The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language

A fully updated third edition that provides comprehensive coverage of the history, structure and worldwide use of the English language.

David Crystal (Author)

9781108437738, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 November 2018

582 pages
27.6 x 21.9 x 3.1 cm, 1.95 kg

Now in its third edition, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language provides the most comprehensive coverage of the history, structure and worldwide use of English. Fully updated and expanded, with a fresh redesigned layout, and over sixty audio resources to bring language extracts to life, it covers all aspects of the English language including the history of English, with new pages on Shakespeare's vocabulary and pronunciation, updated statistics on global English use that now cover all countries and the future of English in a post-Brexit Europe, regional and social variations, with fresh insights into the growing cultural identities of 'new Englishes', English in everyday use with new sections on gender identities, forensic studies, and 'big data' in corpus linguistics, and digital developments, including the emergence of new online varieties in social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. Packed with brand new colour illustrations, photographs, maps, tables and graphs, this new edition is an essential tool for a new generation of twenty-first-century English language enthusiasts.

1. Modelling English
Part I. The History of English: 2. The origins of English
3. Old English
4. Middle English
5. Early modern English
6. Modern English
7. World English
Part II. English Vocabulary: 8. The nature of the lexicon
9. The sources of the lexicon
10. Etymology
11. The structure of the lexicon
12. Lexical dimensions
Part III. English Grammar: 13. Grammatical mythology
14. The structure of words
15. Word classes
16. The structure of sentences
Part IV. Spoken and Written English: 17. The sound system
18. The writing system. Part V. Using English: 19. Varieties of discourse
20. Regional variation
21. Social variation
22. Personal variation
23. Electronic variation
Part VI. Learning About English: 24. Learning English as a mother tongue
25. New ways of studying English.

Subject Areas: Encyclopaedias & reference works [GB], Linguistics [CF], Language: history & general works [CBX], Language: reference & general [CB], Language [C]