- The Stories of English
infobox Book |
name = The Stories of English
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption =
author =David Crystal
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country =United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre =English studies
publisher =Overlook TP (UK)
release_date = 2004
media_type = Print (Hardback &Paperback )
pages =
isbn = ISBN 978-1585677191
preceded_by =
followed_by ="The Stories of English" is a
2004 book by British linguistDavid Crystal ; it traces the history of theEnglish language from the invasion ofGreat Britain by theAngles andSaxons in the5th Century to the modern splintering of the language into its modern British, American, Indian, Australian, and otherdialects .One primary focus of the book is a history of British English, from its
Old English beginnings toMiddle English ,Early Modern English , andModern English . Crystal also argues eloquently for the inclusion of dialects and "non-standard" varieties of English. Even for the Old English period, he shows how the available evidence can be used to determine what dialectal variation existed.Finally, Crystal condemns what he sees as the over-abundance of
linguistic prescription in the study of English, especially that which existed from the18th Century to the 20th. He speaks approvingly of the recent shift of focus in English language education away from prescriptivism.
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