[Linganth] Book on Cant and Slang

[Maggie Ronkin]

Since the topic "bad" language comes up on this list, I thought some folks 
might be interested in this new volume, as announced on the Linguist List.
Maggie
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From:  tom.perridge at oup.com
Subject:  A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries: Coleman

Title: A History of Cant and Slang Dictionaries
Subtitle: Volume 1: 1567-1784

Publication Year: 2004
Publisher: Oxford University Press
http://www.oup-usa.org/,
http://www.oup.co.uk

Book URL: http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-925471-0

Availability: Available

Author: Julie Coleman, University of Leicester

Hardback: ISBN: 0199254710, Pages: 320, Price: £45.00

Abstract:

This is the first volume in a complete history of the documentation of 
English cant and slang from 1567 to the present. It gives unparalleled 
insights into the early history of slang, the people who used it, and how 
and why it was recorded.

Well over a hundred glossaries of cant and slang were published between 1567 
and 1784. The cant lists reveal the secret language allegedly used by 
thieves and beggars to conceal their illicit conspiracies: Dr Coleman 
investigates where and how they were produced and the relationship between 
such lists and canting literature. She considers why this period was so 
fascinated by crime and by criminals,
and apparently so obsessed with the need to record their language. How far, 
she asks, are the lists genuine records of contemporary cant, and how far 
the products of literary invention? Who produced them, and how were they 
researched? Who bought them, and what did they hope to gain from them? This 
absorbing and astute book will be an invaluable resource for anyone 
interested in English slang and its history. It also provides unusual and 
unexpected insights into the underworlds of early modern England.

Lingfield(s):   History of Linguistics
                Lexicography
                Ling & Literature
                Sociolinguistics

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