David Crystal

A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics

This second edition is throughly revised and corrected to take account of the many changes in the subject over the last 6 years, and has been enlarged by over 20per cent.

Towards a ‘bucket’ theory of language disability: Taking account of interaction between linguistic levels

Models of language which recognize a series of levels are commonplace in clinical language studies, but less attention has been paid to how they interact, and the effect these interactions have on the linguistic performance of language handicapped people. Several relevant studies which seem to demonstrate the existence of restricted linguistic processing capacity are reviewed, from which it is concluded that there are a number of types of interaction which have not been sufficiently considered. A sample of spontaneous speech from a language-delayed child of 4;7 illustrates the effects of four of these interactions (syntax/non-segmental phonology, segmental phonology/other levels, syntax/semantics, pragmatics/other levels). It is concluded that there is a need for detailed description of the error-patterns of language-handicapped people, with particular reference to prosodic factors (especially those entering into the definition of fluency) to determine which kinds of interaction are most in evidence. A mo...

Two thousand million

Updates on the statistics of English. Starting with excerpt from David Crystal, How many millions use English? ( ET 1, 1985). The author says: Reading this article again, that almost a quarter of a century on, the most noticeable change, it seems to me, has been in the amount and colour of the authors hair! That aside, I am struck by my final comment: ‘I shall stay with this figure for a while’ – a billion. It appears I stayed with it for a decade. In the first edition of my English as a Global Language (1997: 61) I raised my estimate, suggesting a middle-of-the-road figure of 1,350 million. In the second edition (2003: 69), a ‘cautious temperament’, I said, would suggest 1,500 million. And these days, having read the more sophisticated assessments by David Graddol and others, I am prepared to revise upwards again in the direction of 2 billion. In short, we have moved in 25 years from a fifth to a quarter to a third of the worlds population being speakers of English.

The future of Englishes

Does an increasing awareness of the sheer international variety in the English language complex necessitate a new pedagogy for a new century?

How Many Millions? The Statistics of English Today

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth – the first, that is, from 1558 to 1603 – the number of English speakers in the world is thought to have been between 5 and 7 million. At the beginning of the reign of the second Queen Elizabeth in 1952, the figure had increased almost fiftyfold. In 1962, Randolph Quirk estimated in The Use of English that 250 millions had English as a mother tongue, with a further 100 million using it as a second or foreign language.

Specification and English tenses

The adverbials, as far as I am aware, have never been systematically considered in relation to English verbal description and definition, most traditional text-books resolving the relationship in terms of a vaguely-defined notional ‘modification’. Scholars have of course noted the existence of regular formal co-occurrences between temporal adverbials and tense-forms, but this has been only for the most obvious cases, and there has been no general, empirical study of all the mutual restrictions and formally definable correlations in English. For example, Jespersen (1933) introduces adverbials into some sections of his description of English tenses (e.g. 23.43) but omits them from others (e.g. 23.41 or 23.54) where one could suggest a comparable relevance, and in many sections (e.g. 23.63–23.67) gives only a partial picture of the total number of possible relationships. Again, Ward (1954:44) notes the frequency of adverbials with ‘past ordinary’ tenses, but gives only a few examples, and then lists ‘exceptions’ with no apparent order. Adverbials with other tense-forms are given little mention, and are in any case given a different orientation, which makes it difficult to compare the sets of information. This approach seems typical of that found in most teaching handbooks on the subject: one could instance Zandvoort (1957: 58–63), who gives adverbials only incidental mention in his description of present, past and perfect tenses, despite the fact that the majority of his examples involve their obligatory use. However, Ota (1963) has studied in more detail correlations between verb forms and certain adverbs of particular semantic classes in English; and Osman (1964: 28–106) has recently given adverb-tense relationship a great deal of prominence in his exposition of English tenses; but the scope of his handbook does not allow a sufficiently detailed treatment to show the full range and complexity of the situation. (Cf. also Hornby, 1954: Part 2.)

Language play and linguistic intervention

Language play is a normal and frequent part of adult and child behav iour. This paper characterizes the phenomenon of language play in adults, examines the ways in which children make use of it, suggests developmental stages, and discusses its relation to linguistic and meta linguistic awareness. Its importance in child development is emphasized, and points of connection with issues in language pathology and the teaching of reading are explored. The paper suggests that a focus on language play can help to bridge the gap between the world of the home/playground and that of the clinic/classroom.

Sense: the final frontier

Despite its central role within language disability, ‘sense’ remains one of the most neglected areas of clinical linguistic study. The paper reviews the chief theoretical issues involved in investigating vocabulary, the core domain of sense, and illustrates the vagueness and randomness which traditionally characterize its study. The implications of making the conceptual jump from WORDS to LEXICAL ITEMS (LEXEMES) are discussed, and the main features of a lexical syllabus outlined, with particular reference to the role of sense relations and the unsatisfactory state of dictionary definitions in books aimed at children.

The case of Linguistics: a prognosis

This paper presents a discussion of the role of linguistics in relation to the study and treatment of linguistic disorders. An empirical, a methodological, and a theoretical contribution are distinguished, and illustrated from recent research. Particular attention is paid to the complexity of sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic factors affecting language study, to the development of fresh techniques of analysis, and to the need to be aware of the kind of problems which impede the analysis and description of language structures and functions. There follows a review of the main limitations of linguistics in its relationship with speech therapy; and the paper concludes with a brief summary of the present state of the art from the viewpoint of the goals outlined at the beginning of the discussion. The main theme is that the primary relevance of linguistics is as an aid in the development of a more explicitly principled therapy.

Teaching vocabulary: the case for a semantic curriculum:

The paper addresses the question of how vocabulary can be systematically taught to language-handicapped children. Little statistical information about vocabulary development is available, though what there is suggests that traditional frequency norms are in need of revision. It is essential to replace the traditional emphasis on frequency by an approach which analyses the quality, range, and internal structure of vocabulary, using the notions of semantic fields, sense relations, and semantic features. The importance of dictionary-type definitions in the teaching process is emphasized. A procedure for working with vocabulary using these notions is outlined, and recommendations are made about the importance of developing a semantic curriculum.