History of the English Language

by Baugh

A new title from Routledge s Critical Concepts in Linguistics series, "History of the English Language" is a four-volume collection covering the main linguistic issues in the phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics of the history of English.

Genres: Linguistics, Nonfiction, History

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinated with the subject material but found the presentation lacking--van Gelderen could have worked harder to make her book more engaging.

[Kimberly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, this book is very informational on the history of the English language, showing how it changed over the centuries and some reasons why those changes occurred. However, I found it a bit disorganized, and it was difficult to follow—no wonder, of course, as the history of the English language is such a dense topic that is difficult to organize well. I did have to do outside research to understand what van Gelderen was arguing for sometimes, but overall I think the book was very concise and helpful.

[Liliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I definitely learned a lot from this book! It was fascinating to learn that English is a Germanic language that has also borrowed from Latin, French, Gothic, Sanskrit, Old Dutch, etc. It's a great book if you're interested in the history of the English language.

[MissBirdee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to read this for class. It's dry but it gets the job done

[Johnson Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

it is very helpful

[Kathleen C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a textbook therefore sometimes a little dry but overall very informative and easy to use.