The Departmental Book

In 2009 members of the Linguistics department produced the textbook, English Language: Description, Variation and Context. The second edition of this textbook was published in 2018, (under the editorship of Jonathan Culpeper, Paul Kerswill, Ruth Wodak, Anthony McEnery, Francis Katamba).

The second edition of this hugely successful textbook provides comprehensive coverage of a wide range of topics in theoretical and applied linguistics. Written by leading academics in the field, this text offers a firm grounding in linguistics and includes engaging insights into current research.

It covers all the key areas of linguistic analysis, including phonetics, morphology, semantics and pragmatics, and core domains of study, comprising the history of the English language, regional and social variation, style and communication and interaction. Fresh material on research methods outlines key areas for consideration when carrying out a research project, and provides students with the framework they need to investigate linguistic phenomena for themselves.

This is an invaluable resource for both undergraduate and postgraduate students on English Language and Linguistics degree programmes.

View the full details of the book from the publisher

Key features

  • 'Advances' boxes give readers an insight into the controversies and debates in that area
  • 'Illustration' boxes contain extended examples and analysis to consolidate students' understanding at every step
  • Written by lecturers from one of the world's centres of excellence for this subject

New to this edition

  • Seven new chapters covering topics such as second language acquisition, corpus linguistics and research methods
  • A number of chapters have been substantially revised, including those on World Englishes, Literacies in Cyberspace and TEFL, TESOL and Linguistics
  • Fully updated throughout to reflect the latest advances in the field
Book cover: English Language: Description, Variation and Context