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A study of English semantics during the Enlightenment. New words 1650–1800 reflect the new middle-class culture of sociability, commerce, and science. Old mostly obsolete words illuminate the realities of working-class life, exhausting labor, dirt, outrageous sexism, magic, horses, bizarre food.
Throughout the history, English was changing steadily. Not only was the English grammar, pronunciation or vocabulary being altered over the centuries but also the semantics of lexemes. A major factor that has a considerable impact on the semantics of words is the influence of foreign languages. This study deals with semantic changes due to the Latin influence on the English language in the Early Modern English period. The aim of the analysis is – with the help of the Oxford English Dictionary Online – to determine potential patterns of meaning alterations of English lexemes that were caused by the influx of Latin-derived equivalents, especially on the field of human anatomy, and between the 15th and the 18th century. Moreover, the Early Modern English period is portrayed as well as the roles of Latin and English during that time, also considering the integration of Latin loanwords into English. In order to discuss meaning changes due to Latin influences, a closer look will be taken at language modifications in general, at lexical change and at the various types of semantic change by which English words might have been affected.
Tim Machan explores the nature of English present and past, and its role in shaping the identity of those who speak it. He pursues his object through episodes in its history around the globe, from Caxton to Churchill and from rural America to colonial Australia. This is a book for everyone interested in English and the role of language in society
The relationship between landscape and culture seen through language is an exciting and increasingly explored area. This ground-breaking book contributes to the linguistic examination of both cross-cultural variation and unifying elements in geographical categorization. The study focuses on the contrastive lexical semantics of certain landscape words in a number of languages. The aim is to show how geographical vocabulary sheds light on the culturally and historically shaped ways people see and think about the land around them. Notably, the study presents landscape concepts as anchored in a human-centred perspective, based on our cognition, vision, and experience in places. The Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach allows an analysis of meaning which is both fine-grained and transparent. The book is aimed, first of all, at scholars and students of linguistics. Yet it will also be of interest to researchers in geography, environmental studies, anthropology, cultural studies, Australian Studies, and Australian Aboriginal Studies because of the book’s cultural take.
This guide gives students a solid grounding in the basic methodology of how to analyse corpus data to study new words entering the language or language change. .
This introduction explores the history of the 18th-century Enlightenment movement. Considering its intellectual commitments, Robertson then turns to their impact on society, and the ways in which Enlightenment thinkers sought to further the goal of human betterment, by promoting economic improvement and civil and political justice.
A leading intellectual historian explores some of the reigning assumptions and imperatives of our age. By looking closely at what "words do and perform", Martin Jay makes us aware of the extent to which the language we use mediates and shapes our experience. Elegantly written and richly insightful, this is a work of cultural criticism and intellectual analysis of the first order.
Between 1707 and 1918, Scotland underwent arguably the most dramatic upheavals in its political, economic and social history. The Union with England, industrialisation and Scotland's subsequent defining contributions throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the culture of Britain and Empire are reflected in the transformative energies of Scottish literature and literary institutions in the period. New genres, new concerns and whole new areas of interest opened under the creative scrutiny of sceptical minds. This second volume of the History reveals the major contribution made by Scottish writers and Scottish writing to the shape of modernity in Britain, Europe and the world.
Over 25 years ago, Raymond Williams’ Keywords: AVocabulary of Culture and Society set the standard for how weunderstand and use the language of culture and society. Now, threeluminaries in the field of cultural studies have assembled a volumethat builds on and updates Williams’ classic, reflecting thetransformation in culture and society since its publication. NewKeywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society is astate-of-the-art reference for students, teachers and culturevultures everywhere. Assembles a stellar team of internationally renowned andinterdisciplinary social thinkers and theorists Showcases 142 signed entries – from art,commodity, and fundamentalism to youth,utopia, the virtual, and the West– that capture the practices, institutions, and debates ofcontemporary society Builds on and updates Raymond Williams’s classicKeywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, by reflecting thetransformation in culture and society over the last 25 years Includes a bibliographic resource to guide research andcross-referencing The book is supported by a website:www.blackwellpublishing.com/newkeywords.
