Historical Sociolinguistics and Sociohistorical Linguistics

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Jane Austen (1775-1817)

source: Jane Austen Info Page

online resources

biography

Jane Austen's language

In her novels Jane Austen describes a small world of three or four country families, and her art of characterization is highly praised by critics. There are slight differences between her English and that of today. Phillipps (1970:11) notes that Part of the fascination of Jane Austen’s English is the way in which it differs, in slight and sometimes barely definable, but nevertheless unmistakable ways from our own”. According to Page, More than any earlier novelist, Richardson excepted, Jane Austen uses dialogue not as an occasional diversion but as a major resource for conducting the business of her fiction (1972:115).

correspondence

  •  Le Faye, Deirdre (ed.). 1995. Jane Austen’s Letters. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

language

  • Chapman, R. W. 1933. Miss Austen’s English. Appendix to Sense and Sensibility, 3rd ed. by the same author. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 388-421.

  • Hough, Graham. 1970. Narrative and Dialogue in Jane Austen. Critical Quarterly 12. 201-29.

  • Matsutani, Midori. 1990. Characterization in Mansfield Park: with Special Reference to Fanny Price. ERA (Biannual Publication of the English Research Association of Hiroshima, Department of English, Hiroshima University) New Series 8-1. 24-50.

  • Matsutani, Midori. 1991. Expanded Forms of Some Stative Verbs in Jane Austen’s NovelsERA (Biannual Publication of the English Research Association of Hiroshima, Department of English, Hiroshima University) New Series 9-1. 19-37.

  • Matsutani, Midori. 1992. Language and Irony in Jane Austen’s EmmaERA (Biannual Publication of the English Research Association of Hiroshima, Department of English, Hiroshima University) New Series 10-1. 25-37.

  • Matsutani, Midori. 1993. Jane Austen’s Use of Modal Auxiliaries: with Special Reference to Must and Can. In: Modern English Association (ed.), Aspects of Modern English (The 10th Anniversary Publication of Modern English Association of Japan). Tokyo: Eichosha. 548-60.

  • Matsutani, Midori. 1995. Jane Austen’s Use of Must in Combination with Other Auxiliaries. Hiroshima Studies in English Language and Literature (Annual Publication of the English Literary Association of Hiroshima University) 40. 20-28.

  • Matsutani, Midori. 1998. Expanded Forms in Jane Austen’s Novels: with Special Reference to Verbs of Mental Process. In: Masahiko Kannno, Gregory K. Jember, and Yoshiyuki Nakao (eds.), A Love of Words: English Philological Studies in Honour of Akira Wada. Tokyo: Eihōsha. 267-84.

  • Matsutani, Midori. 2001. Language Expressing Modality in Jane Austen’s Novels: With Special Reference to Auxiliaries and Adverbs. In: Yoshiyuki Nakao and Akiyuki Jimura (eds.), Originality and Adventure: Essays on English Language and Literature in Honour of Masahiko Kanno. Tokyo: Eihōsha. 145-58.

  • Page, Norman. 1972. The Language of Jane Austen. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

  • Page, Norman. 1986. Jane Austen’s Language. In: J. David Grey.(ed.) The Jane Austen Handbook. London: The Athlone Press. 261-70.

  • Phillipps, K. C. 1970. Jane Austen’s English. London: André Deutsch.

  • Raybould, Edith. 1957. Of Jane Austen’s Use of Expanded Verbal Forms. In: S. Korninger (ed.), Studies in English Language and Literature Presented to Professor K. Brunner. Vienna: Wilhelm Braumüller. 175-90.

  • Stokes, Myra. 1991. The Language of Jane Austen: A Study of Some Aspects of her Vocabulary. Basingstoke etc.: Macmillan