This Very Short Introduction deals with the social life of language, presenting a succinct account of the most important aspects - both "micro" and "macro" - of

How many languages are there? What differentiates one language from another? Are new languages still being discovered? Why are so many languages disappearing? T

John C. Maher explains why societies everywhere have become more multilingual, despite the disappearance of hundreds of the world languages. He considers our no

The English language is a subject of fascination for many people and is frequently the subject of lively debate in the media. In this book, Simon Horobin consid