouns in OE; 4.5 OE verbs: present participles; 4.6 Relative clauses; 4.7 Thou and you in OE; 4.8 OE and PDE verbs; 4.9 'Less regular' verbs; 4.10 Still more on OE verbs; 4.11 Weak verbs; 4.12 Reading passage (2); 4.13 Comments on reading passage (2) - the subjunctive; Summary; Study questions; websites; further reading ; Appendix 2: At-a-glance guide to OE inflections - verbsINTERLUDE: Working with dictionaries; UNIT 5: OE metrics; 5.0 Overview of OE metre; 5.1 Stress in OE; 5.2 Syllables in OE and PDE; 5.3 Syllables and alliteration; 5.4 How half-lines end: poetic closure in OE; 5.5 Resolution; 5.6 The concept of metrical position in OE verse; 5.7 Half-line patterns that never occur; 5.8 The Five Types; 5.9 Secondary stress, metrical position and 'L'; 5.10 Stress, L and alliteration; Summary; Study questions; websites; further reading; UNIT 6: Standards and crosses; 6.0 Poetry and prose ; websites
• Sommario/riassunto: The Earliest English provides a student-friendly introduction to Old English and the earliest periods of the history of the English Language as it evolved before 1215. Using non-technical language, the book covers basic terminology, the linguistic and cultural backgrounds to the emergence and development of OE, and the OE vocabulary that students studying this phase of the English language need to know. In eight carefully structured units, the authors show how the vocabulary of Old English contains many items familiar to us today; how its characteristic poetic form is based on a beautiful and intricate simplicity; how its patterns of word building and inflectional structure are paralleled in several present day languages and how and why the English language and its literature continued to change so that by the mid-12th century the English language looks more like the 'English' that we are familiar with in the 21st century. Features of the book include: the provision of accessible guides to some important 'problem topics' of classical OE stimulating cross-linguistic comparisons, e.g. the pronoun system of OE as compared with the pronoun system of present day Dutch cleverly laid out translation exercises, with structural help in the form of selective glossaries careful division into eight units, designed for both classroom use and self-study Written in a clear and accessible manner, The Earliest English provides a comprehensive introduction to the evolution of Old English language and literature, and will be an invaluable textbook for students of English Language and Linguistics.
• Titolo autorizzato: The earliest English
• ISBN: 1-317-87698-9; 1-315-83847-8; 1-317-87697-0
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910975107403321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II
• Serie: Learning about language.