This book provides the fullest account ever published of the external influences on English during the first thousand years of its formation. In doing so it makes profound contributions to the history of English and of western culture more generally.
English is a Germanic language but altogether different from the other languages of that family. Professor Miller shows how and why the Anglo-Saxons began to borrow and adapt words from Latin and Greek. He provides detailed case studies of the processes by which several hundred of them entered English. He also considers why several centuries later the process of importation was renewed and accelerated. He describes the effects of English contacts with the Celts, Vikings, and French, and the ways in which these altered the language's morphological and syntactic structure. He shows how loanwords from French, for example, not only increased the richness of English derivation but resulted in a complex competition between native and borrowed suffixes.
Gary Miller combines historical, cultural, and linguistic perspectives. His scholarly, readable, and always fascinating account will be of enduring value to everyone interested in the history of English.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
a refreshing exception among works on the history of English ... Milleras book is a welcome addition to general accounts of the history and development of English. * Markku Filppula, English Studies * In my view, this is an exciting and important book which lives up thoroughly to the publishers blurb: scholarly, readable, and always fascinating. I can recommend it wholeheartedly to teachers and advanced postgraduates, and also for researchers looking for a handy authoritative account of early language-contact in English * Jeremy Smith, University of Glasgow *
Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Scholars and students of the history of English in departments of linguistics, English language, or English Literature plus those with an interest in etymology or the influence of Latin, Greek, or Romance.
Produkt-Hinweis
Klebebindung
Gewebe-Einband
mit Schutzumschlag
Maße
Höhe: 241 mm
Breite: 161 mm
Dicke: 27 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-19-965426-0 (9780199654260)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Gary Miller is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Classics at the University of Florida. He received his PhD from Harvard in 1969, with a dissertation on Studies in Some Forms of the Genitive Singular in Indo-European. He is the author of some 45 articles on Indo-European, classical, and general linguistics. His books include Homer and the Ionian Epic Tradition (1982), Improvisation, Typology, Culture, and 'The New Orthodoxy': How 'Oral' is Homer? (1982), Complex Verb Formation (1993), Ancient Scripts and Phonological Knowledge (1994), Nonfinite Structures in Theory and Change (OUP 2002), Latin Suffixal Derivatives in English (OUP 2005), and Language Change and Linguistic Theory (2 vols, OUP 2010).
Autor*in
Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and the Classics, University of Florida
1. Introduction ; 2. Celtic, Roman, and Germanic Background ; 3. English: The Early Period ; 4. Early Loanwords From Greek and Latin ; 5. The Scandinavian Heritage of England ; 6. The French Input ; 7. Continuity and Revival of Classical Learning ; 8. External Linguistic Input to English ; Special Phonetic Symbols ; Primary Sources: Texts and Editions ; References
