Customer Reviews

Biography of the English Language

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For anyone interested in historical linguistics, Millward's textbook is the first you should read. Her dry sense of humor livens even the most dense chapters on inner history and spelling reform. The book is intended to serve as a text for a graduate course on the history of English, and it is useful for both experienced linguists as well as those who have no prior coursework in linguistics. The text begins with chapters on language, phonology, and writing to provide the novice with background on linguistics, phonology, and phonemic transcription. The chapters that follow on Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, and Present Day English have dense, but easy to read, overviews of both inner and outer history of the language. Millward intersperses humorous vignettes with her main text and heightens the reader's appreciation for the language

This book was one of the first books to turn me onto the field of Linguistics. --BUT-- you don't need to be a linguist to enjoy this book. All you need is a curiosity in the history of the English language. Suddenly, all the crazy "rules" of grammar, and the seemingly senseless spelling of many words start to make sense. It is fascinating to see how the language has evolved, and you learn to appreciate the nature of language.

I was fortunate to have Celia Millward as a professor at Boston University. This book was the textbook for her own class on the history of the English language. The book offers an excellent history of the English language that I think any English speaker would find simply fascinating. We use this language every day, so it is interesting to know where it came from! It is also very readable and enjoyable--Mrs. Millward's wit and humor comes across as strongly as her knowledge as an authority on the subject. I highly recommend it.

I used this text in a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga "History of the English Language" course for English majors. Millward does a wonderful job of explaining the information and her examples are recognizable and helpful. you will find yourself reading part out loud as you try and discover your own language usage. In fact, I think I would have enjoyed this book even reading it on my own. Language History is not explored enough, and this is a great text with which to begin

I read this book to see if I might use it the next time I teach the history of the English language. There are many typos in this edition, beginning with the cover (transformtum is not a Latin word). More surprising, given the content, is how many grammatical errors it contains as well. Also, the book often uses phonetic symbols that are never explained. The chart on the inside cover, because concerned only with present-day English, omits them. I think this book would cause a lot of frustration for students, and it reaffirms my belief that Cengage is a profit-driven press that does not care much about the quality of the texts it produces.

There are books on the phonology and such of the English language. There are books on the history of the English language. There are books on the English language today, discussing how it varies from place to place. This book has the distinction of covering all, and covering them all very well. The historical linguistics part is particularly good, whth complete and detailed chapters on the stages from Old English to the present day, but going back to Indo-European. But the first chapter of the book, on present-day English phonology, is also very good. And so is the last one, on "English around the world."

The only point that could be criticized is the price -- extremely high. I got my copy as a used book on Amazon Marketplace. But I doubt that many would really want to pay over $100 for a book, no matter how good.

I love how thorough this book is. Easy to read if you're interested in the English language; if you're not, it still has interesting topics.

I have always had a desire to know more about English. This had been a desire for me since my third grade English teacher, Mrs. Phua-xing-chen, told the class she had to go back to her own country. This disappointed me for two reasons:
1) I had yet to learn proper English.
2) I had no idea how to pronounce her last name.

At this moment, a desire awoke inside of my heart, like bologna when you set it on a hot pan and it starts to bubble. My heart bubbled for English. Not that nasty English that you find walking the countryside of Lancaster by those men with big hats and beards. No. I wanted true and genuine English. The kind of English that, when spoken, makes Beowulf dream of roods and tell tales of Canterbury.

This was greatly difficult because I still had no idea how to read. So I logged into my amazon account and looked at reviews everywhere. I tried every series on Amazon. Even Hooked on Phonics. Yet none of them did the trick. The bologna in my heart started to wilt. THEN I came by this book! The cover is what got me. Its mildly off-white and yellow cover with ancient writing on the front made my heart race! I ordered it right then and there. Now I speak eloquent English and would not have it any other way.

If you are going over this review and cannot read, I urge you to buy this book. Whale-paths will flow for you, Caedmon will sing for you, and Sir Gawain will dance for you! Not the kind of dancing that you would find at a ninth graders' halloween party- where they flail their arms all pretending they're ghosts. No. He will drink a pint, stand on a table, and show you how a true knight dances: by alternating his feet as he kicks, knocking off large turkeys, fruits, and plates full of undercooked mutton! From this book, you will know english better than Leonardo Da Vinci, Napoleon Bonaparte, Gandhi, or even Buddha!

I ordered this book one week prior to the beginning of my semester. The estimated delivery date was about 3 weeks and I received the book in about a week and a half. The book was in fantastic condition, with no marks or tears on any of the pages. Looked like new. I would recommmend this company to future purchasers and look forward to using them in the future.

Millward has written an interesting explanation of the evolution of English, but her modern, progressive, anti-traditional, anti-prescriptive, pro-change bias often gets in the way. Her first mistake is to describe language as "conventional" rather than traditional, as if people create language by committee instead of inheriting it from others and passing on it others. Her second mistake is to describe language as "arbitrary," a rather loose use of the word for someone with little good to say about prescriptive arbiters of language. That's her third mistake: She cannot bring herself to admit that change can be bad and that prescription often serves good purposes, like making it easier to conceive and communicate difficult thoughts, and making it possible for people to communicate with other people from different times and places.