Overview

This important book examines the role of written and spoken language in shaping our sense of reality, in exchanges of social life, and in fashioning our sense of self. It develops a distinctive, socio-historical approach to these issues, offering a range of illuminating studies in the social history of language. The first section discusses the history of specially charged languages (Latin, Hebrew, and the speech-forms of the Quakers). The second section examines the politics of language, paying special attention to dialect and the relations between the language of conquerors and the conquered. In the third section, the relation between forms of expression and the development of personal self-definition is discussed. This key work will make a major contribution to the interdisciplinary study of language. It will be of interest to students and researchers in social history, linguistics, and the history and sociology of language.

Full Product Details

Author:   Roy Porter (Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine) ,  Peter Burke (Emmanuel College, Cambridge)
Publisher:   John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Imprint:   Polity Press
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.535kg
ISBN:  

9780745613413

ISBN 10:   0745613411
Pages:   368
Publication Date:   15 March 1994
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
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Table of Contents

Introduction. 1. Heu domine, adsunt Turcae: A Sketch for a Social History of Post-medieval Latin: Peter Burke. 2. The Uses of Hebrew in the English Revolution: Nigel Smith. 3. From Shibboleth to Apocalypse: Quaker Speechways during the Puritan Revolution: Hugh Ormsby-Lennon. 4. 'New World of English Words': John Ray, FRS, the Dialect Protagonist, in the Context of his Times (1658 - 1691): Jo Gladstone. 5. The People's English: Language and Class in England c.1840 - 1920: Patrick Joyce. 6. Languages and Conquerors: Victor Kiernan. 7. Towards a Semiotics of the Nerve: The Social History of Language in a New Key: G. S. Rousseau. 8. Expressing Yourself Ill: The Language of Sickness in Georgian England: Roy Porter. 9. 'A New Sort of Logick and Critick': Etymological Interpretation in Horne Tooke's The Diversions of Purley: Daniel Rosenberg. Afterword: Dell Hymes. Index.

Reviews

'The broad concentration upon a generally-neglected period of language history (the 17th and 18th centuries) is wholly welcome... Nigel Smith is fascinating on 'The Uses of Hebrew in the English Revolution' and Peter Burke's little sketch of post-Medieval uses of Latin is wide ranging and excellent.' The London Review of Books

Author Information

Peter Burke is a Reader in Cultural History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Roy Porter is a Professor of the History of Medicine at The Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine.

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