Scotticisms in Grammar and Vocabulary: Like Runes Upon a Standin' Stane? - Softcover

Dossena, Marina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0859766055 ISBN 13: 9780859766050

Publisher: John Donald, 2005

Synopsis

Scotticisms in Grammar and Vocabulary investigates the historical development of the (mainly sociolinguistic) phenomena which favoured a process of increasing anglicisation in Late Modern Scots, leading many speakers and writers to strenuous attempts to avoid pronunciations, syntactic forms and lexical items that were restricted either from the geographical of the social point of view. These attempts, however, were never quite successful, and the influence of Scots on the distinctiveness of present-day Scottish English is still very clearly discernible. After an outline of the linguistic situation in present-day Scotland, the main features of contemporary Scottish Standard English are discussed. These chapters are followed by an analysis of the concept of 'Scotticism' from the historical point of view. Special prominence is given to the eighteenth century; the role of the most important prescriptive grammarians is described, together with an assessment of the ambiguous sociolinguistic attitudes that Scotticisms provoked at the turn of the century, when new literary figures returned status to 'the vernacular'. Finally, the nineteenth century is taken into consideration.
This, in turn, leads back to contemporary language, in order to discuss the ways in which items have changed their status, from 'proscribed Scotticisms' to 'covert' or 'overt Scotticisms', worthy of stylistic consideration, and still employed as highly valuable tools of expression. Scotticisms in Grammar and Vocabulary was first published by Tuckwell Press

About this title

About the Author

Marina Dossena is Associate Professor of English Language at the University of Bergamo. Her published and current research focuses on the features and origins of British varieties of English and the history of specialised discourse. Recent publications include Insights into Late Modern English, co-edited with Charles Jones (Bern, Lang 2003). She is currently compiling a corpus of nineteenth-century Scottish correspondence and is the current editor of the Online Bibliography of Scots and Scottish English.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Donald
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0859766055
• ISBN 13: 9780859766050
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 178