Thomas Cable

Albert Croll Baugh

Praise for the fifth edition: 'The fifth edition of A History of the English Language will continue to be the standard reference work on the history of English.' Peter Erdmann, Technische University, Berlin, Germany 'Baugh and Cable's classic is still an absolute must for everyone interested in the development of English in its socio-historical context. Revised and updated, this edition continues to provide an engagin biography of a living and dynamic language.' Ishtla Singh, Kings College, London, UK A History of the English Language is a comprehensive exploration of the linguistic and cultural development of English, from the Middle Ages to the present day. Revised and updated, the fifth edition continues to provide students with a balanced and up-to-date overview of the subject. The new edition includes: A revised first chapter, 'English present and future' A new section on gender issues and linguistic change Updated material on African-American vernacular English. Albert C.Baugh was Schelling Memorial Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas Cable is Jane and Roland Blumberg Centennial Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin.

A History of the English Language

Comprehensive and balanced, this classic exploration of the history of the English language combines internal linguistic history and external cultural history-from the Middle Ages to the present. This market-leading text encourages readers to develop both an understanding of present-day English and an englightened attitude towards questions affecting the language today.

The meter of Middle English alliterative poetry, Thomas Cable contends, holds the key to a reinterpretation of both Old English meter and iambic pentameter, which in turn provides a new understanding of Middle English meter itself. Drawing upon recent insights in linguistics, Cable articulates a revolutionary theory of rhythm in English poetry from its beginnings through the Renaissance and beyond. Cable's discussion moves from the rhythms of Old English poetry and prose to the poetry of Chaucer and the Alliterative Revival, to Shakespeare and T. S. Eliot. He demonstrates that Middle English poetry does not show the continuity of tradition that standard authorities have asserted. With the Norman Conquest of 1066 came a clear break, and what followed was a drastic misreading by the poets of what had come before. Throughout the book, Cable constantly asks fundamental questions regarding the intentions of the poet, the impact of the perceived metrical tradition upon that poet, and, with reference to Peircean abduction, the possibility of constructing any metrical theory, especially one from the distant past. The answers and their implications—metrical, cognitive, and philosophical—provide the foundation for a new understanding of the creation and evolution of English versification from the seventh century to the present. The English Alliterative Tradition is a major and controversial study in medieval English poetics that illustrates and clarifies key ideas of the New Philology. It will be of interest to scholars and students of Old and Middle English, prosody, and historical linguistics.

The English Alliterative Tradition

Albert C. Baugh

A History of the English Languageexplores the linguistic and cultural development of English from the Roman conquest of England to the present day to provide a comprehensive overview of the different aspects of its history. This best-selling classic textbook has been revised and updated and encourages the reader to develop both an understanding of present-day English and an enlightened attitude toward the issues affecting the language today. New features of the sixth edition include: an additional chapter titled ‘English in the Twenty-first Century’, which examines the future of English and other global languages and includes an assessment of Chinese as a world language an in-depth treatment of phonological changes, such as the placement of the Great Vowel Shift as a bridge between Middle English and Renaissance English further coverage of corpus linguistics, especially for Renaissance English fresh sections on accent and register a new survey of the recent debate between "creolists" and "neo-Anglicists" on the origins of African American Vernacular English. Balanced and wide-ranging, this textbookis a must-read for any student studying the history of the English language

This comprehensive and accessible student workbook accompanies the fifth edition of Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable's History of the English Language. Each chapter in the workbook corresponds directly to a chapter in the textbook and offers exercises, review questions, extensive supplementary examples, additional explanations and a range of sample extracts taken from texts of different periods. An additional 'pre-chapter' on the sounds of English also provides phonetic information and exercises that will prove useful throughout the book. This third edition has been revised alongside the textbook and includes new exercises to accompany the sections on Gender Issues and Linguistic Change, and African American Vernacular English. This workbook is an invaluable companion for all History of English Language courses.

Thomas Cable

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