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.
Laurel Brinton, Vancouver, Canada;
Alexander Bergs, Osnabrück, Germany.
"Much of this History will indeed be of terrific use to teachers, who may well want to select particular papers to augment classroom discussion. In view of how this account affirms a kind of resolved, untroubled history of the language, teachers may also want to contextualize some of the discussions by addressing how limitations of historical evidence can constrain any conclusions drawn from it, or how methodology can shape data and vice versa.Thiis valuable and useful series would thereby become an opportunity to open up discussion of English-language historiography."
Tim William Machan in: Modern Language Review 114.3 (2019), 538-539
