A History of the English Language

Author
Elly van Gelderen | Arizona State University
HardboundReplaced by new edition
ISBN 9789027232366
 
PaperbackReplaced by new edition
ISBN 9789027232373
 
e-BookReplaced by new edition
ISBN 9789027293244
 

THIS INFORMATION REFERS TO AN OLD EDITION. This exceptionally clear text focuses on internal changes in the English language. It outlines the history of English from pre-Old English times to the present. Not only does it present the traditional morphological descriptions of the various stages of the language, it provides many example sentences, texts, and cartoons that are analyzed for the benefit of the student and which make this book ideal for class use. Some language-external topics are covered such as early printing and authorship debates. Tables and figures complement the material covered and exercises review the main points as well as ask further, more challenging, questions. Answers to the exercises are provided, as is a time line listing some of the external events, and some guidance on how to use the OED. Complementary web site information is provided throughout the book, and a companion web site accompanies the book.

This book has a companion website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/z.183.website

[Not in series, 135] 2006.  xviii, 334 pp.
Publishing status: Obsolete
Table of Contents
“Without doubt, the best short introduction to the history of English: lucid, clearly exemplified, theoretically sophisticated but subdued. A delightful textbook in every way.”
“This textbook is a very fine, clearly presented, and well organized introduction to the history of the English language. It includes, perhaps, the finest collection of authentic texts located at the end of each chapter of any textbook available. The exercises that follow each chapter are a useful way for students to review the main points covered in each chapter, and the step-by-step guide to using the electronic version of the OED at the end of the book is a useful inclusion in a textbook of this sort. The tables and figures, examples and analyses presented in each chapter provide additional resources for students in their studies.This textbook is a worthy addition to an already fine group of textbooks on the history of English. The book is well written and surprisingly accessible to the reader, and the author does a fine job of presenting the complexities of the subject in a student-friendly way. I can enthusiastically recommend it for undergraduate courses in the history of the English language.”
Cited by

Cited by 21 other publications

Ahmetović, Emnijeta
2021. Varieties of English language in Lexical, Grammatical and Spelling Domain in Bosnian Highschool Context. MAP Education and Humanities 1:2  pp. 32 ff. DOI logo
Catasso, Nicholas
2011. The Grammaticalization of Demonstratives: A Comparative Analysis. Journal of Universal Language 12:1  pp. 7 ff. DOI logo
Costa, Davide & Raffaele Serra
2022. Rhoticity in English, a Journey Over Time Through Social Class: A Narrative Review. Frontiers in Sociology 7 DOI logo
Daulton, Frank E.
2012. Lexical Borrowing. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, DOI logo
Daulton, Frank E.
2019. Lexical Borrowing. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics,  pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Dollinger, Stefan
2008. Book Review: Brinton, Laurel J., and Arnovick, Leslie K. (2006). The English Language: A Linguistic History. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Journal of English Linguistics 36:1  pp. 88 ff. DOI logo
Gu, Qianping
2017. A corpus-based comparative study on the superlative forms in British English and Singapore Colloquial English. <i>WORD</i> 63:4  pp. 241 ff. DOI logo
Härtl, Holden
2022. Syntax des Englischen. In Linguistik im Sprachvergleich,  pp. 155 ff. DOI logo
Machan, Tim William
2012. Chaucer and the History of English. Speculum 87:1  pp. 147 ff. DOI logo
Moore, Colette
2007. Book Review: A History of the English Language. Edited by Richard M. Hogg and David Denison. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. xiii + 478, index. ISBN: 0-521-66227-3. Journal of English Linguistics 35:4  pp. 365 ff. DOI logo
Nykiel, Joanna
2010. Competence, Performance, and Extra Prepositions. Journal of English Linguistics 38:2  pp. 143 ff. DOI logo
Rees-Miller, Janie
2021. Chapter 20. A-prefixing in the ex-slave narratives. In All Things Morphology [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 353],  pp. 377 ff. DOI logo
Rodríguez-Puente, Paula
2019. Chapter 8. Interpersonality in legal written discourse. In Corpus-based Research on Variation in English Legal Discourse [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 91],  pp. 171 ff. DOI logo
Smith, Hiram L.
2019. Has nigga Been Reappropriated as a Term of Endearment?. American Speech 94:4  pp. 420 ff. DOI logo
Stein, Achim, Richard P. Ingham & Carola Trips
2019. Chapter 9. What is a diachronically stable system in a language-contact situation?. In The Determinants of Diachronic Stability [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 254],  pp. 215 ff. DOI logo
van Gelderen, Elly
2006. Ishtla Singh, The History of English: A Student’s Guide. London: Hodder Arnold, 2005, pp. xiii, 226. ISBN10: 0-340-80695-8.. The Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 9:2  pp. 161 ff. DOI logo
van Hofwegen, Janneke
2010. Apparent-time evolution of /l/ in one African American community. Language Variation and Change 22:3  pp. 373 ff. DOI logo
Weiß, Helmut
2012. Sprachgeschichte. In Germanistik,  pp. 121 ff. DOI logo
Winters, Margaret E.
[no author supplied]
2013. Determiners. In Varieties of English,  pp. 87 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 17 february 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

CF/2AB: Linguistics/English

Main BISAC Subject

LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General
ONIX Metadata
ONIX 2.1
ONIX 3.0
U.S. Library of Congress Control Number:  2006045891 | Marc record