Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language

Couverture
Columbia University Press, 25 août 2015 - 354 pages
A history of English from the age of Beowulf to the rap of Eminem, “written with real authority, enthusiasm and love for our unruly and exquisite language” (The Washington Post).
 
 Many have written about the evolution of grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary, but only Seth Lerer situates these developments within the larger history of English, America, and literature. This edition of his “remarkable linguistic investigation” (Booklist) features a new chapter on the influence of biblical translation and an epilogue on the relationship of English speech to writing. 
 
A unique blend of historical and personal narrative, both “erudite and accessible” (The Globe and Mail), Inventing English is the surprising tale of a language that is as dynamic as the people to whom it belongs.
 
“Lerer is not just a scholar; he's also a fan of English—his passion is evident on every page of this examination of how our language came to sound—and look—as it does and how words came to have their current meanings…the book percolates with creative energy and will please anyone intrigued by how our richly variegated language came to be.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 

Table des matières

A Note on Texts and Letter Forms
Faith in English
Finding English Finding
Caedmon Learns to Sing
From Beowulf to Wulfstan
In This Year
From Kingdom to Realm
Lord of This Langage
Horrid Hooting Stanzas
Antses in the Sugar
Hello Dude
English
Pioneers Through an Untrodden Forest
Listening to Private Ryan
He Speaks in Your Voice
Vernacular Devotion and Biblical Translation

Middle English Dialects
The Great Vowel Shift and the Changing Character
Shakespeares English
A Universal Hubbub Wild
Visible Speech
A Harmless Drudge
The Talk and the Text
Glossary
Chancery Caxton and the Making of English Prose
Acknowledgments
Droits d'auteur

Autres éditions - Tout afficher

Expressions et termes fréquents

À propos de l'auteur (2015)

Seth Lerer is Distinguished Professor of Literature and the former Dean of Arts and Humanities at the University of California, San Diego. He is known nationally for his audio and videotape series, The History of the English Language, for the Teaching Company.

Informations bibliographiques