This is the first text on language in communication written from a social psychological perspective that sets issues in their broader biological, sociological and cultural contexts.

This collection of twenty-nine original essays,surveys satire from its emergence in Western literature to the present.

• Tracks satire from its first appearances in the prophetic books of the Old Testament through the Renaissance and the English tradition in satire to Michael Moore’s satirical movie Fahrenheit 9/11.
• Highlights the important influence of the Bible in the literary and cultural development of Western satire.
• Focused mainly on major classical and European influences on and works of English satire, but also explores the complex and fertile cultural cross-semination within the tradition of literary satire.

 

This comprehensive guide to the history of literary criticism from antiquity to the present day provides an authoritative overview of the major movements, figures, and texts of literary criticism, as well as surveying their cultural, historical, and philosophical contexts.

• Supplies the cultural, historical and philosophical background to the literary criticism of each era
• Enables students to see the development of literary criticism in context
• Organised chronologically, from classical literary criticism through to deconstruction
• Considers a wide range of thinkers and events from the French Revolution to Freud’s views on civilization
• Can be used alongside any anthology of literary criticism or as a coherent stand-alone introduction

 

The proposition that there is a correlation between language and culture or culture-specific ways of thinking can be traced back to the views of Herder and von Humboldt in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It is generally accepted today that a language, especially its lexicon, influences its speakers' cultural patterns of thought and perception in various ways, for example through a culture-specific segmentation of the extralinguistic reality, the frequency of occurrence of particular lexical items, or the existence of keywords or key word combinations revealing core cultural values. The aim of this volume is to explore the cultural dimension of a wide range of preconstructed or semi-preconstructed word combinations in English. The 17 papers of the volume are divided into four sections, focusing on particular lexemes (e.g. enjoy and its collocates), types of word combinations (e.g. proverbs and similes), use-related varieties (such as the language of tourism or answering-machine messages), and user-related varieties (such as Aboriginal English or African English).

A History of the English Language by Albert C. Baugh
From the Back Cover
A classic text that provides a comprehensive and balanced exploration of the history of the English language from the Middle Ages to the present and combines internal linguistic history and external cultural history. Emphasizes the political, social, and cultural forces that affect language; contains Old and Middle English syntax; features Chicano English, Caribbean English, English in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Black English and varieties of English in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Canada. An important reference for upper level courses in the history of the English language.