Overview

The second volume in the Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics series, this collection of essays addresses each of the traditional periods of English, acknowledging the effect of external social context on determining the direction of changes within the language's syntax, phonology, and lexicon. Topics covered include the social status and uses of English, the relationship between English and co-existent languages, the relationship between varieties of spoken and written language, language as a political and socioeconomic instrument, and attitudes towards varieties of English. A broad introduction to sociolinguistics, this text also provides students of linguistics and the English language with an important revision of the traditional approaches to the history of language.

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9780195065008

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This collection of essays provides a different perspective on the history of English by correlating language and society and focusing on the socio-cultural framework of the diachronic development of the language. It is a valuable set of readings for the student of diachronic linguistics. --Edgar C. Pulome, University of Texas<br> This lively set of papers provides a valuable counterbalance to the traditional emphasis on the written standard in works on the history of English....It offers a varied feast of methodological approaches and theoretical attitudes that mirrors the feast of language varieties and attitudes toward them that are its subject...It is richly informative and thoroughly enjoyable. --Elizabeth C. Traugott, Stanford University<br> Traditional histories of English have presented the language as a system that lives in austere secession from social reality, rearranging itself in response to purely internal pressures. English in its Social Contexts puts the language back in the mouths of its speakers, reminding us that the history of the language is also the social history of the English-speaking world, shaped against a continuing background of diversity. --Geoffrey Nunberg, Stanford University<br> The Williams, Carver, and Kachru chapters are the most useful for my undergraduates. --Daniel O. Mosser, VPI & SU<br> The selection of articles is an excellent set of case studies on historical sociolinguistics and historical standardization processes of English. --Otto Santa Ana A., University of New Mexico<br> This volume brings a breadth of approach rarely encountered in the formal study of language to bear on diverse and absorbing topics in the history of English.It will undoubtedly be welcomed by those interested in language and culture. --Language<br>

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