Images Of English

Images of English demonstrates how opinions of the English language reflect prejudice and hope, bigotry and pride, scorn and celebration. Richard Bailey examines the attitudes of authors, critics, and commentators toward the English language and shows how their comments offer insight into the social conditions of their times. Images of English is the first attempt to focus exclusively on beliefs about English as a reflection of society itself- some of which tout the language as nearly perfect while others signal its imminent decline. -- Back cover.

Annotation The three pocketbooks comprising the 'English Through Pictures Series' are the remarkable invention of I A Richards and Christine Gibson, who designed them to help the learner speak, read and write English in the quickest and clearest possible way -- through pictures. The authors have made a careful selection of the most widely useful English words, choosing those with the power to define other words, and have put them to work in key patterns that offer the learner the ability to communicate successfully in English. Book 1 contains a vocabulary of 250 such words, with an additional 500 developed in Book 2; these 750 words are then used in Book 3 to build a command of 1000 words which, by their defining power, hold the possibility of understanding as much as another 20,000 words of English. Throughout 'English Through Pictures', responsibility for learning is placed directly on the learner, who from the very start enjoys the ability to put essential words to work creating key sentence patterns where meaning is clearly shown in pictures. These simplified drawings allow learners to focus on the sentence and to enjoy growing confidence as they successfully take control of language, with the workbooks in Books 1 and 2 challenging and reinforcing their growing competence as both speakers and readers. Motivated and inspired, learners will soon find to their delight that fluent communication in English -- the common language of today's world -- lies well within their grasp. 'English Through Pictures' has already been used successfully by millions of learners in over forty countries.

An exploration of the use of images in Middle English texts, tracing out what can be deduced of a theory of language.

The function of images in the major illustrated English poetic works from the Anglo-Saxon period to the early fifteenth century is the primary concern of this book. Hilmo argues that the illustrations have not been sufficiently understood because modern judgments about their artistic merit and fidelity to the literary texts have got in the way of a historical understanding of their function. The author here proves that artists took their work seriously because images represented an invisible order of reality, that they were familiar with the vernacular poems, and that they were innovative in adapting existing iconographies to guide the ethical reading process of their audience. To provide a theoretical basis for the understanding of early monuments, artefacts, and texts, she examines patristic opinions on image-making, supported by the most authoritative modern sources. Fresh emphasis is given to the iconic nature of medieval images from the time of the iconoclastic debates of the 8th and 9th centuries to the renewed anxiety of image-making at the time of the Lollard attacks on images. She offers an important revision of the reading of the Ruthwell Cross, which changes radically the interpretation of the Cross as a whole. Among the manuscripts examined here are the Caedmon, Auchinleck, Vernon, and Pearl manuscripts. Hilmo's thesis is not confined to overtly religious texts and images, but deals also with historical writing, such as Layamon's Brut, and with poetry designed ostensibly for entertainment, such as the Canterbury Tales. This study convincingly demonstrates how the visual and the verbal interactively manifest the real "text" of each illustrated literary work. The artistic elements place vernacular works within a larger iconographic framework in which human composition is seen to relate to the activities of the divine Author and Artificer.Whether iconic or anti-iconic in stance, images, by their nature, were a potent means of influencing the way an English author's words, accessible in the vernacular, were thought about and understood within the context of the theology of the Incarnation that informed them and governed their aesthetic of spiritual function. This is the first study to cover the range of illustrated English poems from the Anglo-Saxon period to the early 15th century.

Bringing together memory theory, medieval cognition of images, and the English Corpus Christ drama in an innovative way, this study argues that the relationship of frames or backgrounds to the image has been misunderstood in the study of drama.

Images Book I of the Building English Vocabulary series guides students through Latin prefixes, the alphabetical gamut from ab - and - ad - to - tri - unus - and vice, the building blocks of words from abhor and admonish - to triumvirate, unison, and viceroy. A student will discover that from just one prefix spring a variety of new words that in time yield an exponential growth in his knowledge of English. From cumulative review tests throughout the book, a student can gauge his success in mastering challenging vocabulary.

Images Book II of the Building English Vocabulary series guides students through Latin roots, the alphabetical gamut from ac - and - alti - to miss - and - mob, the building blocks of words from acerbity and altitude - to emissary and mobilize. A student will discover that from just one root spring a variety of new words that in time yield an exponential growth in his knowledge of English. From cumulative review tests throughout the book, a student can gauge his success in mastering challenging vocabulary.

Images Book III of the Building English Vocabulary series guides students halfway through Latin roots, the alphabetical gamut from mon - and - mut - to - viv - and - volv, the building blocks of words from admonish and permutation - to convivial and devolve. A student will discover that from just one root spring a variety of new words that in time yield an exponential growth in his knowledge of English. From cumulative review tests throughout the book, a student can gauge his success in mastering challenging vocabulary.