title: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language
author:  David Crystal 
description: Crystal, an author, lecturer, and BBC broadcaster on language, here approaches English with the same combination of scholarly seriousness and inviting visual presentation that made his Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (LJ 5/1/88) so successful. This large, lively, and lavishly illustrated volume is divided into six broad topics that cover the English language's history, vocabulary, grammar, writing and speech systems, usage, and acquisition. Within these major topics, the book is divided into logical subtopics and finally into the basic unit of the text-the two-page spread. Nearly every individual subject is treated without turning a page, and how these pages are packed! The clear and spirited text is stunning, enhanced with over 500 illustrations, making this a particularly rich reference work and a browser's dream. The history part consists of chronological chapters that trace the language's development. It offers a fascinating treatment of the growth of English during Shakespeare's time as well as its adaptation to the needs of international trade and late 20th-century technology. Crystal is attuned to the diversity of English usage around the world, providing a variety of wide-ranging quotations, photographs, newspaper clippings, poems, ads, and cartoons. The text treats controversial topics such as black English, word and place origins, regional English, dialect, the U.S. movement to make English the official language, politically correct language, and the future. The book's layout, three indexes, and glossary will make it useful both at the reference desk and in the circulating collection. Crystal has created an attractive and readable work for the lay reader as well as the specialist. For most academic, public, and school libraries.<br /><i>Paul D'Alessandro, Portland P.L., Me.</i><br />Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text: David Crystal & Ben Crystal
   
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  A Glossary and Language Companion
  With Preface by Stanley Wells
  
  Contents
  Preface
  Introduction
  Abbreviations, Symbols, and Conventions
  Text Abbreviations
  Frequently Encountered Words (FEW)
  A–Z GLOSSARY
  Shakespearian Circles, Synopses, and Dramatis Personae
  Text Chronology
  List of Glossary Panels
  List of Characters’ Names
  Appendices
  List of Appendices
  I–VI Beings
  VII Times
  VIII–X Places
  XI–XVI Languages and Dialects
  
  Acknowledgements
  Follow Penguin
  
  ABOUT THE AUTHORS
  David Crystal was born in 1941 and spent the early
  years of his life in Holyhead, North Wales. He went to
  St Mary’s College, Liverpool, and University College
  London, where he read English and obtained his
  Ph.D. in 1966. He became a lecturer in linguistics at
  University College, Bangor, and from 1965 to 1985
  was at the University of Reading, where he was
  Professor of Linguistic Science. He is Honorary
  Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales,
  Bangor, and a past pr