The New Cambridge History of the English Language: Volume 3

An in-depth volume tracking change in the English language and the role which internal and external factors played throughout history.

This volume examines change in the English language by considering the transmission of English through dictionaries and grammars down to the digital means found today. The chapters investigate various issues in language change, what role internal and external factors played throughout history and the importance of prescriptivism.How language change manifests itself in the history of English is the primary focus of this volume. It considers the transmission of English though dictionaries and grammars down to the digital means found today. The chapters investigate various issues in language change, for instance what role internal and external factors played throughout history. There are several chapters dedicated to change in different areas and on different levels of language, includinginvestigations of the verbal system, of adverbs, of negation and case variation in English as well as more recent instances of syntactic change. This volume also looks atissues such as style and spelling practices which fed into emergent standard writing, and the complex issue of linguistic prescriptivism, with chapters on linguistic ideology, phonological standards and the codification of English in dictionaries. Itconcludes with a consideration of networks and communities of practice and also of the historical enregisterment of linguistic features.