Robert McColl Millar examines how language has been used in Scotland since the earliest times. While primarily focusing on the histories of the speakers of Scots and Gaelic, and their competition with the encroaching use of (Scottish) Standard English, he also traces the decline and eventual 'death' of Pictish, British and Norn.
Allows students to develop a deeper understanding of both sociolinguistics and historical linguistics. This textbook discusses both the central variationist tendencies present in language change and the macrosociolinguistic forces which act upon all speakers and their language.
The textbook explores the interaction between different languages and their mutual influences in both modern and historical contexts. Each theme is accompanied by detailed case studies that provide real-world examples, while key concepts are clearly defined for better understanding. Additionally, end-of-chapter exercises and research tasks are designed to promote independent learning, making it a comprehensive resource for those interested in language contact and its implications.
This book provides a thorough yet approachable history of the Scots language, a close relative of Standard English. Robert McColl Millar explores both sociolinguistic and structural developments in the history of Scots, bringing together these two threads of analysis to offer a better understanding of linguistic change.
Much has been written on dialect formation through contact between dialects of the same language, but the question of what happens when closely related but linguistically discrete varieties come into contact with each other has largely been neglected. Here Robert McColl Millar sets out to redress this imbalance.
This book, first published in 1992, presents a detailed, informed and informative account of research, theory and practice in interviewing. As a single source for practitioners, it focuses on the professional practice of interviewing as a strategy for achieving specific objectives. As well as providing reviews of recent research in interviewing, it includes practical examples of interviewing in many different contexts. The authors, all of whom have wide experience of interviewing, draw on a wealth of information and insight acquired during their work. They examine the definitions and purposes of interviewing and then describe the main settings within which it takes place - counselling, selection, research, medical and appraisal. Taking a social interactional model of interviewing, they discuss the main components of the activity: person perception; interviewer goals; interview structures and stages; effective interviewing skills; and the interviewee's perspective on the interview process. Examples are used to illustrate particular issues and to highlight their relevance to practice. The authors also consider important ethical and professional problems which may crucially affect the practice of interviewing. This book should be of interest to professionals and students in psychology, health, counselling, human resource management and business.
This textbook overview of Modern Scots provides a description and analysis of the language covering lexical, phonological and structural patterns. It presents evidence for the diversity of the language through illustrations from newly collected fieldwork material.