by Laura Quinn
Our English Language and Linguistics publishing has at its core a commitment to developing a range of introductory and advanced level textbooks across the core areas of English language and linguistics – we want our textbooks to be practical, forward-thinking, accessible and encouraging with the aim of showcasing to students and the next generation of linguists the importance and real-world applications of linguistic study. This ethos has been embedded in the list from its early beginnings. Our book publishing largely began in the 1990s with the development of a range of textbook series, most of which remain active to this date.
In 1996, we published our first textbook: Language and Computers: A Practical Introduction to the Computer Analysis of Language by Geoffrey Barnbrook in the Edinburgh Textbooks in Empirical Linguistics series, closely followed in the same series by Computer Corpus Lexicography by Vincent B. Y. Ooi and Statistics for Corpus Linguistics by Michael Oakes in 1998. In 1999, we published the first textbook in the Edinburgh Textbooks in Applied Linguistics series: An Introduction to Applied Linguistics: From Practice to Theory by Alan Davies. All examples of our timely and forward-thinking approach to the teaching of linguistics. The Edinburgh Textbooks in Applied Linguistics remains active today, under the new series editorship of Kenneth Fordyce, Angela Gayton and Mairin Hennebry Yeung. It recently published Social Justice and the Language Classroom: Reflection, Action, and Transformation by Deniz Ortaçtepe Hart which was shortlisted for the 2024 BAAL book prize.
In 2002 we launched what continues to be our flagship textbook series: Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language under the series editorship of Professor Heinz Giegerich with the publication of An Introduction to Middle English by Simon Horobin and Jeremy Smith and An Introduction to International Varieties of English by Laurie Bauer. This popular series provides students with user-friendly, succinct introductions to the core areas of English Language study. We regularly publish new textbooks in this series, most recently An Introduction to English Lexicology by Laurie Bauer as well as new editions of An Introduction to English Phonetics, 3rd edition by Richard Ogden and An Introduction to English Semantics and Pragmatics by Patrick Griffiths and revised by Chris Cummins. This series later branched out to include the Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language – Advanced strand designed to explore topics in more detail at an intermediate and advanced level. Recent publications in this series include World Englishes: The Local Lives of a Global Language by Bertus van Rooy and forthcoming A History of English Spelling by Simon Horobin.
Over the years we have published a range of successful introductory textbooks in linguistics. We are proud publishers of Ingrid Piller’s Intercultural Communication: A Critical Introduction, now in its 2nd edition with the 3rd edition due to publish in 2025, Lyle Campbell’s Historical Linguistics: An Introduction, now in its 4th edition, Cognitive Linguistics: A Complete Guide by Vyvyan Evans, now in its second edition and Introducing Sociolinguistics by Rajend Mesthrie, Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William Leap currently in its second edition.
In addition to our textbook publishing, we have an established journals program made up of Corpora which published its first issue in 2006, Word Structure which published its first issue in 2008 and the new Journal of Arabic Sociolinguistics which joined the Journal’s list in 2023. We also publish an innovative range of monographs, edited collections and reference works as part of a blossoming research publishing programme, which is growing in strength and stature.
An influential book series within this strand of our publishing includes the Edinburgh Studies in Theoretical Linguistics series edited by Nikolas Gisborne and Andrew Hippisley which has included monographs from leading linguists such as Heinz Giegerich and Harry van der Hulst. In recent years, we have also been growing a strong book publishing portfolio in the fields of historical linguistics, world Englishes, dialectology, studies of language variation and change, pragmatics, explorations of language, discourse and identity and on Scottish language and linguistics. Over the next year or so, we will develop and launch a number of exciting new research series to continue our coverage of these important research areas. We will develop and launch: New Directions in World Englishes Research, Edinburgh Studies in Pragmatics and Edinburgh Studies in Historical Linguistics series. We are also excited to announce the new Edinburgh Studies on the Languages of Scotland which will present cutting-edge research on the different languages spoken or signed in Scotland and recognises Scotland’s rich and diverse sociolinguistic history. This adds to our strong tradition of publishing on the languages of Scotland which also includes our work with the Scottish Language Dictionaries, most recently with the publication of the Concise Scots Dictionary.
We continue to develop our research across the core and emerging areas of linguistics and encourage monographs, edited collections, and reference works which reflect the pivotal and far-reaching role of linguistics in allowing us to explore and better understand the human condition and the important ties between language, identity, society and culture.
Some recent and forthcoming books give a flavour of the fresh and exciting directions of research we aim to connect our readers to:
The success of our Language and Linguistics list is completely down to our authors, book editors and series editors. It is a privilege to work with such a creative, committed and supportive community, and our ongoing commitment is to support them, their students and the wider academic community to the best of our abilities.
About Laura Quinn
Laura Quinn is a Commissioning Editor at Edinburgh University Press. She commissions in Language & Linguistics and Law.
You can contact Laura at Laura.Quinn@eup.ed.ac.uk.
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