Longman linguistics library ;

"A History of American English provides for the first time a chronological, narrative account of the development of American English. Although it has attracted considerable attention in terms of the social and geographical distribution of the language, the historical implications and influences of American English have been surprisingly neglected. In this impressive and much-needed volume J.L. Dillard tracks the development of American English from its earliest origins through to the present day." "This comprehensive survey analyses the way in which American English has developed in a variety of forms, such as "standard", Black and pidgin, and sets this process firmly within its social contexts. It examines the mixing of British dialect groups in the early period; the coastal distribution of most of the English-speaking colonists until after the Revolutionary War; the close relationships with the West Indies; American imperialism; and the general importance of maritime contacts. The significance of the Negro, Dutch, Hawaiian, Spanish, French, Italian and German influences on the development of the language are considered." "Mobility has always been a primary characteristic of the American population, and the history of English in the United States has always reflected that mobility. Urbanization, beginning to be an important factor at the end of the nineteenth century, has been joined by suburbanization of the more affluent in the mid-to-late twentieth century, leaving the inner city largely to minority users of highly nonstandard varieties. The author assesses these contributory factors, providing an authoritative, yet accessible account of the development of American English." "A History of American English will prove ideal for students and teachers of the history of English, historical linguistics, language acquisition, sociolinguistics, language contact, general linguistics as well as the general reader with an interest in language or American history."--Jacket.

Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers traces the development of this fascinating language from the Mycenaean period of the second millennium BC to the present day, combining both external and internal history into a single narrative. It is the first book in English to explore the evolution of the Greek language as a whole, in all its regional and social heterogeneity, and in both its spoken and written forms, which, from late antiquity until surprisingly recently, were strikingly different in character, and provided the classic textbook example of what has now come to be known as diglossia. The cultural roots of this phenomenon and its profound implications for the development of the language provide a continuing theme throughout the book. Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers will prove essential reading for second and third year students taking courses in the history of Greek, Classical civilization, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, and historical linguistics.

This book presents a rhetorical model of pragmatics. Geoffrey Leech argues for a rapprochement between linguistics and the traditional discipline of rhetoric, maintaining that the language system in the abstract must be studied in relation to a fully developed theory of language use. Over the years, pragmatics -- the study of the use and meaning of utterances to their situations -- has become a more and more important branch of linguistics, as the inadequacies of a purely formalist, abstract approach to the study of language have become more evident. This book presents a rhetorical model of pragmatics: that is, a model which studies linguistic communication in terms of communicative goals and principles of 'good communicative behaviour'. In this respect, Geoffrey Leech argues for a rapprochement between linguistics and the traditional discipline of rhetoric. He does not reject the Chomskvan revolution of linguistics, but rather maintains that the language system in the abstract -- i.e. the 'grammar' broadly in Chomsky's sense -- must be studied in relation to a fully developed theory of language use. There is therefore a division of labour between grammar and rhetoric, or (in the study of meaning) between semantics and pragmatics.