Geoffrey Leech

Jan Svartvik

This readable textbook tells the fascinating story of the English language in three ways. It begins by tracing the history of the language from its obscure beginnings over 1500 years ago and follows up by showing the geographical spread of the language and its increasing diversity. Finally, it looks at the present state of English as a global language and problems and uncertainties of its future. Students interested in the history of the English language will be well-served by this valuable introduction.

English - One Tongue, Many Voices

A Communicative Grammar of English has long been established as a grammar innovative in approach, reliable in coverage, and clear in its explanations. This fully revised and redesigned third edition provides up-to-date and accessible help to teachers, advanced learners and undergraduate students of English. Part One looks at the way English grammar varies in different types of English, such as ‘formal’ and ‘informal’, ‘spoken’ and ‘written’; Part Two focuses on the uses of grammar rather than on grammatical structure and Part Three provides a handy alphabetically arranged guide to English grammar. A new workbook, The Communicative Grammar of English Workbook also accompanies this edition.

A Communicative Grammar of English

This is the fully revised and expanded second edition of English - One Tongue, Many Voices, a book by three internationally distinguished English language scholars who tell the fascinating, improbable saga of English in time and space. Chapters trace the history of the language from its obscure beginnings over 1500 years ago as a collection of dialects spoken by marauding, illiterate tribes. They show how the geographical spread of the language in its increasing diversity has made English into an international language of unprecedented range and variety. The authors examine the present state of English as a global language and the problems, pressures and uncertainties of its future, online and offline. They argue that, in spite of the amazing variety and plurality of English, it remains a single language.

Jan Svartvik

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