Essays on Language

[inkd]

Hello, everyone! Does anyone know of any anthologies featuring essays by authors (Anglophone or otherwise) on language? (E.g., Orwell's "Politics and the English Language", Morrison's Nobel Prize Speech, Baldwin's "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then What Is?") If not, do you all know of any essays of a similar nature? They can (but do not have to) be about a particular language, or they can be extended ruminations on the nature of language itself and its use in writing. Thanks in advance!

[bookowskee]

Try these authors: William H. Gass, Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jorge Luis Borges.

[inkd]

Thanks. Any suggestions for particular pieces?

[bookowskee]

Any suggestions for particular pieces?

Please do your homework :)

[inkd]

I am. The process of collecting such pieces is tedious and piecemeal due to their rarity (in comparison especially to other works by the author). Furthermore, they are often not well-known or are available only alongside other writings (as in an anthology). Google searches avail little in the way of writings concerned particularly with language, and, given that these forums comprise readers of a diverse array of literature, I presume that at least some of them are familiar with—or have encountered—what I seek. Thanks, again.

[cacian]

I am. The process of collecting such pieces is tedious and piecemeal due to their rarity (in comparison especially to other works by the author). Furthermore, they are often not well-known or are available only alongside other writings (as in an anthology). Google searches avail little in the way of writings concerned particularly with language, and, given that these forums comprise readers of a diverse array of literature, I presume that at least some of them are familiar with—or have encountered—what I seek. Thanks, again.

what do you mean by essays on language?
I would have thought any decent written book is an study of how language functions.
literature is a reflection on sociolinguistics and how it appear to change from one book to the next.
take Joyce and then Dickens. there are an array of differences in both styles.
are you looking to study sociolinguisitics?