Code-Switching in Early English

The frequent mixing of different languages in early English texts, especially Latin, English and French, has been neglected by historical English linguistics. The contributions in this volume approach

An academic linguist and a classroom teacher review research on dialect variation and language attitudes, and provide tools for helping elementary school students master formal language by systematic

This book presents a comparative study on plurilingual code-switching (CS) in Italy, Croatia and Scotland-UK, based on Italian in contact with four standard varieties (Spanish, English, Philipino and

With emphasis on teacher and learner code-switching patterns, this book is one of the first studies to comprehensively address these issues in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. The autho

English insurance came into being almost entirely during the Elizabethan period. However, the Great Fire of 1666 consumed most of London's mercantile document, and therefore little is known about early English insurance. Using new archival material, this study provides the first in-depth analysis of early English insurance. It focuses on a crucial yet little-known text, the London Insurance Code of the early 1580s, and shows how London insurance customs were first imported from Italy, then influenced by the Dutch, and finally shaped in a systematic fashion in that Insurance Code. The London Insurance Code was in turn heavily influenced by coeval continental codes. This deep influence attests the strong links between English and European insurance, and questions the common/civil law divide on the history of commercial law.

Does the use of two languages by bilinguals inevitably bring about grammatical change? Does switching between languages serve as a catalyst in such change? It is widely held that linguistic code-switching inherently promotes grammatical convergence - languages becoming more similar to each other through contact; evidence for this, however, remains elusive. A model of how to study language contact scientifically, Bilingualism in the Community highlights variation patterns in speech, using a new bilingual corpus of English and Spanish spontaneously produced by the same speakers. Putting forward quantitative diagnostics of grammatical similarity, it shows how bilinguals' two languages differ from each other, aligning with their respective monolingual benchmarks. The authors argue that grammatical change through contact is far from a foregone conclusion in bilingual communities, where speakers are adept at keeping their languages together, yet separate. The book is compelling reading for a

Does the use of two languages by bilinguals inevitably bring about grammatical change? Does switching between languages serve as a catalyst in such change? It is widely held that linguistic code-switching inherently promotes grammatical convergence - languages becoming more similar to each other through contact; evidence for this, however, remains elusive. A model of how to study language contact scientifically, Bilingualism in the Community highlights variation patterns in speech, using a new bilingual corpus of English and Spanish spontaneously produced by the same speakers. Putting forward quantitative diagnostics of grammatical similarity, it shows how bilinguals' two languages differ from each other, aligning with their respective monolingual benchmarks. The authors argue that grammatical change through contact is far from a foregone conclusion in bilingual communities, where speakers are adept at keeping their languages together, yet separate. The book is compelling reading for a

Medical and scientific writing in English has evolved over more than a millennium, from its genesis in the Anglo-Saxon era to its present-day position as the 'lingua franca' of science. This 2004 volume focuses on its development as a genre in late medieval English. During this period it emerged in the vernacular, as its Graeco-Roman conventions were modified in a new socio-historical context. Seven experts discuss the various linguistic and textual processes involved in vernacularising science, and how they related to communicative practices and to the writers and readers of medical and scientific texts. Referring to authentic medieval texts, they show how discourse communities adopted scriptorial 'house-styles', how vocabulary and code-switching patterns reflect the multilingual context of the period, and how intertextuality featured between shared materials. Bringing together several perspectives on this research area, this book will be welcomed by linguists and historians of scienc

South Africa is a country characterised by great linguistic diversity. Large indigenous languages, such as isiZulu and isiXhosa, are spoken by many millions of people, as well as the languages with European roots, such as Afrikaans and English, which are spoken by several millions and used by many more in daily life. This situation provides a plethora of contact scenarios, all of which have resulted in language variation and change, and which forms the main focus of this insightful volume. Written by a team of leading scholars, it investigates a range of sociolinguistic factors and the challenges that South Africans face as a result of multilingualism and globalisation in both education and social interaction. The historical background to English in South Africa provides a framework within which the interfaces with other languages spoken in the country are scrutinised, whilst highlighting processes of contact, bilingualism, code-switching and language shift.

South Africa is a country characterised by great linguistic diversity. Large indigenous languages, such as isiZulu and isiXhosa, are spoken by many millions of people, as well as the languages with European roots, such as Afrikaans and English, which are spoken by several millions and used by many more in daily life. This situation provides a plethora of contact scenarios, all of which have resulted in language variation and change, and which forms the main focus of this insightful volume. Written by a team of leading scholars, it investigates a range of sociolinguistic factors and the challenges that South Africans face as a result of multilingualism and globalisation in both education and social interaction. The historical background to English in South Africa provides a framework within which the interfaces with other languages spoken in the country are scrutinised, whilst highlighting processes of contact, bilingualism, code-switching and language shift.

Exploring the complex relationship between language and immigration in the United States, this timely book challenges mainstream, historically established assumptions about American citizenship and identity. Set within both a historical and a current political context, this book covers hotly debated topics such as language and ethnicity, the relationship between non-native English and American identity, perceptions and stereotypes related to foreign accents, code-switching, hybrid language forms such as Spanglish, language and the family, and the future of language in America. Work from the fields of linguistics, education policy, history, sociology, and politics are brought together to provide an accessible overview of the key issues. Through specific examples and case studies, immigrant America is presented as a diverse, multilingual, and multidimensional space in which identities are often hybridized and always multifaceted.

Exploring the complex relationship between language and immigration in the United States, this timely book challenges mainstream, historically established assumptions about American citizenship and identity. Set within both a historical and a current political context, this book covers hotly debated topics such as language and ethnicity, the relationship between non-native English and American identity, perceptions and stereotypes related to foreign accents, code-switching, hybrid language forms such as Spanglish, language and the family, and the future of language in America. Work from the fields of linguistics, education policy, history, sociology, and politics are brought together to provide an accessible overview of the key issues. Through specific examples and case studies, immigrant America is presented as a diverse, multilingual, and multidimensional space in which identities are often hybridized and always multifaceted.

Dr Hackett discovered in the Angelica Library in Rome a manuscript containing a unique text of the first constitution of Cambridge University. The centrepiece of this book is a critical edition of the text with an English translation on facing pages. The importance of his discovery for historians of Cambridge and of medieval university education cannot be overestimated. The Cambridge constitutions form a complete code, promulgated at a remarkably early date (c. 1250). Dr Hackett shows that Oxford lagged more than 50 years behind Cambridge in codifying its statutes and neither Paris nor Bologna, the oldest of all universities, had a written constitution or code of laws at this time.

Although the Englishmen who crossed the Irish Sea from 1169 onward brought with them their own speech and legal code, the credit for the creation of a firm basis for the alien English Law and legal institutions belongs to King John, when his accession united the Lordship of Ireland with the English Crown. Dr Hand begins his study of English Law in Ireland by tracing its development up to 1290. He confines his detailed analysis, however, to the years 1290–1324, considering the influence of statute law and Irish custom on, and the position of the native Irishman under English Law. This period is chosen partly because almost all justiciary rolls surviving until modern times derived from the early fourteenth century, and partly because those years saw the flowering of medieval Anglo-Irish culture.

The discovery in Sonderhausen of a fragmentary psalter glossed in Latin and Old English allows fresh inferences to be drawn regarding the study of the psalter in Anglo-Saxon England, and of the transmission of the corpus of vernacular psalter glosses. A detailed textual and palaeographical study of the Wearmouth-Jarrow bibles leads to the exciting possibility that the hand of Bede can be identified, annotating the text of the Bible which he no doubt played an instrumental role in establishing. Two Latin texts from the circle of Archbishop Wulfstan are published here in full, whilst disciplined philological and historical analysis helps to clarify a puzzling reference in Æthelbert's law-code to the early medieval practice of providing food render for the king. Finally, the volume contains two pioneering essays in the histoire des mentalités. The usual comprehensive bibliography of the previous year's publications in all branches of Anglo-Saxon studies rounds off the book.