This chapter is intended for readers who have not had any experience of linguistics and provides the necessary background for studying the history of English. It introduces the nature and structure of language in general, but with an emphasis on English. There are sections on phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, lexis, semantics, and pragmatics. The terminology required for the study of language is defined and explained throughout. To illustrate historical change in English, the chapter concludes with the comparison and discussion of extracts from translations of the Bible going back from the twentieth to the eleventh centuries.

Changes in social structure often lead to mobility and migration. Urbanisation is one important outcome of mobility and migration. Mobility, migration and urbanisation lead to dialect contact, that is, between speakers of mutually intelligible varieties. This chapter first introduces general concepts such as diffusion and supralocalisation, and then moves on to discuss sociolinguistic models developed for the analysis of dialect contact, including the theories of koineisation and new-dialect formation, based on principles such as accommodation and salience. Case studies are taken from medieval Spain, Early Modern New Mexico and twentieth-century Norway. The chapter also addresses the role of new speakers in contact situations, based on an example from sixteenth-century Tuscany, and ends with a short discussion of sociolinguistic typology.

A detailed commentary which covers matters of literary and historical interest in book VII in the context of Herodotos’ History as a whole. Issues treated include style, dialect, language, text (where necessary), political, religious and social history, both Greek and Persian, prosopography, ethnicity and geography.

Different texts have different characteristics. In this chapter, we first explore the concepts of register, genre and style, which are, in the tradition of Biber, linked to communicative functions and situational characteristics. The co-occurrence of register features and dimensions are introduced as the linguistic indicators of communicative functions. A particularly useful approach to register centres around keyness, which we demonstrate with historical Portuguese data. We then introduce discourse traditions as a historical-linguistic concept closely related to genre and register. We use French literary examples to explain stylistic differences and the link with the Labovian distinction between indicators, markers and stereotypes. This leads to a discussion of indexicality and indexical fields more generally, for which we draw on ancient Greek plays. The chapter continues the discussion of the literary representation of language variation on the basis of English texts comprising dialect, and explains the important concept of enregisterment.

This chapter discusses the various rights (‘privileges and immunities’) that allow a party to resist compulsory demands for information, both in and out of court. Privileges have a long history in the common law, with some departure from traditional privilege rules arising in statutory formulations. Privilege is a ‘bar to compulsory process for the obtaining of evidence rather than a rule of inadmissibility’. However, a successful claim of privilege will result in the exclusion of evidence, derogating from the general principle that all relevant evidence should be admitted.

The common law’s stance on privilege and the consequent restriction on access to evidence are reflected to a large extent in the Uniform evidence Acts. Nonetheless, the categories of privilege have expanded under the legislation and, inevitably, anomalies have arisen between the two branches.

Probably the most significant development in law relating to privilege is the appearance of compulsory production of information arising under legislation linked to the examination powers of certain government authorities.

This chapter explains the sections of the Act and the principles of common law concerning identification evidence. The Act addresses identification evidence in Part 3.9 (ss 113–16), which only applies in criminal proceedings. Identification evidence is evidence used to prove the identity of a defendant in a criminal proceeding, as part of the case against that person. For example, there may be no dispute that a crime occurred, but the defence position at trial is that the defendant was not the offender. The prosecution will have to prove with identification evidence that the defendant was the same person as the offender.

There are three main forms of identification evidence: visual, picture and voice identification. Visual and picture identification are dealt with in detail in the Act, but voice identification is not, despite falling within the scope of ‘identification evidence’ as defined in the Act’s Dictionary. Also not dealt with as identification evidence in the Act is evidence used to establish the identity of someone other than a criminal defendant (e.g. a victim), any party in a civil proceeding or an object.

This chapter discusses standardisation as a major factor in sociolinguistic history. After a brief dicussion of basic concepts such as diglossia, Ausbau, Abstand and diaglossia, we introduce the Haugen model, including the key concepts of selection, codification, elaboration and acceptance. We go on to argue that the later introduced concept of implementation is crucial in analyses of the interaction of norms and language use in the language community. Focusing on this interaction, and based on case studies from English and Dutch, three scenarios are distinguished: prescriptive influence, prescriptive delay and concurrent prescriptivism. The chapter ends by situating the interaction of norms and usage into the wider framework of the total linguistic fact as developed by Silverstein.

The final chapter of this text provides extended questions designed to test students understanding and knowledge of evidence law as a whole. Each question combines multiple elements of the Uniform Evidence Act (1995) to ensure students understand how sections work together.