Research Catalog

Title

Language myths and the history of English / Richard J. Watts.

Author

Watts, Richard J.

Publication

New York : Oxford University Press, ©2011.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiv, 338 pages : illustrations, map; 25 cm

Series Statement

Oxford studies in sociolinguistics

Uniform Title

Oxford studies in sociolinguistics.

Subjects

• English language
• Discourse analysis
• Diskursanalyse
• Sociolinguistics
• English language > Social aspects
• Englisch
• Soziolinguistik
• Weltsprache
• Språksociologi
• English language > History
• Entmythologisierung
• Engelska språket > sociala aspekter
• History
• Sociolinguistics, historical
• History of English
• Mythos
• Standardsprache
• Engelska språket > historia
• Diskursanalys
• Ideology

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

• 1. Metaphors, myths, ideologies and archives. -- Defining myths -- Conceptual metaphors and myths -- Language myths and conceptual metaphors -- Foucault's understanding of discourse -- Discourse archives -- Myths are the "stuff that ideologies are made on" -- The structure of the book -- 2. Establishing a linguistic pedigree. -- The fire at Ashburnham House -- The myth of the longevity of English -- Tracing the growth of interest in the Beowulf manuscript -- The dating of Beowulf -- Kiernan's arguments -- Sociolinguistic arguments in favour of Danelaw provenance for Beowulf -- Switching discourse archives -- 3. Breaking the unbroken tradition. -- LInking two myths -- Metapragmatic and metadiscursive linguistic expressions and their significance in inscribed orality -- The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and the archive they instantiated -- The breakdown of the archive and inscribed orality -- The disappearance of the ASC: the end of a discourse archive -- 4. The construction of a modern myth: Middle English as a creole. -- The creolisation hypothesis -- The discussion thread "Is English a creole?" -- The "Middle English is a creole" debate in the academic literature -- All language is language in contact -- Simplification processes not resulting in creole -- Creolisation or no creolisation? -- 5. Barbarians and others. -- The nation-state and the notion of Kultursprache -- Language versus a language versus the language -- The "other" chronicle tradition -- Myths in the Polychronicon -- Linking up and extending the myths -- The central nexus of language myths -- 6. The myth of "greatness." -- Introduction -- Dating the GVS -- A reappaisal of research work on an elusive phenomenon -- GVS disputes -- Challenging the GVS -- Sociolinguistic aspects of the GVS -- The myths of greatness reconsidered.
• 7. Reinterpreting Swift's A proposal for correcting, improving an ascertaining the English tongue: challenging an embryonic modern myth. -- Potential new myths -- The "ideology of the standard language" and the complaint tradtion -- Swift's Proposal as the beginning of a complaint tradition -- Contextualising the Proposal sociohistorically -- Alternative readings of Swifts's Proposal -- Swift and after -- 8. Polishing the myths: the commercial side of politeness. -- The obsession with politeness -- The origins of eighteenth-century politeness -- The honnête homme and Descarte's physiological metaphor -- Gentrifying philosophy -- Commercialising the myth of the polite language -- Postscript -- 9. Challenging the hegemony of standard English. -- "Polite English" and social stratification at the end of the eighteenth century -- Radicals, revolutionaries and language -- Language and working-class movements at the beginning of the nineteenth century -- William Hone, Peterloo and the Chartist movement -- From the legitimate language to the standard language -- 10. Transforming a myth to save an archive: when polite becomes educated. -- From homo socialis to homo culturalis -- Language and politeness, language and "educatedness" -- Comprehensive schools and the teaching of standard English -- Planning the reintroduction of grammar into the National Curriculum -- John Honey and the notion of educatedness -- What is standard English? -- 11. Commodifying English and constructing a new myth. -- The emergence of a modern myth -- English-"the language of the world"? -- The commodification of English -- The price of English in Switzerland -- Problems in the assumption that English is the global language -- 12. Myths, ideologies of English and funnel view of the history of English. -- From conceptual metaphors to discourse archives: the function of the myth -- The funnel view of the history of English -- Myths as stories -- Establishing the "superiority" of English -- Linguistic homogeneity versus linguistic heterogeneity.

Call Number

JFE 16-3934

ISBN

• 9780195327601
• 0195327608
• 9780195327618
• 0195327616

LCCN

2010016760

OCLC

609102621

Author

Watts, Richard J.

Title

Language myths and the history of English / Richard J. Watts.

Imprint

New York : Oxford University Press, ©2011.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Oxford studies in sociolinguistics

Oxford studies in sociolinguistics.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Connect to:

Oxford Scholarship Online

Research Call Number

JFE 16-3934