《英语语言文化史》将英语的历史一直讲述到20世纪90年代后期，明确点出了文化全球化趋势对英语日后发展走向的决定作用。除分章讲述特定历史文化环境对英语语言造成的影响外，作者在各章均详细地向读者推荐与所讨论话题的相关重要文献。并以附录的形式专门指明可继续研究的相关领域与话题。由于本书的宗旨在于为英语语言在1500余年的演变历史中发生的变化提从翔实的文化史依据，因此作者将主要精力放在了影响英语演变走向的文化描述上，这一独特的讨论角度使本书涉及了英语史中绝大部分重要话题，又深入浅出，通俗易懂。它强调语言演变过程中文化因素重要性的特殊角度，它对语言议论文化史在语言史研究中的准确定位，它简短易懂、颇具可读性的文本特征，加上它所提供的丰富翔实的史料，及其才到雄辩的论述与判断，这部书成为近年来少见具有相当学术价值又方便易读的通俗英语史专著。

Preface
1 Introduction
1.1 An outine history
1.2 Language and social change
1.3 Language,evolution and progress
1.4 Language and myth
1.5 Language supriority
2 The origins of the English Language
2.1 The lingguistic geography of Europe
2.2 Language in Britanin
2.3 Early English
2.4 The Survival of Celtic
2.5 The British people
3 English and Danish
3.1 Old English and Old Norse
3.2 Norse immigration
3.3 The Anglo-saxon written tradition
3.4 English in the Danelaw
3.5 Norse influence on English
4 English and French
4.1 England and France
4.2 Literacy in the medieval period
4.3 The reemergence of English
4.4 English under french influence
4.5 Printing
5 English and latin
5.1 The Lollards
5.2 Classical scholarship
5.3 Scholarly writing in English
5.4 The English bilble
5.5 The legacy of Latin
6 The Language of England
7 The language of revolution
8 The Language of learnde and polite persons
9 The language of Great Britain
10 The Language of empire
11 Conclusion
Appendix:Further suggestions
Bibliography
Index