Touching the Past

Studies in the historical sociolinguistics of ego-documents

Editors
ORCID logoMarijke J. van der Wal | Leiden University
ORCID logoGijsbert Rutten | Leiden University
HardboundAvailable
ISBN 9789027200808 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00
 
e-Book
ISBN 9789027271778 | EUR 99.00 | USD 149.00
 
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The study of ego-documents figures as a prominent theme in cutting-edge research in the Humanities. Focusing on private letters, diaries and autobiography, this volume covers a wide range of different languages and historical periods, from the sixteenth century to World War I. The volume stands out by its consistent application of the most recent developments in historical-sociolinguistic methodology in research on first-person writings.

Some of the articles concentrate on social differences in relation to linguistic variation in the historical context. Others hone in on self-representation, writer-addressee interaction and identity work. The key issue of the relationship between speech and writing is addressed when investigating the hybridity of ego-documents, which may contain both “oral” features and elements typical of the written language.

The volume is of interest to a wide readership, ranging from scholars of historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, sociology and social history to (advanced) graduate and postgraduate students in courses on language variation and change.

[Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics, 1] 2013.  vii, 279 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Table of Contents
Touching the Past presents a wide range of new insights and innovations in the subject areas of letter writing and ego-documents at large.”
“This volume offers a timely contribution to the current research agenda in relation to the evaluation of the role of informal documents for our understanding of the social history of languages. All contributions are empirically strong, presenting data that have rarely seen the scholarly light before.”
“[T]he book will prove of considerable interest both to scholars already working in the field and to students approaching the complexities of language use in different social contexts in a historical perspective.”
“Key to the treatment of ego-documents as evidence for language habits and practices is the fact that they centre on the individual, so to place them at the centre of historical sociolinguistic study is to acknowledge the critical role that the individuals plays in language change. The papers that make up this volume represent a wealth of approaches that can be applied fruitfully to an exploration of the status of particular types of ego-documents for the kind of history being sought.”
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2022. Historical sociolinguistics. In Handbook of Pragmatics [Handbook of Pragmatics, ],  pp. 756 ff. DOI logo
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[no author supplied]

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Subjects

Main BIC Subject

CFF: Historical & comparative linguistics

Main BISAC Subject

LAN000000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / General
ONIX Metadata
ONIX 2.1
ONIX 3.0
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  2013014890 | Marc record