The Multilingual Origins of Standard English

The Multilingual Origins of Standard English PDF Author: Laura Wright
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110687542
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 545

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Book Description
Textbooks inform readers that the precursor of Standard English was supposedly an East or Central Midlands variety which became adopted in London; that monolingual fifteenth century English manuscripts fall into internally-cohesive Types; and that the fourth Type, dating after 1435 and labelled ‘Chancery Standard’, provided the mechanism by which this supposedly Midlands variety spread out from London. This set of explanations is challenged by taking a multilingual perspective, examining Anglo-Norman French, Medieval Latin and mixed-language contexts as well as monolingual English ones. By analysing local and legal documents, mercantile accounts, personal letters and journals, medical and religious prose, multiply-copied works, and the output of individual scribes, standardisation is shown to have been preceded by supralocalisation rather than imposed top-down as a single entity by governmental authority. Linguistic features examined include syntax, morphology, vocabulary, spelling, letter-graphs, abbreviations and suspensions, social context and discourse norms, pragmatics, registers, text-types, communities of practice social networks, and the multilingual backdrop, which was influenced by shifting socioeconomic trends.

The Multilingual Origins of Standard English

The Multilingual Origins of Standard English PDF Author: Laura Wright
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110687542
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 545

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Book Description
Textbooks inform readers that the precursor of Standard English was supposedly an East or Central Midlands variety which became adopted in London; that monolingual fifteenth century English manuscripts fall into internally-cohesive Types; and that the fourth Type, dating after 1435 and labelled ‘Chancery Standard’, provided the mechanism by which this supposedly Midlands variety spread out from London. This set of explanations is challenged by taking a multilingual perspective, examining Anglo-Norman French, Medieval Latin and mixed-language contexts as well as monolingual English ones. By analysing local and legal documents, mercantile accounts, personal letters and journals, medical and religious prose, multiply-copied works, and the output of individual scribes, standardisation is shown to have been preceded by supralocalisation rather than imposed top-down as a single entity by governmental authority. Linguistic features examined include syntax, morphology, vocabulary, spelling, letter-graphs, abbreviations and suspensions, social context and discourse norms, pragmatics, registers, text-types, communities of practice social networks, and the multilingual backdrop, which was influenced by shifting socioeconomic trends.

The Multilingual Origins of Standard English

The Multilingual Origins of Standard English PDF Author: Laura Wright
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110687577
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
Textbooks inform readers that the precursor of Standard English was supposedly an East or Central Midlands variety which became adopted in London; that monolingual fifteenth century English manuscripts fall into internally-cohesive Types; and that the fourth Type, dating after 1435 and labelled ‘Chancery Standard’, provided the mechanism by which this supposedly Midlands variety spread out from London. This set of explanations is challenged by taking a multilingual perspective, examining Anglo-Norman French, Medieval Latin and mixed-language contexts as well as monolingual English ones. By analysing local and legal documents, mercantile accounts, personal letters and journals, medical and religious prose, multiply-copied works, and the output of individual scribes, standardisation is shown to have been preceded by supralocalisation rather than imposed top-down as a single entity by governmental authority. Linguistic features examined include syntax, morphology, vocabulary, spelling, letter-graphs, abbreviations and suspensions, social context and discourse norms, pragmatics, registers, text-types, communities of practice social networks, and the multilingual backdrop, which was influenced by shifting socioeconomic trends.

The Origins and Development of the English Language

The Origins and Development of the English Language PDF Author: Thomas Pyles
Publisher: New York : Harcourt, Brace & World
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 520

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Book Description
The focus on this 3rd ed., as in the previous, remains on the internal history of English, theoretical implications and purely external history are purposely kept to a minimum. As in the earlier editions, too, the treatment is descriptive and traditional so that students with no prior study of linguistics or of languages will find this text accessible.

The Origins and Development of the English Language

The Origins and Development of the English Language PDF Author: Thomas Pyles
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
ANGLAIS (LANGUE), enseignement

Multilingualism and History

Multilingualism and History PDF Author: Aneta Pavlenko
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009236253
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Shattering the cliché 'our world is more multilingual than ever before', this book offers the first comprehensive history of our multilingual past.

Multilingual Practices in Language History

Multilingual Practices in Language History PDF Author: Päivi Pahta
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1501504940
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Texts of the past were often not monolingual but were produced by and for people with bi- or multilingual repertoires; the communicative practices witnessed in them therefore reflect ongoing and earlier language contact situations. However, textbooks and earlier research tend to display a monolingual bias. This collected volume on multilingual practices in historical materials, including code-switching, highlights the importance of a multilingual approach. The authors explore multilingualism in hitherto neglected genres, periods and areas, introduce new methods of locating and analysing multiple languages in various sources, and review terminology, theories and tools. The studies also revisit some of the issues already introduced in previous research, such as Latin interacting with European vernaculars and the complex relationship between code-switching and lexical borrowing. Collectively, the contributors show that multilingual practices share many of the same features regardless of time and place, and that one way or the other, all historical texts are multilingual. This book takes the next step in historical multilingualism studies by establishing the relevance of the multilingual approach to understanding language history.

Origins of the English Language, a Social and Linguistic History

Origins of the English Language, a Social and Linguistic History PDF Author: Joseph M. Williams
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
Provides a history of the English language.

The Emergence of Standard English

The Emergence of Standard English PDF Author: John H. Fisher
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 9780813171050
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
" Language scholars have traditionally agreed that the development of the English language was largely unplanned. Fisher challenges this view, demonstrating that the standardization of writing and pronunciation was, and still is, made under the control of political and intellectual forces."

The Transmission of Anglo-Norman

The Transmission of Anglo-Norman PDF Author: Richard P. Ingham
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027273340
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
This investigation contributes to issues in the study of second language transmission by considering the well-documented historical case of Anglo-Norman. Within a few generations of the establishment of this variety, its phonology diverged sharply from that of continental French, yet core syntactic distinctions continued to be reliably transmitted. The dissociation of phonology from syntax transmission is related to the age of exposure to the language in the experience of ordinary users of the language. The input provided to children acquiring language in a naturalistic communicative setting, even though one of a school institution, enabled them to acquire target-like syntactic properties of the inherited variety. In addition, it allowed change to take place along the lines of transmission by incrementation. A linguistic environment combining the ‘here-and-now’ aspects of ordinary first language acquisition with the growing cognitive complexity of an educational meta-language appears to have been adequate for this variety to be transmitted as a viable entity that encoded the public life of England for centuries.

Medieval English in a Multilingual Context

Medieval English in a Multilingual Context PDF Author: Sara M. Pons-Sanz
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031309472
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 562

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Book Description
This edited book examines the multilingual culture of medieval England, exploring its impact on the development of English and its textual manifestations from a multi-disciplinary perspective. The book offers overviews of the state of the art of research and case studies on this subject in (sub)disciplines of linguistics including historical linguistics, onomastics, lexicology and lexicography, sociolinguistics, code-switching and language contact, and also includes contributions from literary and socio-cultural studies, material culture, and palaeography. The authors focus on the variety of languages in use in medieval Britain, including English, Old Norse, Norn, Dutch, Welsh, French, and Latin, making the argument that understanding the impact of medieval multilingualism on the development of English requires multidisiplinarity and the bringing together of different frameworks in linguistics and cultural studies to achieve more nuanced answers. This book will be of interest to academics and students of historical linguistics and medieval textual culture.