LINGUIST List 10.1525

Thu Oct 14 1999

Qs: Text/history of English, Speech Act Dictionary

Editor for this issue: Jody Huellmantel <jodylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. ocke bohn, Textbook/history of English
2. Lorena P�rez, Speech Act Dictionaries

I am looking for a textbook for a one-semester, 3-hour course on the
history of the English language. The course covers all apects of the
linguistic development of English (phonetics, phonology, morphology,
syntax, lexis, semantics, as well as the external history) from Old
English to Modern English, including presently observable changes. The
course is designed for fourth-semester students who have had a fairly
solid introduction to English linguistics. In previous years, we have
tried a variety of textbooks, but we found all of them less than
satisfactory ( including Goerlach's 1994 English translation of his
1974 book "The linguistic history of English"). We have also used
parts of Roger Lass' (1987) "The shape of English", which seems to be
out of print.

Any suggestions (with comments) will be welcome, and I will post
a summary if this questions turns out to be of general interest.

Ocke Bohn
Aarhus University

Dear linguists,

I am currently working on the formalization of speech acts in terms of
cognitive models.

Is there any one who could provide me with references on speech act
dictionaries? The only one that I have been able to find is
Wierzbicka's English Speech Act Verbs. A Semantic Dictionary.

Please send references to my personal e-mail address.
Of course, I will be happy to provide a summary of valuable responses
for the LIST.

Regards,

Lorena P�rez