16.533, Books: Historical Ling/Socioling, Middle English: Bergs

Wed Feb 23 15:21:18 UTC 2005

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-533. Wed Feb 23 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.533, Books: Historical Ling/Socioling, Middle English: Bergs

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1)
Date: 22-Feb-2005
From: Julia Ulrich < julia.ulrich at degruyter.com >
Subject: Social Networks and Historical Sociolinguistics: Bergs 

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 10:15:23
From: Julia Ulrich < julia.ulrich at degruyter.com >
Subject: Social Networks and Historical Sociolinguistics: Bergs 

Title: Social Networks and Historical Sociolinguistics 
Subtitle: Studies in Morphosyntactic Variation in the Paston Letters (1421-1503) 
Series Title: Topics in English Linguistics 51  

Publication Year: 2005 
Publisher: Mouton de Gruyter
	   http://www.mouton-publishers.com

Book URL: http://www.degruyter.de/rs/bookSingle.cfm?id=IS-3110183102-1&l=E 

Author: Alexander T. Bergs, Department of English Language and Linguistics, University of Düsseldorf

Hardback: ISBN: 3110183102 Pages: xii, 318 Price: Europe EURO 88.00 Comment: Approx. US$ 106.00

Abstract:

The book presents an analysis of selected domains of morphosyntactic
variation in a 250,000 word collection of the Middle English Paston Letters
(1421-1503) from a historical sociolinguistic point of view. In the three
case studies, two nominal and one verbal variable are described and
discussed in detail: the replacement of Old English <h-> pronouns by
borrowed <th-> pronouns, the introduction and spread of the
wh-relativizers, and the spread and routinization of light verb
constructions (take, make, give, have, do plus deverbal noun). 

While the study aims at a balanced integration of theories and methods from
a number of different approaches in sociolinguistics, cognitive
linguistics, typology, and language change, its main focus is social
network theory and the role of the linguistic individual in the formation
and change of language structures. Questions of individual language use and
of deliberate versus unmonitored changes in the (individual) system take
center stage and are discussed in the light of social network analysis.
Traditional empirical social network analysis is carefully revised. Despite
its many merits in present-day sociolinguistics, it often needs to be
supplemented by hermeneutic-biographical analyses of the individual
speakers' lives when applied to historical data. With this background,
common theories and models of language change, such as grammaticalization,
paradigmatic pressure, typological alignment, and generational shifts, are
illustrated and evaluated from the point of view of single speakers and
social groups, and their particular embedding in the speech community
through various network structures. 

The book is of interest to advanced students and researchers in English and
general linguistics, Middle English, historical linguistics and language
change, corpus linguistics, as well as sociolinguistics. 

Alexander T. Bergs is Assistant Professor at the Department of English
Language and Linguistics at Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany. 

TO ORDER, PLEASE CONTACT

SFG Servicecenter-Fachverlage
Postfach 4343
72774 Reutlingen, Germany
Fax: +49 (0)7071 - 93 53 - 33
E-mail: deGruyter at s-f-g.com 

For USA, Canada, Mexico: 

Walter de Gruyter, Inc.
PO Box 960
Herndon, VA 20172-0960
Tel.: +1 (703) 661 1589
Tel. Toll-free  +1 (800) 208 8144
Fax: +1 (703) 661 1501
e-mail: degruytermail at presswarehouse.com 

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics
                     Sociolinguistics
                     Text/Corpus Linguistics
                     General Linguistics
                     Language Change

Subject Language(s): Middle English (ENX)

Written In: English  (ENG)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=13511

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	Cascadilla Press          
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	Elsevier Ltd.          
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	Hodder Arnold          
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	Lawrence Erlbaum Associates          
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	Lincom GmbH          
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	MIT Press          
		http://mitpress.mit.edu/	

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OTHER SUPPORTING PUBLISHERS	

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	SIL International
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	Utrecht Institute of Linguistics / LOT Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistic
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