Debating Dialect

Essays on the Philosophy of Dialect Study

Edited by Robert Penhallurick

Although dialectology is the oldest branch of modern linguistics, discussions of the philosophical underpinnings of its methodology and practice are rare. This collection provides a radical reassessment of the study of dialect in Britain and offers original perspectives on the subject from both inside and outside the discipline. The main concern of Debating Dialect is a thoroughgoing re-examination of the history, principal constructs and object of study of dialectology. It includes essays on the origins and meaning of Standard English, on the history of dialectology and on Chaucer’s use of dialect, as well as the first published discussion of the unexpected parallels between dialectology and deconstruction.

This ground-breaking book examines issues that tend to be taken for granted in those branches of linguistics concerned with regional variation in language. It tackles key precepts in dialectology and refines our understanding of the term ‘dialect’. Debating Dialect will complement existing introductory volumes on the subject, while at the same time presenting fresh and exciting perspectives on the field of dialect study in general.

‘No other collection has been bold enough to tackle the subject with such breadth and comprehensiveness before … It succeeds admirably in breaking down barriers and opening up new avenues for the study of varieties of English’ - Professor J. D. A. Widdowson (Director, National Centre for English Cultural Tradition, University of Sheffield)

Robert Penhallurick is Lecturer in English Language at the University of Wales Swansea as well as the curator of the Archive of Welsh English. He is the author of The Anglo-Welsh Dialects of North Wales (1991), Gowerland and its Language (1994), and many articles on dialect and dialectology.

Contents and Contributors

• Robert Penhallurick, Introduction
• Robert Penhallurick and Adrian Willmott, Dialect / "England’s Dreaming"
• Jeni Williams, Competing Spaces: Dialectology and the place of dialect in Chaucer’s ‘Reeve’s Tale’
• Clive Upton, Maintaining the Standard: A job for dialectologists
• Graham Shorrocks, Purpose, theory and method in English dialectology: Towards a more objective history of the discipline
• Robert Penhallurick and Graham Shorrocks, Theory, objectivity and the discipline: Further discussion
• Nicholas Royle, Dialectology and deconstruction
• Robert Penhallurick, On dialectology