The Story of English, McCrum R., Cran W., MacNeil R., 1992

The Story of English, McCrum R., Cran W., MacNeil R., 1992.

   The Story of English was written to a strict deadline: the simultaneous transmission of the accompanying television series in Britain and the United States in 1986. Inevitably, omissions were made and errors crept in. Two chapters had to go to press before the filming was completed. Limitations of space meant making some painful cuts. Now, with hindsight, we have prepared a fully revised version of the text, also taking the opportunity gratefully to incorporate a number of refinements suggested by our readers.




An English-Speaking World.
On 5 September 1977, the American spacecraft Voyager One blasted-off on its historic mission to Jupiter and beyond. On board, the scientists, who knew that Voyager would one day spin through distant star systems, had installed a recorded greeting from the people of the planet Earth. Preceding a brief message in fifty-five different languages for the people of outer space, the gold-plated disc plays a statement from the Secretary-General of the United Nations, speaking on behalf of 147 member states, ‘the people of our planet’ - in English.

The rise of English is a remarkable success story. When Julius Caesar landed in Britain over two thousand years ago, English did not exist. Five hundred years later, Englisc, incomprehensible to modern ears, was probably spoken by about as few people as currently speak Cherokee - and with as little influence. Nearly a thousand years later, at the end of the sixteenth century, when William Shakespeare was in his prime, English was the native speech of between five and seven million Englishmen and it was, in the words of a contemporary, ‘of small reatch, it stretcheth no further than this iland of ours, naie not there over all’.

Contents.
List of Maps.
Preface to the Revised Edition.
Introduction: Speaking of English.
1 An English-Speaking World.
2 The Mother Tongue.
3 A Muse of Fire.
4 The Guid Scots Tongue.
5 The Loaded Weapon.
6 Black on White.
7 Pioneers! О Pioneers!.
8 The Echoes of an English Voice.
9 The New Englishes 10 Next Year’s Words.
Notes and Sources.
Select Bibliography.
Acknowledgements.
Index.



Бесплатно скачать электронную книгу в удобном формате, смотреть и читать:
Скачать книгу The Story of English, McCrum R., Cran W., MacNeil R., 1992 - fileskachat.com, быстрое и бесплатное скачивание.

Скачать pdf
Ниже можно купить эту книгу по лучшей цене со скидкой с доставкой по всей России.Купить эту книгу


Скачать - pdf - Яндекс.Диск.




Теги: учебник по английскому языку :: английский язык :: McCrum :: Cran :: MacNeil