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David Crystal (1) (1941–)

Autor(a) de The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language

Para outros autores com o nome David Crystal, ver a página de desambiguação.

104+ Works 12,804 Membros 180 Críticas 2 Favorited

About the Author

David Crystal is Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor.

Obras por David Crystal

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (1995) — Autor — 1,415 exemplares
The Stories of English (2004) 1,294 exemplares
How Language Works (2006) 911 exemplares
A Little Book of Language (2010) 492 exemplares
The Story of English in 100 Words (2011) 415 exemplares
The Cambridge Factfinder (1993) 311 exemplares
English as a Global Language (1997) 264 exemplares
By Hook or By Crook (2007) 262 exemplares
The Shakespeare Miscellany (2005) 239 exemplares
Language Death (2000) 238 exemplares
The Penguin Encyclopedia (2003) 218 exemplares
Linguistics (1971) 196 exemplares
Rediscover Grammar (1988) 181 exemplares
Words Words Words (2006) 179 exemplares
The Cambridge Encyclopedia (1990) — Editor — 167 exemplares
Txtng: The Gr8 Db8 (2008) 152 exemplares
Language and the Internet (2001) 140 exemplares
Language Play (1998) 117 exemplares
As They Say in Zanzibar (2006) 87 exemplares
Who Cares About English Usage? (1984) 52 exemplares
Making Sense of Grammar (2004) 46 exemplares
Discover Grammar (1996) 33 exemplares
The New Penguin Factfinder (2003) 32 exemplares
A Dictionary of Language (2001) 29 exemplares
Barnes and Noble Encyclopedia (1993) 15 exemplares
What is Linguistics? (1968) 14 exemplares
The Penguin Pocket Book of Facts (1882) 14 exemplares
The New Penguin Encyclopedia (2002) 11 exemplares
Clinical Linguistics (1981) 9 exemplares
Grammatical Analysis of Language Disability (1976) — Autor — 9 exemplares
Nineties Knowledge (1992) 6 exemplares
Profiling Linguistic Disability (1992) 5 exemplares
Famous People (Penguin Pocket) (2006) 4 exemplares
Working with LARSP (1979) 3 exemplares
Languages after Brexit : How the UK Speaks to the World (2018) — Contribuidor — 3 exemplares
Making sense of English usage (1991) 3 exemplares
Advanced conversational English (1975) 3 exemplares
On This Day (Penguin Pocket) (2006) 2 exemplares
The Encyclopedia Codes (2020) 1 exemplar
Patología del lenguaje (1989) 1 exemplar
Language A to Z (1991) 1 exemplar

Associated Works

A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1926) — Editor, algumas edições3,038 exemplares
Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World (2012) — Prefácio, algumas edições139 exemplares
What’s Language Got to Do with It? (2005) — Contribuidor — 51 exemplares
Dr Johnson's Dictionary (2005) — Editor — 45 exemplares
Eric Partridge in His Own Words (1939) — Editor — 36 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome canónico
Crystal, David
Nome legal
Crystal, David
Data de nascimento
1941-07-06
Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
UK
Local de nascimento
Lisburn, Northern Ireland, UK
Locais de residência
Holyhead, North Wales, UK
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK
Educação
St. Mary's College
University College London (BA|1962|Ph.D)
Ocupações
linguist
academic
lecturer
broadcaster
Relações
Crystal, Ben (son)
Organizações
University College, Bangor
University of Reading
Crystal Reference Systems Limited
Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading
Society of Indexers
Prémios e menções honrosas
Officer, Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (1995)
Fellow, British Academy (2000)
Founding Fellow, Learned Society of Wales (2010)
Honorary Fellow, Chartered Institute of Linguists
Fellow, Royal College of Speech and Language

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David Crystal is one of the world's pre-eminent language specialists.  An honorary professor at Bangor University, he has published many books on the English language and linguistics, edited several general encyclopedia and written textbooks on language for use in schools.  He is a regular contributor to radio and television programs.  He lives in Holyhead, Wales.  [adapted from A Little Book of Language (2010)]

Membros

Críticas

An unexpected defense of texting from David Crystal, who has enjoyed with a long, fruitful and distinguished career in linguistics--his Shakespeare's Words (New York: Penguin, 2002) is a staple in my personal and classroom libraries . This is basically a scholarly paper arguing that texting is in fact a path toward greater literacy and not a collective slide into functional illiteracy. Mr. Crystal marshals impressive evidence to support his argument, and at least some of it struck me, as superfluous. My primary reservation about this book is the edition, which, at least in the trade paperback edition I have, is shoddily designed and reproduced.… (mais)
 
Assinalado
Mark_Feltskog | 8 outras críticas | Dec 23, 2023 |
Information on a language spoken most of our lives, knew some not all, informative and engaging read. Narrator is author and adds to the interest in the subject. Recommended for those who love knowing more and saying it better.
 
Assinalado
C.L.Barnett | 28 outras críticas | Dec 1, 2023 |
"The Stories of English" is a necessary, dense, well-researched volume by an expert who clearly has a true passion for the language and its variations. However, it has some clear advantages and some very clear flaws. (I'm fully aware that it's a bit bathetic of me to dismiss any writing but this most wonderful of linguists, however I adore all of his other books!)

Crystal's mandate is clever and clear: provide a history of the evolution of the English language, with a particular eye to studying "non-standard English" in all its varieties. Changes to the language - be they merely regional slang, or international pidgin dialects - are too often forgotten, due to the fact that they rarely appear in surviving print documents, and Crystal wants to lift a light on the subject. We begin with a thorough examination of the growth of Early English, brought together by French, Latin, Anglo, Danish, and so on. Using extensive contemporary texts, Crystal analyses the development of the language, asking such questions as: why do some "loan words" overtake others?; why do some variations remain?; who has the right to decide which language is 'correct'?; and so on, and so forth. Gradually, he moves through Middle English, and into the Modern aspects of the language. Along the way, Crystal continues to provide lengthy excerpts from documents, and finds examples of how the 'non-standard' parts of the language arose, remained, and were treated by those on the 'right side' of English.

There are two particularly notable strengths to the book. The first is Crystal's true passion, which allows him to introduce a variety of texts from centuries ago, and make us feel intrigued by them. The second is his desire to expose the fallacies of those who believe English has exact rules, and should remain within its confines. From the earliest surviving texts, he finds examples of whiners - whether it be those who believe no French or Latin words should be included, or those who are terrified of ending sentences with prepositions - and explains where these mistaken beliefs came from. Crystal doesn't write everything off (he understands, after all, where they come from), but strives to show that strictness for strictness' sake is ridiculous.

However, the book is far from perfect. First of all, despite the claims in the blurb, Crystal's style is often dry and academic. Fair enough, this was never going to be "Gone with the Wind". But particularly in the early chapters, when the subject is six-hundred-year old manuscripts, and the variations of individual letters, it would've been promising to have a slightly more witty tour guide. And, while the first two-thirds of the story are comprehensive, the final third largely covers UK-specific English. There is one fascinating if dry chapter on the development of English throughout the world, but it's quite limited. Again, I understand the need for this, and it actually helps support Crystal's argument that much non-standard English, both on a historical and on a global standpoint, is under-researched, but - to a non-UK reader - things did become a bit specific toward the end.

Crystal has one other adorable but infuriating quirk. He's inclined to make witty - or at least clever - jokes and puns without prior explanation. On several occasions, however, the explanation is so obscure that he's forced to provide an endnote to his explanation of his own witticism. In these cases, he really could've done with just setting up the joke in the main body of the text, as I'd imagine most readers would have had to utilise these endnotes often!

All in all, I'm glad to have read this book. I picked up a lot of fascinating new information, and many of the excerpts were utterly astounding in what they exposed about the lives of our ancestors. At the same time, it never quite found the perfect balance between "popular science" and academia.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
therebelprince | 17 outras críticas | Oct 24, 2023 |
Very clever. Crystal uses each word as a starting point for a brief discussion on the ways our language has changed and developed over the centuries, reminding us all of the idiocy of such movements as "language reform", and of the joy we should feel every time we piece together a sentence. We're not just using a language. We're working with a breathing mass of orphans, stragglers, immigrants, and naturalised citizens from so many languages and cultures, now working together in an often unstable and cacophonic new world. And I love it.… (mais)
 
Assinalado
therebelprince | 28 outras críticas | Oct 24, 2023 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
104
Also by
7
Membros
12,804
Popularidade
#1,832
Avaliação
3.9
Críticas
180
ISBN
450
Línguas
11
Marcado como favorito
2

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