A Level Website: Book Guide to English Language
3. Reading list by topic
This list was compiled by members of staff at Lancaster University Department of Linguistics and English Language and aims to include the most up-to-date and accessible books on a range of topics relevant to A-level English Language.
3.1 History of the English Language
3.3 Discourse analysis / media analysis
3.4 Sociolinguistics (general)
3.7 Language acquisition (in children)
3.8 Second language acquisition
3.1 History of the English Language
C. Baugh and T. Cable A History of the English Language A. RKP l 978 3rd edition ISBN 0415093791
Culpeper, J. (1997) History of English. Routledge
Docherty, Gerry and Paul Foulkes (eds.) (1999): Urban voices : variation and change in British accents. London, Arnold.
Knowles, Gerry, 1997. A Cultural History of the English Language. Edward Arnold
B.Strang 1970 A History of English. Methuen
3.2 Pragmatics
Levinson, S.C. (1983): Pragmatics. Cambridge University Press.
Mey, J. 1993. Pragmatics: an Introduction. Blackwell.
Thomas, Jenny (1996). Meaning and Interaction: an Introduction to Pragmatics.
3.3 Discourse analysis / media analysis
Fairclough, Norman (1989): Language and Power. London, Longman
Fairclough, N. 1992. Discourse and Social Change. Polity.
Fairclough, N. 1995. Media Discourse. London: Edward Arnold.
Fairclough, N. 1995. Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Longman.
Fowler, R. et al. (eds.) 1979. Language and Control. London: Routledge.
Kress, G. and R. Hodge. 1979. Language as Ideology. London: Routledge.
Kress, G. and T. van Leeuwen. 1996. Reading Images. London: Routledge
Simpson, P. Language, Ideology and Point of View,
Wodak, R. 1996. Disorders of Discourse. Longman.
News analysis:
Fiske, J. (1987): Television Culture. Methuen.
Fowler, R (1991) Language in the News. Routledge.
(In-depth linguistic analysis of news stories in the print media, showing how they produce their effects.)
Fowler, R., Hodge, R., Kress, G. and Trew, T. (1979): Language and Control.
Routledge.
Glasgow University Media Group: (Now-classic analyses of programme content)
- (1976): Bad News. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
- (1980): More Bad News. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
- (1982): Really Bad News. Readers and Writers.
- (1985): War and Peace News. Open University Press.
3.4 Sociolinguistics (general)
Bell, R. (1976): Sociolinguistics: goals, approaches and problems. London, Batsford.
Docherty, Gerry and Paul Foulkes (eds.) (1999): Urban voices : variation and change in British accents. London, Arnold.
Downes, W (1998): Language and Society. Cambridge University Press. (This is a new edition, with a new publisher, of the 1984 edition)
Fasold, R. (1990): The sociolinguistics of society. Oxford, Blackwell.
Giglioli, P. P. (ed.) (1972): Language and social context: selected readings. Penguin.
Holmes, J. Holmes, Janet (1992) An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. London: Longman.
Hudson, R. (1980): Sociolinguistics. Cambridge University Press.
Mesthrie, R., Swann, J., Deumert, A and Leap, W. (2000) Introducing Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh University Press.
Pride, J.B. and Holmes, J. (eds.) (1972): Sociolinguistics. Penguin.
Romaine, S. (1994): Language in Society. Oxford University Press.
Trudgill, P (1974/1990): Sociolinguistics: an introduction. Penguin.
Trudgill, Peter and Jenny Cheshire (eds.) (1998): The Sociolinguistics Reader Volume 1: Multilingualism and Variation. London, Edward Arnold.
Wardhaugh, R. (1986): An introduction to sociolinguistics. Oxford, Blackwell.
3.5 Bilingualism (especially in the British context)
Alladina, S. and Edwards, V. (1991): Multilingualism in the British Isles. Longman. In two volumes.
Appel, R. and Muysken, P. (1987): Language Contact and Bilingualism. London, Edward Arnold.
Dorian, N. (1981): Language death: the life cycle of a Scottish Gaelic dialect. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press.
Gal, S. (1979) Language Shift. New York, Academic Press.
Grosjean, F. 1982. Life with Two Languages. Harvard UP.
Gumperz, J.J. (1982): Discourse strategies. Cambridge University Press.
Hoffmann, C. (1991): An introduction to bilingualism. Longman,.
Linguistic Minorities Project (1985): The Other Languages of England. Routledge.
Li Wei (1994): Three generations, two languages, one family. Clevedon, Multilingual Matters.
Romaine, S. (1995): Bilingualism. Blackwell. Second edition.
3.6 Pidgins and Creoles
(This list was compiled by Mark Sebba)
More about Pidgin and Creole languages: visit the Creolists' Home Page
SEBBA, Mark (1997): Contact Languages: Pidgins and Creoles. Macmillan.
(A textbook aimed at second year undergraduate level or higher, but with numerous texts and exercises, some of which should be suitable for A-level.)
TODD, L. (1990): Pidgins and Creoles. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
This book gives you a brief, though somewhat dated, view of the field.
TODD, L. (1984): Modern Englishes: Pidgins and Creoles. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
ROMAINE, S (1988): Pidgin and Creole Languages. London, Longman.
A detailed account, by a linguist. Requires some specialist knowledge.
SUTCLIFFE, D and WONG, A (eds.): The language of the Black Experience (Blackwell, 1986).
ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
CASSIDY, F. and LE PAGE, R.B. (1980): Dictionary of Jamaican English. Cambridge University Press.
DAVIDSON, Basil: Black Mother. Penguin Books.
(A readable and historically careful account of the Slave Trade. Nothing about linguistics, though.)
EDWARDS, V.K. (1979): The West Indian language issues in British schools: challenges and responses. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
(Full of very relevant material at the time of publication; now out of date.)
EDWARDS, V.K. (1986): Language in a Black community. Cleveden (Avon), Multilingual Matters.
GILROY, P. (1987): There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack. London, Hutchinson.
HALL, Robert A. (1966): Pidgin and Creole Languages. Cornell University Press. (A somewhat dated view from the person who re-started pidgin and creole studies in the post-World War II period.)
HEWITT, R. (1986): White Talk Black Talk. Cambridge University Press.
An account of research into inter-racial friendships in London, as symbolised through language. Fascinating, but not an easy read.
HOLM, J. (1989) Pidgins and Creoles. In two vols. Volume I: Theory and structure. Volume II: Reference survey. Cambridge University Press.
LANGUAGE AND POWER (1990): ILEA Carribean Language and Literacy Project.
Harcourt. Brace, Jovanavich.
ISBN 0746619278
(Photocopiable units. Title now sold by Harper Collins. Contact AMS Educational
Tel.01532 580309)
LE PAGE, R.B. and TABOURET-KELLER, A. (1985): Acts of Identity: Creole-based approaches to language and ethnicity. Cambridge University Press.
MÜHLHÄUSLER, P. (1986): Pidgin and Creole Linguistics. London, Blackwell
(An important book, for the advanced student.)
SEBBA, Mark (1986): London Jamaican and Afro-Caribbean London English. In: The language of the Black experience, edited by D. Sutcliffe and A. Wong. Oxford, Blackwell.
SEBBA, Mark (1993): London Jamaican: language systems in interaction. London, Longman.
STONE, Maureen (1981): The education of the Black child in Britain. Fontana Paperbacks. (Not specifically on language issues)
SUTCLIFFE, David (1982): British Black English. Oxford, Blackwell.
(The first British publication devoted to a linguistic description of creole in Britain; written for non-linguists, and easy to understand. However, misleading or wrong on some points (the author has changed his views on some things); therefore, read with caution.)
3.8 Second language acquisition
Cook, V. (1993): Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. London, Macmillan.
3.9 Grammar
Suggestions for entries are welcome.
3.10 Semantics
Aitchison, Jean (1994): Words in the mind : an introduction to the mental lexicon. - 2nd ed. Oxford, Blackwell. ISBN: 0631189211
3.11 Conversation
Langford, D (1994): Analysing Talk: Investigating Interaction in English. London, Macmillan.
Nofsinger, R.B. (1991) Everyday Conversation. Sage.
Wardhaugh, R. (1985): How conversation works. Oxford : Blackwell.
3.12 Literacy
Barton, D. 1994. Literacy: an Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language. Blackwell.
Street, B. (ed.) 1993. Cross-cultural Approaches to Literacy. CUP.
Perera, K. 1984. Children's Writing and Reading: Analysing Classroom Language. Blackwell.
Phonetics and phonology
Suggestions for entries are welcome.
3.14 Morphology
Katamba, F.X. (1993): Morphology. (London: Macmillan).
3.15 Sign Language
Brennan, M. (1992): the visual world of BSL: an introduction by Mary Brennan. In D. Brien (ed.), Dictionary of British Sign Language. (London: Faber and Faber).
3.16 Stylistics
Carter, R. & M.N. Long. 1987. The Web of Words: Exploring literature through language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Carter, R. & W. Nash 1990. Seeing through language: A guide to styles of
English writing. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Carter, R., Language and Literature, Unwin Hyman 1982
Carter, R. and Burton, D., Literary Text and Language Study, Arnold, 1982,
Durant, A, & Fabb, N. Literary Studies in Action, Routledge 1990
Semino, E. (1997) Language and World Creation in Poems and Other Texts. Longman
Short, M. 1996. Exploring the Language of Plays, Poems and Prose. Longman.
Short, M. (ed.) Reading, Analysing and Teaching Literature. Longman.
Simpson, P., Language Through Literature: An Introduction, Routledge
Simpson, P. Language, Ideology and Point of View,
3.17 Gender studies
Coates, J. 1987. Women, Men and Language. Longman.
Graddol, D. and J. Swann. 1989. Gender Voices. Blackwell.
Johnson, Sally A. 1997. Language and masculinity (co-author Ulrike Meinhof). Oxford : Blackwell.
Sunderland, J. 1994. Exploring Gender: Questions and Implications for English Language Education. Prentice Hall.
Talbot, Mary 1999. Language and Gender: An Introduction. Polity Press.
Trudgill, Peter and Jenny Cheshire (eds.) (1998): The Sociolinguistics Reader Volume 2: Gender and Discourse. London, Edward Arnold.