English Vocabulary Today

English Vocabulary Today: Into the 21st Century offers an innovative perspective on the ways in which contemporary English language vocabulary continues to adapt and grow in light of emerging technologies and ideas. The book begins with a concise history of the English language, followed by chapters covering key topics including lexical change, semantic change and word-formation. Additional chapters highlight unique topics not often covered in English language studies, including the mental lexicon, inclusive language and the importing and exporting of words between English and other languages. Chapter discussions are enhanced by dynamic examples from a wide range of varieties of English, including American, British, Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, South African and South Asian. Taken together, English Vocabulary Today: Into the 21st Century offers students a clear and comprehensive understanding of the multi-faceted nature of English vocabulary today as well as new insights into its continued development.

Barry J. Blake is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at La Trobe University, Australia, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He is well known for a range of publications on Australian Aboriginal languages and language in general. His books include Case, Playing with Words, All about Language and Secret Language.

Table of contents Introduction 1 A brief history 2 The dictionary 2.1 About the size of it 2.2 Part-of-speech 2.3 Set phrases 2.4 Spelling and pronunciation 2.5 Etymology 3 The mental lexicon 3.1 An entry in the mental lexicon 3.2 View of the world 4 Extension 4.1 Metaphor and metonymy 4.2 Verbs and prepositions 5 Change of meaning 5.1 New meanings for old words 5.1.1 Updating of the referent 5.1.2 Application to a new domain 5.1.3 Reinterpretation 5.1.4 Frequency considerations 5.1.5 Point of view 5.1.6 Weakening 5.1.7 Phrase abbreviation 5.2 New words for old meanings 5.2.1 Fashion 5.2.2 Euphemism 5.3 Respelling 5.4 Relics 6 Meaningful relations 6.1 Hyponyms and hypernyms 6.2 Synonyms 6.3 Antonyms 6.4 Homonyms (Homophones and homographs) 6.5 Contronyms 6.6 Retronyms 7 Compounds and blends 7.1 Compounds 7.2 Neo-classical compounds 7.3 Blends 8 Affixes 8.1 Prefixes and suffixes 8.2 Back formation 9 Zero derivation 9.1 Noun to verb 9.2 Noun to adjective 9.3 Verb to noun 9.4 Verb to adjective 9.5 Adjective to noun 9.6 Adjective to verb 9.7 Other conversions 9.8 Proper names to common nouns 10 Shortening, alphabetisms and acronyms 10.1 Shortening or clipping 10.2 Alphabetisms 10.3 Textese 10.4 Acronyms 11 Reduplication 11.1 Plain reduplication 11.2 Reduplication with vowel alternation 11.3 Rhyming reduplication 12 Imports 12.1 Loan-words 12.2 Cultural contact in Europe 12.3 Contact with colonised areas 12.4 Immigration into English-speaking areas 13 Inclusive language 13.1 A changed world 13.2 The discourse of inclusion 13.3 Politically correct English 13.4 Talking about women 13.5 Language and race 13.6 Heterosexism 13.7 Disability 14 When sound echoes sense 14.1 Onomatopoeia 14.2 Vowels 14.3 Consonants 14.4 Sound symbolism 14.5 Names 14.6 Overview 15 A form of words 15.1 Resemblances 15.2 Malapropisms 15.3 Words similar in form and meaning 15.4 Folk etymology 15.5 Avoidance 15.6 Interference 15.7 Word play 16 Allusion 17 Slang 17.1 Slang in general 17.2 The inventiveness of slang 17.3 The attitude of slang 17.4 Is slang ephemeral? 17.5 The local nature of slang 17.6 Slang and jargon 17.7 Argots and 'secret languages' 17.7.1 Back slang 17.7.2 Rhyming slang 17.7.3 Pig Latin 18 English exported 19 English today Further reading References