linguistics

simple English for presentations

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simple English for presentations PDF   A simple information on how you can make a presentation in English, meant for audio system of English as a second language. Provides tips about how you can construction presentations and how you can keep away from widespread pitfalls. Additionally offers helpful phrases in English for greeting your viewers, …

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Language Contact and the Origins of the Germanic Languages

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Language Contact and the Origins of the Germanic Languages PDF
Language Contact and the Origins of the Germanic Languages

 

History, archaeology, and human evolutionary genetics provide us with an increasingly detailed view of the origins and development of the peoples that live in Northwestern Europe. This book aims to restore the key position of historical linguistics in this debate by treating the history of the Germanic languages as a history of its speakers. It focuses on the role that language contact has played in creating the Germanic languages, between the first millennium BC and the crucially important early medieval period. Chapters on the origins of English, German, Dutch, and the Germanic language family as a whole illustrate how the history of the sounds of these languages provide a key that unlocks the secret of their genesis: speakers of Latin, Celtic and Balto-Finnic switched to speaking Germanic and in the process introduced a ‘foreign accent’ that caught on and spread at the expense of types of Germanic that were not affected by foreign influence. The book is aimed at linguists, historians, archaeologists and anyone who is interested in what languages can tell us about the origins of their speakers.

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Spell It Out. The Curious, Enthralling and Extraordinary Story of English Spelling

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Spell It Out. The Curious, Enthralling and Extraordinary Story of English Spelling   

THE FASCINATING AND SURPRISING HISTORY OF ENGLISH SPELLING FROM DAVID CRYSTAL, EVERYONE’S FAVORITE EXPERT LOGOPHILE

With The Story of English in 100 Words, David Crystal took us on a tour through the history of our language. Now, with Spell It Out, he takes on the task of answering all the questions about how we spell: “Why is English spelling so difficult?” Or “Why are good spellers so proud of their achievement that when they see a misspelling they condemn the writer as sloppy, lazy, or uneducated?” In thirty-seven short, engaging and informative chapters, Crystal takes readers on a history of English spelling, starting with the Roman missionaries’ sixth century introduction of the Roman alphabet and ending with where the language might be going. He looks individually at each letter in the alphabet and its origins. He considers the question of vowels and how people developed a way to tell whether or not it was long or short. He looks at influences from other cultures, and explains how English speakers understood that the “o” in “hopping” was a short vowel, rather than the long vowel of “hoping”. If you’ve ever asked yourself questions like “Why do the words “their”, “there” and “they’re” sound alike, but mean very different things?” or “How can we tell the difference between “charge” the verb and “charge” the noun?” David Crystal’s Spell It Out will spell it all out for you.

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Lexical Perspectives on Transitivity and Ergativity: Causative constructions in English

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Lexical Perspectives on Transitivity and Ergativity: Causative constructions in English

Lexical Perspectives on Transitivity and Ergativity: Causative constructions in English PDF

Lexical Perspectives on Transitivity and Ergativity: Causative constructions in English

 

 

Fusing insights from cognitive grammar, systemic-functional grammar and Government & Binding, the present work elaborates and refines Davidse’s view that the English grammar of lexical causatives is governed by the transitive and ergative paradigms, two distinct models of causation (Davidse 1991, 1992). However, on the basis of extensive synchronic and diachronic data on verbs of killing (e.g. kill, execute, choke or drown), it is shown that ‘transitivity’ and ‘ergativity’ are not absolute but prototypical characteristics of verbs which may be overruled by the semantics of the construal in which they occur. The variable transitive or ergative character of the verbs reveals the complex interaction between the semantics of the construction and that of the verb. The diachronic analyses further illustrate how in the course of time verbs may change their paradigmatic properties, either temporarily (e.g. the ergativization of strangle, throttle and smother) or permanently (e.g. the ‘causativization’ of starve or the partial transitivization of abort). The analyses show that these changes are semantically well-motivated and further illustrate the cognitive reality of the two causative models. The work explores the experiential basis of the prototypical paradigmatic behaviour of verbs (e.g. the ergative predilection of the SUFFOCATE verbs). In addition, it attempts to shed more light on the semantics and restrictions of certain constructions, such as the medio-passive, the derivation of adjectives in –able, or the derivation of agentive nominals in –er.

 

 

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Studying Literature in English An Introduction

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Studying Literature in English An Introduction

Studying Literature in English An Introduction PDF

Studying Literature in English An Introduction

 

 

This book is designed primarily as a point of entry for people who are engaged with British, American and postcolonial literature at university. It will be particularly useful to students in countries where English is not the first language although all students will benefit from the comprehensive approach offered here. From principal literary genres, periods and theory, to strategies for reading, research and essay-writing, Dominic Rainsford provides an engaging introduction to the most important aspects of studying literature in English.
Beginnings
Good morrow
What is literature, and who does it belong to?
Canons
Form and genre
Poetry
The thing which is not
Prose fiction
Plays and films
Periods and movements
Medieval and early modern
From Colonial America and Restoration England to 1900
From 1900 to the present
Positions, identities, ideas
The place of literature
Literary theory
Over to you
Primary and secondary sources
Reading, research, writing

 

 

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