Overview
In Alphabet to Email Naomi Baron takes us on a fascinating and often entertaining journey through the history of the English language, showing how technology - especially email - is gradually stripping language of its formality. Drawing together strands of thinking about writing, speech, pedagogy, technology, and globalization, Naomi Baron explores the ever-changing relationship between speech and writing and considers the implications of current language trends on the future of written English. Alphabet to Email will appeal to anyone who is curious about how the English language has changed over the centuries and where it might be going.
Full Product Details
Author: Naomi S. Baron
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint: Routledge
Dimensions:
Width: 15.60cm
, Height: 2.00cm
, Length: 23.40cm
Weight: 0.620kg
ISBN: 9780415186865
ISBN 10: 0415186862
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 26 April 2001
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
<p>'Naomi Baron has succeeded in writing a fascinating yet erudite, and quite compact, history that draws together threads from a bewildering variety of sources.' - Pam Le Gassick, Society of Indexers <p>'At one level, Alphabet to Email is a fascinating chronological history of written English; at another, it is a carefully argued case for preserving the distinctions between oral and written language.' - Ilana Snyder, Journal of Sociolinguistics
Written in a lively, anecdotal style, it should be useful in undergraduate collections and enjoyed by its intended audience of linguists, teachers of composition and TESOL, computer specialists, and the educated lay person. <br>-Choice <br> Thorough, yet not in the least pedantic.. <br>- Publishers Weekly <br> Offers a broad, and broadly informal, overview of the evolution of literacy.. <br>- Boston Sunday Globe <br> Alphabet to Email is one of those rare publishing hybrids: scholarly yet accessible, historically full yet currently relevant, theoretically aware yet practically illustrated. It refreshed the parts that other books on the history of writing have not so far been able to reach. <br>-David Crystal, University of Wales, Bangor <br>
Author Information
Naomi S. Baron is Professor of Linguistics and Chair of the Department of Language and Foreign Studies at American University. She is the author of five previous books about language, including Growing Up With Language: How children learn to talk (Addison-Wesley, 1992).
