Overview
Have you ever looked at a word and thought: ‘I wonder where that came from’? You might well find the answer in this book, which considers the origin and formation of some of the many thousands of new words that were coined in English during the nineteenth century in the broad field of ‘science’. Changes in society are often accompanied by the need to find names for such changes which, in turn, has an impact on how the language develops as a result. The British Industrial Revolution ushered in a new era of language change, which led to many new coinages in the English language reflecting scientific knowledge as it developed. Many of these neologisms belong to specialist vocabulary, but others do not, and it is these lay coinages which form the focus of this book and are located within their social, cultural and historical backgrounds. Aimed at postgraduate students of the English language and all those interested in the history of the English language, this work explores new worlds and offers an original and fascinating etymological journey through nineteenth-century science in its broadest sense.
Full Product Details
Author: Catherine Watts
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint: Routledge
Weight: 0.453kg
ISBN: 9780367709839
ISBN 10: 036770983
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 05 June 2023
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.
Reviews
"This book reads like a journey, navigating meanings and sources from many different social and cultural contexts. As well as the fundamental need to classify and name in order to make sense of our world, we all engage in wordplay to actively create and enrich the language. Great anecdotes, charming pictures. - Dr Jane Jones at Kings College ""This book reads like a journey, navigating meanings and sources from many different social and cultural contexts. As well as the fundamental need to classify and name in order to make sense of our world, we all engage in wordplay to actively create and enrich the language. Great anecdotes, charming pictures."" Dr. Jane Jones, Kings College, University of London"
Author Information
Catherine Watts has worked in Higher Education for over forty years and is a Senior Fellow/International Teaching Fellow (Higher Education Academy, UK), affiliated to the universities of Heidelberg (Germany), Alcalá de Henares (Spain) and Shanghai (China). Since 2013 she has written eight textbooks for language teaching/learning (all published by Routledge) which reflect Catherine’s research interests.
