English Language : oso

Spreading Patterns

Hendrik De Smet — 2013-01-24

Author:: Hendrik De Smet
ISBN:: 9780199812752
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812752.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

This book examines the emergence and spread of three types of complements from the Middle English period to the present day. The three types of complements are examined in detail. The first type is subject-controlled gerund complements (The cat loves being stroked, absolutely loves it!). The second type is for…to-infinitives (We couldn't afford for it to go wrong.). The last type is subject-controlled participial complements (The receptionist is busy filling a fifth box.). This first half of the book addresses the theoretical issues by summarizing a number of major approaches to the study of complementation, and by focusing on how and why a particular change spreads (a process that the book calls “diffusion”). In the second half, which is descriptive and largely corpus-based, the text tests these mechanisms on the three complement types. This work demonstrates how diffusion interacts with the grammatical system of complementation; how diffusion proceeds, step-by-step; and why diffusion is directional.

Information Structure and Syntactic Change in the History of English

Anneli Meurman-Solin, Maria Jose Lopez-Couso, and Bettelou Los — 2012-09-20

Author:: AnneliMeurman-SolinUniversity of HelsinkiMaria JoseLopez-CousoUniversidad de Santiago de CompostelaBettelouLosRadboud University Nijmegen
ISBN:: 9780199860210
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199860210.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

This book applies information structure as it relates to language change to a corpus-based analysis of a wide range of features in the evolution of English syntax and grammars of prose in long diachrony. Its unifying topic is the role of information structure, broadly conceived, as it interacts with the other levels of linguistic description, syntax, morphology, prosody, semantics, and pragmatics. The volume comprises twelve chapters by leading scholars who take a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches. Their work affirms, among other things, that motivations for selecting a particular syntactic option vary from information structure in the strict sense to discourse organization, or a particular style or register, and can also be associated with external forces such as the development of a literary culture.

The Early English Impersonal Construction

Ruth Möhlig-Falke — 2012-09-20

Author:: Ruth Möhlig-Falke
ISBN:: 9780199777723
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199777723.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-09-20

This book aims to demonstrate that an understanding of the functional and semantic aspects of impersonal verbs in Old and Middle English can shed light on questions that remain about these verbs today. The impersonal construction has been a topic of extensive research for over a hundred years. But three quandaries—their seemingly unsystematic development, the gradual loss of impersonal uses, and the difficulty of aligning this with structural changes in early English—have made explanations for their development unsatisfactory. The book offers a detailed analysis of impersonal verbs within the framework of cognitive and constructional grammar. It focuses on the loss of the impersonal construction as a consequence of a redefinition of the grammatical categories of subject and object, and describes the diachronic development of impersonal verbs as a result of the complex interaction of verbal and constructional meaning. The research carried out for this project comprises all verbs which are recorded in impersonal use in Old and Middle English, and takes account of their full range of syntactic uses.

Verbs

William Croft — 2012-05-24

Author:: William Croft
ISBN:: 9780199248582
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199248582.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2012-05-24

“Verbs: aspect and causal structure” presents a model of event structure for the analysis of aspectual constructions and argument structure constructions in English and other languages. The central proposal is that the aspectual and causal structure of events should be clearly distinguished in their semantic representation, since each dimension makes a distinct contribution to the structure of grammatical constructions. In addition, aspect - the unfolding of events over time - must itself be analyzed in two dimensions, namely time and the qualitative states that an event enters or maintains over time. This geometric model of aspectual representation allows for a fine-grained and systematic analysis of aspectual types and their grammatical manifestation. The third dimension of event structure is the causal chain, the central semantic factor in argument realization. The aspectual and causal structures are integrated into a single model in which each participant in an event is represented by its own subevent, describing what that participant does (or has happen to it) as the event unfolds. The integrated event structure model is then used to analyze the types of events that are typically expressed in single verb constructions, with comparisons to selected complex predicate constructions such as resultative, depictive, converb and serial verb constructions.

The Bishop's Grammar

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade — 2011-01-01

Author:: Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade
ISBN:: 9780199579273
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579273.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

This book examines the life, language and grammar of Robert Lowth (1710–1787), founder of prescriptivism. Drawing on private documents, it maps his social networks and compares his own language to the grammar's model of correctness. By analysing his role in the establishment of the prescriptive canon, it portrays Lowth as a precursor to usage guides like Fowler's Modern English Usage.

English in the Middle Ages

Tim William Machan — 2010-01-01

Author:: Tim William Machan
ISBN:: 9780199282128
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199282128.001.0001
Published in print:: 2005
Published Online:: 2010-01-01

This book suggests that many linguistic, literary, and historical considerations of medieval statements on language have significantly failed to take into account the social and linguistic contexts of their production. The book explores not only medieval ideas about language but also the discursive traditions which generated them. The book draws upon a wide range of documentary evidence, including most notably the royal letters issued in 1258 prior to the Barons' War. The book also analyses the language spoken by Chaucer's pilgrims, the conversations in ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’, and many other chronicles, poems, and commentaries. The book concludes with a consideration of the post-medieval history of the status of English in law, literature, and education.

English in Europe

Manfred Görlach — 2010-01-01

Author:: Manfred Görlach
ISBN:: 9780199273102
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199273102.001.0001
Published in print:: 2004
Published Online:: 2010-01-01

This book charts the English invasion of Europe since 1945. Sixteen contributors report on the English words and phrases that have become integral parts of their languages. Each describes the effect of English on the host language, and shows how the process of incorporation often modifies pronunciation and spelling and frequently transforms meaning and use. The languages surveyed are Icelandic, Dutch, French, Spanish, Norwegian, German, Italian, Romanian, Polish, Croatian, Finnish, Albanian, Russian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, and Greek. This book provides a systematic survey of a phenomenon that is fascinating, alarming, and apparently unstoppable.

Genitives in Early English

Cynthia L. Allen — 2009-01-01

Author:: Cynthia L. Allen
ISBN:: 9780199216680
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199216680.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2009-01-01

This book examines the history of adnominal genitive phrases from Old to Early Modern English, focusing on the evidence provided by a systematic corpus study and the role of linguistic typology in diachronic syntax. It is argued that arguments based on typology should not outweigh the evidence presented by the texts. Particular attention is paid to the nature of the possessive marker in Middle English, since previous studies, which have concluded that the marker was a clitic at an early stage, suffer from an inadequate empirical base. Two chapters are devoted to establishing that the ‘his genitive’ found in many early texts is not to be equated with the possessor doubling construction found in many Germanic languages. The relationship between possessives and determiners in earlier English is also examined.

Do You Make These Mistakes in English?

Edwin L. Battistella — 2009-01-01

Author:: Edwin L. Battistella
ISBN:: 9780195367126
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195367126.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2009-01-01

In the early 1900s, the language of America was becoming colloquial English — the language of the businessman, manager, and professional. Since college and high school education were far from universal, many people turned to correspondence education — that era's distance learning — to learn the art of speaking and writing. By the 1920s and 1930s, thousands were ordering Sherwin Cody's 100% Self‐correcting Course in the English Language, a patented mail‐order course in English that was taken by over 150,000 people. This book tells the story of Sherwin Cody and his famous English course, situating both the man and the course in early 20th century cultural history. The book recounts how Cody became a businessman — a writer, grammatical entrepreneur, and mass‐marketer whose ads proclaimed “Good Money in Good English” and asked “Is Good English Worth 25 Cents to You?” and “Do You Make These Mistakes in English?” Sherwin Cody's home‐study approach was perhaps the most widely‐advertised English education program in history, and it provides a unique window into popular views of language and culture and their connection to ideas of success. Cody's work was also part of a larger shift of attitudes about self‐improvement and success. Using Cody's course as a reference point, this book examines the self‐improvement ethic reflected in such products as the Harvard Classics, The Book of Etiquette, the Book‐of‐the‐Month Club, the U.S. School of Music, and the Charles Atlas and Dale Carnegie courses to illustrate how culture became popular and how self‐reliance evolved into self‐improvement.

English

Anna Wierzbicka — 2007-09-01

Author:: Anna Wierzbicka
ISBN:: 9780195174748
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195174748.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2007-09-01

English is the most widely-spoken language in the world, and it is rapidly becoming a global lingua franca. But it is not culturally neutral: like any other language, it carries with it a cultural baggage. There are many varieties of English, but there is also “Anglo” English (or what the Indian American linguist Braj Kachru has called the “English of the inner circle”). This book argues that rather than denying the existence and continued relevance of the cultural “baggage” embedded in English (“Anglo” English), it is important to explore the contents of that baggage — important for practical, as well as intellectual, reasons: for language teaching, “cultural literacy” teaching, cross-cultural training, international communication, and so on. It is important to “denaturalize” English and to identify and acknowledge the historically shaped cultural meanings embedded in it, if only so that they are no longer taken for granted as the voice of “reason” itself. To be able to reveal the cultural meanings embedded in the English language we need a suitable methodology. This book shows that such a methodology is available in the so-called “Natural Semantic Metalanguage” (NSM) approach, inaugurated by the author in her 1972 book Semantic Primitives and subsequently developed in collaboration with her Australian colleague Cliff Goddard. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) is a unique system of meaning description which uses simple words of ordinary language, instead of technical formalisms, used in other linguistic approaches. Thus, this book seeks to launch a new, meaning-based approach to the study of the English language. Its aim is to investigate English as a historically shaped universe of meaning and to reveal English's cultural underpinnings and their implications for the modern world.

Bad Language

Edwin L. Battistella — 2007-09-01

Author:: Edwin L. Battistella
ISBN:: 9780195172485
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Linguistics, English Language
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195172485.001.0001
Published in print:: 2005
Published Online:: 2007-09-01

Are pronunciations such as cawfee and chawklit bad English? Is slang improper? Is it incorrect to mix English and Spanish, as in Yo quiero Taco Bell? Can you write “Who do you trust?” rather than “Whom do you trust?” This book looks at traditional notions of bad language and argues that they are often based in sterile conventionality. Examining grammar and style, cursing, slang, political correctness, regional dialects, ethnic dialects, foreign accents, and language mixing, this book discusses the strong feelings evoked by language variation, from objections to pronunciation, to complaints about bilingual education. It explains the natural desire for uniformity in writing and speaking, and traces the association of mainstream norms to ideas about refinement, intelligence, education, character, national unity, and political values. The book argues that none of these qualities is inherently connected to language. It is tempting but wrong to think of slang, dialects, and nonstandard grammar as simply breaking the rules of good English. Instead, we should view language as made up of alternative forms of orderliness adopted by speakers depending on their purpose. Thus, we can study the structure and context of nonstandard language in order to illuminate and enrich traditional forms of language, and make policy decisions based on an informed engagement.