This chapter explores the challenge of teaching Homer and Vergil in the Roman Empire, focusing on the pleasures of fiction in epic poetry. Using the Phaeacian books of the Odyssey (6–13) and Carthaginian books of the Aeneid (1–4) as case studies, it shows how educators reckoned with the poetic seduction that threatened to derail heroic virtue and integrity. Drawing on philosophical critiques of these canonical poets, the chapter traces evolving responses to the nexus of “Phaeacian pleasures” in their episodes. In the second half, it analyzes how four educators – Plutarch, the anonymous author of the Essay on Homer, Tiberius Claudius Donatus, and Augustine – developed distinctive approaches to epic pleasure. While Plutarch disciplines poetic deception into a propaedeutic for philosophy, the Essay embraces Homeric fiction as a new pedagogy of pleasure. Donatus treats the Aeneid as rhetorical panegyric, while Augustine transforms the affective power of Aeneas and Dido into a new Christian grammar. Together, these authors reveal the centrality of epic pleasure to Imperial education and the divergent strategies by which students learned to navigate literary enchantment

This chapter provides a detailed description of the socio-historical background of English in Fiji, Samoa and the Cook Is lands discussing the spread of English from the first contact with English explorers and traders to the impact of English after political (semi-)independence. It further includes the first real-time study on language variation and change from the Cook Islands. Three Cook Island women of three generations were recorded twice within 10 years. Comparing intra- and inter-speaker variation in terms of lexis, grammar and accent features, the study shows differences between the three individuals, which opens up a debate on the role of the individual in language change and the future of L2 Englishes in the South Pacific. The chapter confirms that empirical diachronic research on English in the South Pacific yields insights into variety formation.

New Zealand English (NZE) is one of the most well-researched varieties of English in the world. This is largely due to the existence of several high-quality spoken corpora, including the Origins of New Zealand English (ONZE) corpus. This corpus has provided the foundation for work on new dialect formation, sociolinguistic variation and sound change. However, published descriptions of the emergence of NZ English are based on data from only a sub-set of speakers from the ONZE corpus. More recent work has begun to utilise data from the full ONZE corpus, and other spoken and written corpora of NZ English. This chapter will first provide an overview of the existing received wisdom on the development of New Zealand English, before focussing on several recent studies showing how much further we have now come in our understanding of the history and development of this variety.

It is also possible to investigate the morphology of the Minoan language—that is, its grammar and methods of word-formation—by studying Linear A. For example, many words in the script occur multiple times, but with different endings (suffixes) or beginnings (prefixes), thus yielding hints about the nature of Minoan grammar. Chapter 4 systematically addresses the morphology of Minoan through a refinement of a statistical method of analysis devised by David W. Packard in the 1970s. His method was designed to help determine the spoken values of some signs whose values were not yet known back then, whereas my refinement is designed to determine which syllabic signs are most likely to be indicating the presence of Minoan prefixes and suffixes at the beginnings and ends of words. This process isolates six signs—two very common at the beginnings of words, and four very common at the ends of them—that are highly likely to be grammatical prefixes and suffixes, including one suffix in particular that is highly likely to denote a genitive (showing possession), an ablative (showing origin), or a toponymic adjective (such as the “-ish” in “British,” again showing origin).

In its history, the phonology of Irish English went through a number of stages in which features arose and subsequently declined. Many of the traits to be seen in the textual record for early modern Irish English were lost by the nineteenth century, with others being retained, such as the incomplete long vowel shift and dentalisation of stops before R. The early twentieth century saw a change in supraregional Irish English given the endonormative reorientation which set in after independence in 1922. Language contact between Irish and English has been a consistent theme in Ireland’s history and has led to a prolonged language shift, which culminated in the accelerated switch in the mid nineteenth century with the vast majority of the population being native speakers of English by the onset of the twentieth century. The language shift also resulted in many instances of grammatical transfer from Irish to English, a small number of which remained emblematic of Irish English and have survived to this day.

This chapter focuses on the history of English speaking in Wales and on the character of Welsh English and its varieties. After a short examination of the terms ‘English in Wales’ and ‘Welsh English’, the chapter proceeds with an outline historical account of anglicisation in Wales considered in relation to topography and geology, and charting the geographical spread of English speaking and the growth of speaker numbers. This is followed by a brief survey of academic research on dialects of Welsh English from the earliest work at the end of the seventeenth century to the present day, and from shorter works on specific localities and features to national surveys. The chapter ends with a descriptive synopsis containing overviews of the phonology, grammar and lexis of Welsh Englis with a concise discussion of a selection of features from each level. Also included are previously unpublished linguistic maps from the archives of the Survey of Anglo-Welsh Dialects, prepared by the Survey’s director, David Parry.

This chapter analyses Wittgenstein’s notion of ‘form of life’ as his final model of context. It argues that the deliberate vagueness of this concept represents Wittgenstein’s attempt to avoid the metaphysical commitments involved in previous formal models while still providing tools for understanding context. This strategic formlessness contrasts with how the concept was later interpreted in anthropology.

This chapter analyses Wittgenstein’s transitional period and his shift from logical to linguistic models of context. Centred on his work in early 1930s and on his ‘Remarks on Frazer’s Golden Bough’, it shows how Wittgenstein moved from seeing context as singular logic to viewing it as multiple ‘logical spaces’ or ‘grammars’. This shift prefigures later anthropological moves away from formal systems while retaining some commitment to structure through language as model.

This chapter surveys the scholarship on linguistics in education and analyzes the status of linguistics in language education master’s programs. Using the National Center for Education Statistics’ Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) system to define the data field, we searched the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System for institutions conferring degrees between 2011-2020 for CIP code 13.14, the designation for master’s programs in Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. From this list, we analyzed available curricula for both MA/MS TESOL degree and MA/MS in elementary, secondary, or adult education language teacher training. Considering programs across 255 institutions, we analyzed linguistics courses as required, elective, or not present. Results reveal that linguistics is integrated at variable rates. Focusing on four core subdisciplines, TESOL fares better: Introductory linguistics was required 69% of the time, sociolinguistics 41.5%, syntax/grammar 53%, and second language acquisition (SLA) 70%. A more dismal picture appears for the other language education group: Introductory linguistics was required 6% of the time, sociolinguistics 6%, syntax/grammar 4%, and SLA 12%. This study demonstrates that language teachers require more robust linguistics education to better equip them for serving language learners’ needs.

Chapter 1 opens with a discussion of the foundational importance of classical education in Roman society and politics, and how it served as a basis for both office-holding and elite Roman identity and self-fashioning. The chapter also provides a prosopographical sketch of the teachers and students that are visible in the historical record from the fourth to early sixth centuries in Gaul, showing that identifiable teachers and students begin to fade from the sources from the later-fifth and early-sixth centuries. It discusses the marked shift in the visibility of these individuals, the changing nature of our sources for education throughout the period, the limitations of our sources, and what we can learn from those limitations. The chapter argues that, while classical education largely disappears from the historical record by the early sixth century, this by no means indicates that classical education ceased to exist entirely. Rather, it shows that classical education was no longer a ‘public’ institution as it had been under the Roman empire, and that it did not occupy that specific place within politics, society, and culture that allowed it to be visible and take a prominent place in the technical and literary texts of the period.

The introduction sets out the approaches, sources, and scope of the book. It acquaints the reader with the main features of classical education and places the book within the modern historiography.

This chapter presents a portrait of study and teaching at the Faculty of Arts in Paris during the first half-century of the university's existence: from enrolment under a master to obtaining a licence, entering the corporation of the Magistri Artium and, eventually, enrolment in one of the higher faculties (theology, canon law or medicine).

This chapter discusses the work of twelfth-century theologians in Paris who laid the foundations for the development of theology as a discipline in the university. These thinkers explored the characteristics and limits of the discourse on God in theological treatises and summae, which employed increasingly sophisticated technical terminology drawn in part from grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

This chapter traces the development of a number of Trinitarian issues throughout the second half of the twelfth century - the classification of theological language, the debate about why we can say 'God begot God' but not 'essence begot essence', and the definition of the personal properties - and show how they shape Lateran IV and continue thereafter. Finally, the chapter indicates some new approaches and areas of focus among theologians writing after the council.

This chapter is about the development of human language, one of the more distinctive traits of the human species. In the first two sections, we present some reflections about the nature of human language and the theories that have aimed to explain their acquisition in children to date. The core of the chapter focuses on a thorough description of the course of language development in children and adolescents according to their four most prominent aspects: phonology, semantics, grammar, and pragmatics. Finally, we present a section on atypical language development (in children with hearing, visual or intellectual impairment, and children with specific language impairment), and another section devoted to bilingualism and second-language learning.