*** FREE DELIVERY ON ALL UK ORDERS ***
The prodigal tongue

The prodigal tongue

: The love-hate relationship between British and American English

by M Lynne Murphy
7th March, 2019

£9.99 £9.99 Save 0% | Paperback


Qty

'The first and perhaps only book on the relative merits of American and British English that is dominated by facts and analysis rather than nationalistic prejudice. For all its scholarship, this is also a funny and rollicking read.'

The Economist, Books of the Year

 

Only an American would call autumn fall or refer to a perfectly good pavement as a sidewalk… Not so, says Lynne Murphy. The English invented sidewalk in the seventeenth century and in 1693 John Dryden wrote the line, 'Or how last fall he raised the weekly bills.'

Perhaps we don't know our own language quite as well as we thought.

Murphy, an American linguist in Britain, dissects the myths surrounding British and American English in a laugh-out-loud exploration of how language works and where it's going.

Lynne Murphy is a professor in linguistics at the University of Sussex. She blogs at separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com and tweets @lynneguist. A dual British/American citizen, she lives in Brighton.




Details & Specs

Author: M Lynne Murphy


Publisher: Oneworld


Format: Paperback


ISBN: 9781786074973


Publication Date: 7th March, 2019


Pages: 360


Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 26 mm


Notes: illustrations (black and white)


Availability: Available, usually dispatched within 4 days


Customer Reviews

There are currently no reviews for this book. Be the first to review by clicking below!


Review this book...
x
This website uses cookies. More info. Okay