The History of English: Volume 1 Historical Outlines from Sound to Text

The volume provides a comprehensive overview of the history of English and explores key questions and debates. A re-evaluation of the concept of periodization is followed by overviews of changes in the traditional linguistic areas – phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics – and chapters on prosody, idioms, fixed expressions, onomastics, orthography, register, and standardization, among others. - Comprehensive coverage of the history of English and of major varieties of English - Synopsis of current research into key questions and debates in English historical linguistics - Individual chapters written by leading authorities in the field This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the history of English, organized by linguistic level, and it explores key questions and debates. Individual chapters are written by recognized experts in the field. The volume begins with a re-evaluation of the concept of periodization in the history of English. This is followed by overviews of changes in the traditional areas of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics as well as chapters covering areas less often treated in histories of English, including prosody, idioms and fixed expressions, pragmatics and discourse, onomastics, orthography, style/register/text types, and standardization. Table of Contents Abbreviations Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Periodization in the History of the English Language Chapter 3: Phonology Chapter 4: Prosody Chapter 5: Morphology Chapter 6: Syntax Chapter 7: Semantics and Lexicon Chapter 8: Idioms and Fixed Expressions Chapter 9: Pragmatics and Discourse Chapter 10: Onomastics Chapter 11: Orthography Chapter 12: Styles, Registers, Genres, Text Types Chapter 13: Standards in the History of English Index This series of books reprints articles from the successful English Historical Linguistics: An International Handbook (HSK 34.1 and 34.2) in a convenient paperback set suitable for use in the classroom or by scholars. While the first volume provides an overview of the history of English, the second to fourth volumes focus on individual periods and the final volume covers language variation from an historical perspective