Opening Windows on Texts and Discourses of the Past.

The 22 essays in the second volume produced by the Discourse Perspectives on Early English research group, based in Turku, Finland, are revised from presentations to an August 2002 conference held there. Linguists contribute to the emerging field of historical discourse and pragmatic studies by examining how language and the texts they comprise relate to their historical contexts. Though most are concerned with English, others analyze Latin, French, Spanish, and Irish. The general themes are discourse in the public sphere, science and academia, letters and literature, discourse and pragmatics, and language contact and discourse. The temporal range extends from the Middles Ages to the present. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR