Adaugat la data: 2010-09-09
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Din referat: Engleza

Like the old joke about London buses, you wait for ages and then three come along at once.

This is suddenly the season for books on language development and change.

This work covers some of the same ground as John McWhorter's book I reviewed last week and another book on a related theme will be reviewed next month.

This one could not be more different in style to the last: it is as formal and European as John McWhorter's was informal and American (the author, Tore Janson, is a distinguished Swedish linguist who retired last year from his post as Professor of African Languages at Göteborg University).

By formal, I don't mean incomprehensibly academic - Prof Janson writes in a clear, logical and accessible way.

But he doesn't add the personal asides or pop-cultural references that John McWhorter does. He is also more cautious in his assessments and conclusions.

Don't be deceived by the small format, the catchy title, or the attractive cover (with its detail from a picture by Manet) - this is a serious work, which will repay close attention.

His canvas is language and history, in two facets: the history of language, and the effect of language on history.

Early chapters cover prehistory; the grouping of languages into families; the invention of writing; the growth and influence of Greek and Latin; the development of the Romance languages (such as French, Occitan and Italian) from Latin after the end of the Roman Empire; the creation of English through cultural mixing and political changes; the reasons why the European national languages grew in importance in medieval and post-medieval times compared with Latin.

That quick summary shows that the earlier and larger part is not a short history of languages in general, but of European languages.

It's true that accidents of history, such as colonisation and trade, have given these languages - in particular English - an importance well above their geographical or cultural weight (the reasons why are explored in a later chapter).

But in this respect, Tore Janson's book is narrower in focus than John McWhorter's.

Two later chapters move into other areas. The first focuses on one way that new languages appear: through pidgins and creoles.

The second looks at the cultural and political factors that cause them to vanish.

The last two chapters show how it is that English has become so dominant, especially as a lingua franca, and what the language landscape might look like at various points in the future (though a writer has to be especially brave to feel able to say anything useful about a time two million years hence!).

Within its comparatively limited geographical scope, this is a useful overview of the development and transformation of languages through cultural and political upheavals over time.

Partea2

This bibliography was compiled from responses on HEL-L, an electronic discussion group on the history of English. Most of the entries come from: Clinton Atchley

Amsler, Mark. "From Standard Latin to Standard English." Language Variation in North American English: Research and Teaching. Ed. Wayne A. Glowka and Donald M. Lance. New Yourk: MLA, 1993.

Cable, Thomas. "Rise of Written Standard English." The Emergence of National Languages*. Ed. Aldo Scaglione. Ravenna: Longo, 1984.

Christianson, C. Paul. "Chancery Standard and the Records of Old London Bridge." Tennnessee Studies in Literature 31 (1989): 82-112.

Crowley, Tony. Standard English and the Politics of Language. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1988.

Dobson, E.J. "Early Modern Standard English." Approaches to English Historical Linguistics: An Anthology*. Ed. Roger Lass. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969.

Dykema, Karl W. "How Fast Is Standard English Changing?" American Speech 31.2 (1956): 89-95.

Fisher, John H. "Chancery and the Emergence of Standard Written English in the Fifteenth Century." Speculum* 52.4 (1977): 870-99.

---. "Chancery Standard and Modern Written English." Journal of the Society of Archivists 6 (1979): 136-44.

---. *The Emergence of Standard English*. Lexington: Kentucky UP, 1996.

Fisher, John H., Malcolm Richardson, and Jane L. Fisher. *AN Anthology of Chancery English*. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1984.

Gorlach, Manfred. *New Studies in the History of English*. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1995.

---. *Studies in the History of the English Language*. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1990.

Leonard, Sterling Andrus. *The Doctrine of Correctness in English Usage, 1700-1800*. New York: Russell and Russelll, 1962.

Lucas, Peter J. "Towards a Standard Written English? Continuity and Change in the Orthographic Usage of John Capgrave, O.S.A. (1393-1464)."

English Historical Linguistics 1992. Ed. Francisco Fernandez, Miguel Furster, and Juan Jose Calvo. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1994. (1-104.

Poussa, Patricia. "The Evolution of Early Standard English: The Creolization Hypothesis." *Studie Anglica Posnaniensia* 14 (1982): 69-85.

richardson, Malcolm. "Henry V, the English Chancery, and Chancery English." Speculum* 55 (1980): 726-50.

Sandved, Arthur O. "The Rise of Standard English." *Papers from the First Nordic Conference for English Studies*. Ed. Stig Johannson. Oslo: n.p., 1981. 398-404.

Shaklee, Margaret. "The Rise of Standard English." *Standards and Dialects in English*. Ed. Timothey Shopen and Joseph M. Williams. Cambridge, MA: Winthrop, 1980. 33-62.

Wright, Laura. "On the Writing of the History of Standard English." *English Historical Linguistics 1992*. Ed. Francisco Fernandez, Miguel Furster, and Juan Jose Calvo. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1994. 105-15.

Atchely notes: For newcomers, John Fisher and his argument for Chancery English as the motivating force behind the rise of standard English is still the one to read first.

William Labov's The Study of Non Standard English

James Sledd, "Product in Process: From Ambiguities of Standard English to Issues that Divide Us," English Journal (Dec. 1969): 1307-16; 1329

James Sledd, "Product in Process: From Ambiguities of Standard English to Issues that Divide Us," _College English_ 50 (1988): 168-176.

James Milroy and Leslie Milroy, "Standard English and the complaint tradition, in their book _Authority in Language: Investigating language prescription and standardisation_ (London: Routledge & Keegan Paul, 1983).

David L. Shores & Carole P. Hines, eds. _Papers in Language Variation: SAMLA-ADS Collection_ (University of Alabama Press

Partea3

Purpose and Objectives: In Europe the biennial conferences known as ICEHL (International Conference on English Historical Linguistics) have served the field of English Language Studies well, giving the field both focus and recognition that it almost certainly would not have achieved otherwise.

These conferences have taken place at leading English Language research centers over the past twenty years, each conference organized and managed by the faculty of the conference site: Durham, Odense, Sheffield, Amsterdam, Cambridge, Helsinki, Valencia, Edinburgh, Poznan, Manchester. 

In North America, despite the presence of many major scholars in the field, Historical English Linguistics ó the History of the English Language told in the light of contemporary linguistic sophistication ó has not emerged with the same kind of recognizable personality.

Many scholars who do this kind of work are to a significant extent servants also of other fields such as general linguistics, medieval studies, dialectology, applied linguistics, and teacher training. 

What we hope to do by organizing SHEL is begin to provide the same kind of focus for English Historical Linguistics in North America as the focus achieved in Europe by the ICEHL series, in North America for Germanic Linguistics by GLAC (Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference), for American Dialectology by the American Dialect Society, for Social Dialectology by NWAVE, and of course for General Linguistics by the LSA.

We are not in competition with any of these series or organizations; we believe, however, that a weekend meeting dedicated entirely to linguistic issues in the History of English will be an energizing and useful academic experience. We begin modestly: a non-existent budget, no organization, just a conference.

Anne Curzan is organizing a pedagogical worshop at SHEL-1, parallel with the research-oriented sessions, and will host SHEL-2 in Seattle.

A SHEL-3 offer has already emerged; a brief organizational meeting may be necessary to plan future events.