The English Language

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Penguin Language and Linguistics
The English language stretches around the world: from Australia to Zimbabwe, over 300 million people speak it as their mother tongue alone
And yet, despite its astonishingly widespread use as a nnedium of communication, every profession and every province - indeed, every individual person - uses a slightly different variant. In this marvellously informative and entertaining guided tour, David Crystal describes the common structures that unify the language and outlines the major variations that separate the English of Britain, America, Ireland, Australia, the Caribbean and other parts of the English-speaking world. He explores the 'dialects' of chemists and the clergy, lawyers and truckers, poets and punsters, and offers an expert's survey of how our language developed from Caedmon to computerese.
Today, as the mass media create a global standard and as new forces, such as technology and feminism, exert an influence on how we speak and... Tovább

Fülszöveg

má
Penguin Language and Linguistics
The English language stretches around the world: from Australia to Zimbabwe, over 300 million people speak it as their mother tongue alone
And yet, despite its astonishingly widespread use as a nnedium of communication, every profession and every province - indeed, every individual person - uses a slightly different variant. In this marvellously informative and entertaining guided tour, David Crystal describes the common structures that unify the language and outlines the major variations that separate the English of Britain, America, Ireland, Australia, the Caribbean and other parts of the English-speaking world. He explores the 'dialects' of chemists and the clergy, lawyers and truckers, poets and punsters, and offers an expert's survey of how our language developed from Caedmon to computerese.
Today, as the mass media create a global standard and as new forces, such as technology and feminism, exert an influence on how we speak and write, English is in a dizzying state of flux. Professor Crystal shows us exactly where we are now - and offers some provocative predictions of what the twenty-first century holds in store for us.
'Illuminating guided tour of our common treasure by one of its most lucid and sensible professionals' - The Times
'A splendid blend of erudition and entertainment' - The Times Higher Educational Supplement Vissza