Studying the English Language

Abbreviations .- List of Figures.- Acknowledgements.- Preface.- Space: The Diversity of English.- Time: The History and Pre-History of English.- Contact: The Case of Middle English .- 'She Loves You. Yes! Yes! Yes! American English Inside Out.- English Across the World: History and Varieties.- Signs: The Semiotic View of Language.- Strange Orchestras: The Underlying Symbolic Structure of Languages.- Myth: Language and Reality.- Sex: Language and Gender.- Tyranny: Some Daring and Ingenious Escapes .- Telling Stories: The Structure of Discourse in English.- What's in a Norm? The Nature of Standard English.- Language with Attitude: Dialect, Accent and Identity .- Fixing: Language Planning and Regulation.- Slippage: Slips of the Tongue and Other Blunders .- Communication Breakdown: Modelling What Happens When We Communicate.- Noam Chomsky and the Generative Enterprise: Language as it is if You Don't Have To Bother Talking.- The Nature of Language: Linguistic Theory and the Question of Origins.- References for Examples.- Bibliography .- Webography.- Index.

ROB PENHALLURICK is Head of English at the University of Wales, Swansea, UK.

Praise for the second edition: 'Very clear, and well done. Rob Penhallurick's discussion of work I am familiar with seemed to me very accurate, a lucid introduction to leading ideas in these areas of the study of language' - Professor Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology'This is a multi-audience and multi-purpose book that can be advertised for its various features and strengths. It's longer not because it is saying more and more about the same things but because it now engages with the full field of studying English language and linguistics, and makes sense of a great deal of complex theorising as well as history and everyday examples'- Martin Coyle, Cardiff University, UK 'A comprehensive overview of the subject, peppered with entertaining anecdotes that make Penhallurick's academic points beautifully clear and the book as a whole very easy to read. Covering virtually all aspects of the study of the English language, from the history of English to language policy and planning, what I particularly like about the book is how rooted it is in the history of linguistics. Student readers, therefore, will gain not just a thorough grounding in methods and issues in the study of the English language, but a clear sense of how the subject has developed over the years and why it is important to study it. I recommend the book wholeheartedly for anyone wanting a comprehensive introductory text for an undergraduate course in English Language' -Dan McIntyre in Language and Literature 20(4), 2011