What is English?
And Why Should We Care?
Published on 3. March 2016
Book
Paperback/Softback
414 pages
978-0-19-873667-7 (ISBN)
Description
What is English? Can we be as certain as we usually are when we say something is not English? To find some answers Tim Machan explores the language's present and past, and looks ahead to its futures among the one and a half billion people who speak it. His search is fascinating and important, for definitions of English have influenced education and law in many countries and helped shape the identities of those who live in them.
Finding an account that fits the constantly changing varieties of English is, Tim Machan finds, anything but simple. But he rises to the challenge, grappling with its elusive essence through episodes in its history. He looks at the ambitions of Caxton, the preoccupations of Johnson, and the eloquence of Churchill, tussles with the jargons of contemporary business, and pursues his object from rural America to James Cook's Australia. He examines creoles, pidgins, and dialects, and takes apart competing histories showing their assumptions and prejudices. Finally he reveals the stable category English, resting paradoxically within its constantly mutating forms and varieties.
This is a book for everyone interested in English and the role of language in society and culture.
Finding an account that fits the constantly changing varieties of English is, Tim Machan finds, anything but simple. But he rises to the challenge, grappling with its elusive essence through episodes in its history. He looks at the ambitions of Caxton, the preoccupations of Johnson, and the eloquence of Churchill, tussles with the jargons of contemporary business, and pursues his object from rural America to James Cook's Australia. He examines creoles, pidgins, and dialects, and takes apart competing histories showing their assumptions and prejudices. Finally he reveals the stable category English, resting paradoxically within its constantly mutating forms and varieties.
This is a book for everyone interested in English and the role of language in society and culture.
Reviews / Votes
His book fleshes out ... in many interesting directions and locales, some expected, others less so: the Oxford English Dictionary, Polynesian encounters with eighteenth-and nineteenth-century settlers, Native American boarding schools in the American West, Henry Fords factory schools, and Churchills appeals to the English-speaking peoples. * Ardis Butterfield, Common Knowledge a *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
635 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-873667-7 (9780198736677)
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 Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
08/2013
Oxford University Press
€47.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Tim Machan is Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame. His books include English in the Middle Ages and Language Anxiety published by Oxford University Press in 2003 and 2009 respectively.
Content
PART ONE: THE CONSEQUENCES OF DEFINITION; PART TWO: ENGLISH BY THE BOOKS; PART THREE: ENGLISH IN ACTION; PART FOUR: BEYOND ENGLISH