Cover

Half-title

Title

Copyright

Contents

Figures

Tables

Contributors

Preface

Acknowledgements

1 Overview

1.1 Introduction

1.2 The roots of English

1.3 Early history: immigration and invasion

1.4 Later history: internal migration, emigration, immigration again

1.5 The form of historical evidence

1.6 The surviving historical texts

1.7 Indirect evidence

1.8 Why does language change?

1.9 Recent and current change

2 Phonology and morphology

2.1 History, change and variation

2.2 The extent of change: ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ history

2.3 Tale’s end: a sketch of ModE phonology and morphology

2.3.1 Principles

2.3.2 ModE vowel inventories

2.3.3 ModE consonant inventories

2.3.4 Stress

2.3.5 Modern English morphology

2.4 Old English

2.4.1 Time, space and texts

2.4.2 The Old English vowels

2.4.3 The Old English consonants

2.4.4 Stress

2.4.5 Old English morphology

2.4.5.1 The noun phrase: noun, pronoun and adjective

2.4.5.2 The verb

2.4.6 Postlude as prelude

2.5 The ‘OE/ME transition’ to c.1150

2.5.1 The Great Hiatus

2.5.2 Phonology: major early changes

2.5.2.1 Early quantity adjustments

2.5.2.2 The old diphthongs, low vowels and /y( )/

2.5.2.3 The new ME diphthongs

2.5.2.4 Weak vowel mergers

2.5.2.5 The fricative voice contrast

2.6 Middle English, c.1150–1450

2.6.1 The problem of ME spelling

2.6.2 Phonology

2.6.2.1 The vowels: MEOSL and the story of OE

2.6.2.2 ‘Dropping aitches’ and postvocalic /x/

2.6.2.3 Loss of final -e

2.6.2.4 Stress

2.6.3 ME morphology

2.6.3.1 The story-line

2.6.3.2 The morphology/phonology interaction

2.6.3.3 The noun phrase: gender, case and number

2.6.3.4 The personal pronoun

2.6.3.5 Verb morphology: introduction

2.6.3.6 The verb: tense marking

2.6.3.7 The verb: person and number

2.6.3.8 The verb ‘to be’

2.6.3.9 The infinitive and participles

2.7 Early Modern and Modern English, c.1450–1800

2.7.1 Introduction

2.7.2 Phonology: the Great Vowel Shift

2.7.3 The mid-sixteenth-century state of play: John Hart’s testimony

2.7.4 English vowel phonology, c.1550–1800

2.7.5 English consonant phonology, c.1550–1800

2.7.5.1 Loss of postvocalic /r/

2.7.5.2 Palatals and palatalisation

2.7.5.3 The story of /x/

2.7.6 Stress

2.7.7 English morphology, c.1550–1800

2.7.7.1 Nouns and adjectives

2.7.7.2 The personal pronouns

2.7.7.3 Pruning luxuriance: ‘anomalous verbs’

2.7.7.4 Northern visitors: the -s ending in the third singular and plural

2.8 Plus a change…The persistence of disorder

2.8.1 Preliminary note

2.8.2 Progress, regress, stasis and undecidability

2.8.2.1 The evolution of Lengthening I

2.8.2.2 Lengthening II

3 Syntax

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Internal syntax of the noun phrase

3.2.1 The head of the noun phrase

3.2.2 Determiners

3.2.3 Pre- and postdeterminers

3.2.4 Modifiers

3.3 The verbal group

3.3.1 Tense

3.3.2 Aspect

3.3.3 Mood

3.3.4 The story of the modals

3.3.5 Voice

3.3.6 Rise of do

3.3.7 Internal structure of the Aux phrase

3.4 Clausal constituents

3.4.1 Subjects

3.4.2 Objects

3.4.3 Impersonal constructions

3.4.4 Passive

3.4.5 Subordinate clauses

3.5 Word order

3.5.1 Introduction

3.5.2 Developments in the order of subject and verb

3.5.3 Developments in the order of object and verb

3.5.4 Developments in the order of direct objects and indirect objects

3.5.5 Developments in the position of particles and adverbs

3.5.6 Consequences

4 Vocabulary

4.1 Introduction

4.1.1 The function of lexemes

4.1.2 The stratification of the vocabulary

4.1.3 Lexical change

4.1.4 Lexical structures

4.1.5 Principles of word formation

4.1.6 Change of meaning

4.2 Old English

4.2.1 Introduction

4.2.2 The stratification of the vocabulary

4.2.3 Foreign influence

4.2.4 Word formation

4.2.4.1 Noun compounds

4.2.4.2 Compound adjectives

4.2.4.3 Compound verbs

4.2.4.4 Nominal suffixes

4.2.4.5 Adjectival suffixes

4.2.4.6 Verbal suffixes

4.2.4.7 Zero derivation

4.2.4.8 Nominal derivatives

4.2.4.9 Adjectival derivatives

4.2.4.10 Verbal derivation

4.2.4.11 Adverbs

4.2.4.12 The typological status of Old English word formation

4.3 Middle English

4.3.1 Introduction

4.3.2 Borrowing

4.3.2.1 Scandinavian

4.3.2.2 French

4.3.2.3 Latin

4.3.3 Word formation

4.3.3.1 Compounding

4.3.3.2 Prefixation

4.3.3.3 Suffixation

4.3.3.4 Zero derivation

4.4 Early Modern English

4.4.1 Introduction

4.4.2 Borrowing

4.4.2.1 Latin

4.4.2.2 French

4.4.2.3 Greek

4.4.2.4 Italian

4.4.2.5 Spanish

4.4.2.6 Other languages

4.4.3 Word formation

4.4.3.1 Compounding

4.4.3.2 Prefixation

4.4.3.3 Suffixation

4.5 Modern English

4.5.1 Introduction

4.5.2 Borrowing

4.5.3 Word formation

4.6 Conclusion

5 Standardisation

5.1 Introduction

5.2 The rise and development of standard English

5.2.1 Selection

5.2.2 Acceptance

5.2.3 Diffusion

5.2.4 Maintenance

5.2.5 Elaboration of function

5.2.6 Codification

5.2.7 Prescription

5.2.8 Conclusion

5.3 A general and focussed language?

5.3.1 Introduction

5.3.2 Spelling

5.3.3 Grammar

5.3.4 Vocabulary

5.3.5 Registers

Electric phenomena of Tourmaline

5.3.6 Pronunciation

5.3.7 Conclusion

6 Names

6.1 Theoretical preliminaries

6.1.1 The status of proper names

6.1.2 Namables

6.1.3 Properhood and tropes

6.2 English onomastics

6.2.1 The discipline of English onomastics

6.2.2 Source materials for English onomastics

6.3 Personal names

6.3.1 Preliminaries

6.3.2 The earliest English personal names

6.3.3 The impact of the Norman Conquest

6.3.4 New names of the Renaissance and Reformation

6.3.5 The modern period

6.3.6 The most recent trends

6.3.7 Modern English-language personal names

6.3.8 Evidence for pet-names (hypocoristics) from early times to the present

6.4 Surnames

6.4.1 The origin of surnames

6.4.2 Some problems with surname interpretation

6.4.3 Types of surname

6.4.4 The linguistic structure of surnames

6.4.5 Other languages of English surnames

6.4.6 Surnaming since about 1500

6.5 Place-names

6.5.1 Preliminaries

6.5.2 The ethnic and linguistic context of English names

6.5.3 The explanation of place-names

6.5.4 English-language place-names

6.5.5 Place-names and urban history

6.5.6 Place-names in languages arriving after English

6.6 Conclusion

Appendix: abbreviations of English county-names

7 English in Britain

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Old English

7.3 Middle English

7.4 A Scottish interlude

7.5 Early Modern English

7.6 Modern English

7.7 Other dialects

8 English in North America

8.1 The colonial period: 1607–1776

8.1.1 Explorers and settlers meet Native Americans

8.1.2 Maintenance and change

8.1.3 Waves of immigrant colonists

8.1.4 Character of colonial English

8.1.5 Regional origins of colonial English

8.1.6 Tracing linguistic features to Britain

8.1.7 Place-names: Native American, French, Dutch, Spanish, English

8.2 The national period: 1776–1900

8.2.1 American language or American English? Noah Webster schools the nation

8.2.2 Prescriptivism

8.2.3 Lexical borrowings

8.3 Modern period: 1900-present

8.3.1 Syntactic patterns in American English and British English

8.3.2 Regional patterns in American English

8.3.3 Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE)

8.3.4 Atlas of North American English (ANAE)

8.3.5 Social dialects

8.3.5.1 Socioeconomic status

8.3.6 Ethnic dialects

8.3.6.1 African American English (AAE)

8.3.6.2 Latino English

8.3.7 English in Canada

8.3.8 Social meaning and attitudes

8.3.9 Official languages in a multilingual North America

8.3.10 The future of North American dialects

Appendix: abbreviations of US state-names

9 English worldwide

9.1 Introduction

9.2 The recency of world English

9.3 The reasons for the emergence of world English

9.3.1 Politics

9.3.2 Economics

9.3.3 The press

9.3.4 Advertising

9.3.5 Broadcasting

9.3.6 Motion pictures

9.3.7 Popular music

9.3.8 International travel and safety

9.3.9 Education

9.3.10 Communications

9.4 The future of English as a world language

9.5 An English family of languages?

Further reading

1 Overview

2 Phonology and morphology

3 Syntax

4 Vocabulary

5 Standardisation

6 Names

7 English in Britain

8 English in North America

9 English worldwide

References

Index