A calculated use of language for deliberate stylistic effects, intended to distinguish epic diction from contemporary speech, characterised formal Latin poetry from the very beginning. This review of early epic language aims to explore the main sources, mechanisms and effects of these first experiments in the creation of a Latin epic style. It is a fact that the epic poets’ record of achievement is obscured by its survival in merely fragmentary form, by the close congruence of epic and tragic styles, and by our own uncertainty about the relative popularity of those two genres and their contemporary influence. Consequently, this study deals less with specifics of epic language than with the process that generated it, as poets experimented with archaisms, calques and neologisms, built upon the practice of their Greek models, and responded to the example of their Latin compatriots. In striving to develop a style worthy of epic, they brought to the task the same confident, competitive spirit that typified all their endeavours, building consciously on the achievement of their predecessors, and in the process leaving something of great value to a wide range of successors.

Cato the Censor is commonly accepted as both the founder of Latin prose and as an outspoken critic of everything Greek. The relationship between these two roles is one that deserves more investigation than it has received, especially in the area of his actual linguistic usage as opposed to his (largely reconstructed) ideology: recent studies have been longer on the latter than on his Latin words and syntax and the way they may have been influenced by the Greek language. Such studies as there are of Greek influence on Catos surviving Latin are few and old, and none are in English. This century’s significant advances in our knowledge of the interaction between Latin and Greek, as well as new editions of Cato, will be taken into account in this proposed study through a reassessment of Catos Latin with respect to his use of Greek-based vocabulary (whether introduced into Latin by him or not) as well as on the possible influence of Greek phonology, morphology and syntax. Conversely, evidence of Catos avoidance of Greek (or shared) elements already in use in Latin will also be examined.

This chapter provides a brief, non-technical introduction to the strictly linguistic aspects of the evolution of World Englishes: the reasons for the fact that New Englishes have developed distinctive forms of their own, and the processes that have brought these new properties about. These speech forms and habits are shown to be products of language contact situations, with features of indigenous languages taken over into local forms of English, and an interplay of language-internal (such as effects of cognition, tendencies towards simplicity, regularity, or assigning a functional load to language forms) and extralinguistic factors (including demographic proportions, power relationships, prestige and social attitudes and identities). Secondly, it is shown that World Englishes share not only such evolutionary trajectories but also specific forms and features on the levels of vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar (such as reduced or modified vowel and sound systems, semantic shifting and typical word-formation processes, or characteristic grammatical innovations, often starting out at the interface between lexis and grammar). All linguistic forms brought into a contact situation constitute a "pool" of linguistic options, of which some then are successfully selected to become elements of a newly-emerging dialect of English.

looks at the part emoji play in interpersonal communication. One of the aims behind their initial development was to provide a way to express those things that gestures, facial expressions, and tone of voice do in face-to-face conversation but that get lost in written communication. Emoji were seen as a way of diminishing the possibility of accidental conflict by signalling the emotional frame in which a message was meant. But they also allow for a great deal of ambiguity, and as their popularity has grown they’ve started to be used in an increasingly broad range of contexts. The chapter considers what it’s appropriate to express via emoji (and who makes these decisions). Is it deemed appropriate to use them to break up with someone? Or to send condolences about the death of a loved one? Drawing on discussions of their use by legal and political commentators, the chapter looks at how emoji have been used as evidence in legal cases and co-opted into the world of politics - so that, despite their seemingly frivolous and light-hearted roots, they’re now at the front line of debates about everything from the alt-right to post-truth politics.