Laurel J. Brinton

Leslie K. Arnovick

The English Language is an essential survey of the development of the language from its Indo-European past to the present day. Now in a third edition, this text offers enhanced discussion of the socio-historical and cultural contexts of the English language, new approaches to the history ofEnglish, and an anthology of specimen texts from the four major periods of English: Old, Middle, Early Modern, and Modern.

A Linguistic History

The English Language

The future of English linguistics as envisaged by the editors of Topics in English Linguistics lies in empirical studies which integrate work in English linguistics into general and theoretical linguistics on the one hand, and comparative linguistics on the other. The TiEL series features volumes that present interesting new data and analyses, and above all fresh approaches that contribute to the overall aim of the series, which is to further outstanding research in English linguistics.

Grammaticalization and Discourse Functions

Pragmatic Markers in English

Elizabeth Closs Traugott

Lexicalization, a process of language change, has been conceptualized in a variety of ways. Broadly defined as the adoption of concepts into the lexicon, it has been viewed by syntacticians as the reverse process of grammaticalization, by morphologists as a routine process of word-formation, and by semanticists as the development of concrete meanings. In this up-to-date survey, Laurel Brinton and Elizabeth Traugott examine the various conceptualizations of lexicalization that have been presented in the literature. In light of contemporary work on grammaticalization, they then propose a new, unified model of lexicalization and grammaticalization. Their approach is illustrated with a variety of case studies from the history of English, including present participles, multi-word verbs, adverbs, and discourse markers, as well as some examples from other Indo-European languages. The first review of the various approaches to lexicalization, this book will be invaluable to students and scholars of historical linguistics and language change.

Lexicalization and Language Change

Minoji Akimoto

The focus of this carefully selected volume concerns the existence, frequency, and form of composite/complex predicates (the take a look construction) in earlier periods of the English language, an area of scholarship which has been virtually neglected. The various contributions seek to understand the collocational and idiomatic aspects of these structures, as well as of related structures such as complex prepositions (e.g., on account of) and phrasal verbs (e.g., look up), in their earliest manifestations. Moreover, study of these constructions at the individual stages of English leads to diachronic questions concerning their development, raising issues pertaining to grammaticalization, lexicalization, and idiomaticization-processes which are not always clearly differentiated nor fully understood.

Collocational and Idiomatic Aspects of Composite Predicates in the History of English

Donna Brinton

This text is for advanced undergraduate and graduate students interested in contemporary English, especially those whose primary area of interest is English as a second language, primary or secondary-school education, English stylistics, theoretical and applied linguistics, or speech pathology. The emphasis is on empirical facts of English rather than any particular theory of linguistics; the text does not assume any background in language or linguistics. In this newly revised edition numerous example sentences are taken from the Corpus of Contemporary American English. A full glossary of key terms, an additional chapter on pedagogy and new sections on cognitive semantics and politeness have been added. Other changes include: completely updated print references; web links to sites of special interest and relevance; and a revised, reader-friendly layout. A companion website that includes a complete workbook with self-testing exercises and a comprehensive list of web links accompanies the book. The website can be found at the following address: http: //dx.doi.org/10.1075/z.156.workbook Students completing the text and workbook will acquire: a knowledge of the sound system of contemporary English; an understanding of the formation of English words; a comprehension of the structure of both simple and complex sentence in English; a recognition of complexities in the expression of meaning; an understanding of the context and function of use upon the structure of the language; and an appreciation of the importance of linguistic knowledge to the teaching of English to first and second-language learners. Laurel J. Brinton is Professor of English Language at the University of British Columbia. Donna M. Brinton is Senior Lecturer in TESOL at the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education."The Linguistic Structure of Modern English" is a revised edition of "The Structure of Modern English" by Laurel J. Brinton (2000).

The Linguistic Structure of Modern English

This is a selection of papers from the 14th International Conference on Historical Linguistics held August 9-13, 1999, at the University of British Columbia. From the rich program and the many papers given during this conference, the present twenty-three papers were carefully selected to display the state of current research in the field of historical linguistics.

Selected Papers from the 14th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Vancouver, 9-13 August 1999

Historical Linguistics 1999

Selected papers from the 14th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Vancouver, 913 August 1999

Written by an international team of leading scholars, this engaging textbook on the study of English historical linguistics is uniquely organized in terms of theoretical approaches and perspectives. Each chapter features textboxes, case studies, suggestions for further reading and exercises, enabling students to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and guiding them on undertaking further research. The case studies and exercises guide students in approaching and manipulating empirical data, providing them with hands-on experience of conducting linguistic research. An extensive variety of approaches, from traditional to contemporary, is treated, including generative approaches, historical sociolinguistic and pragmatic approaches, psycholinguistic perspectives, grammaticalization theory, and discourse-based approaches, as well as perspectives on standardization and language variation. Each chapter applies the concepts discussed to data from the history of English, and a glossary of key terms enables easy navigation and quick cross-referencing. An essential resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of the history of English linguistics.

Approaches and Perspectives

English Historical Linguistics

This text is designed for undergraduate and graduate students interested in contemporary English, especially those whose primary area of interest is English as a second language. Focus is placed exclusively on English data, providing an empirical explication of the structure of the language.

Laurel J. Brinton

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