Product Description: Most scholarly attention on Shakespeare's vocabulary has been directed towards his enrichment of the language through borrowing words from other languages and has thus concentrated on the more learned aspects of his vocabulary. However, the bulk of Shakespeare's output consists of plays and to make these appear lifelike he needed to employ a colloquial and informal style...read more

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Product Description: Shakespeare's language is a surprisingly neglected topic. An understanding of how his language works is fundamental to appreciating every aspect of his work. This first comprehensive study since the 19th century provides a detailed analysis of the grammar of Shakespeare's language...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This volume of the Cambridge History of the English Language encompasses three centuries of immense cultural change, from Caxton in the late Middle Ages to the American Declaration of Independence and the beginnings of Romanticism...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

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What is a history of the English language? To a native speaker, the answer to this question might seem obvious; the story, from beginning to end, of the language that we use every day. But a history of the English language raises the prickly question of what one means by English. Who speaks “true” English, and are these speakers British, American, Scottish, or Australian, or something else entirely? Is the history of English the history of a written language, or must such an inquiry contend with the divergent dialects and accents of English speakers around the world?In A History of the English Language, N. F. Blake abandons the traditional framework that divides history into three major periods: Old English, Middle English, and Modern English, arguing that these periods were originally chosen because of their political, as opposed to linguistic, significance. Dating the emergence of the ideal of a unified English language to the reign of King Alfred, Blake illustrates the way in which, since its origin, the concept of English has been largely a political and educational one. Detailing the influence that many parent languages — West Saxon, Latin, and French, to name a few, had on the emerging tongue, Blake brings insight into the dynamic role that other languages continue to play in shaping English. (view table of contents)

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Product Description: This book provides an accessible guide to the linguistic environment of Shakespeare, his use of vocabulary, grammar and sentence construction. Although Shakespeare's plays are familiar to us, the language in them is not always easy to understand or translate...read more

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Product Description: The aim of this book is to explain style in terms which do not presuppose too extensive an acquaintaince on the part of the reader with linguistic terminology. Its orientation is not basically theoretical. It attempts to provide help in a pragmatic way for those who recognize the importance of language in literature, but who do not know where to start or how to exploit the particular knowledge and skills the possess...read more

Product Description: Shakespeare's Language: An Introduction Paperback - September, 1984