Lexicons of English Religion, 1380–1850

'Combining fascinating analyses of the words used by this person, in this place, at this time with the latest methods in corpus linguistics, this book is for everyone who cares about how we study the English of the past.' Wendy Scase, Emeritus Professor of Medieval English Literature, University of Birmingham
'In this elegantly written, detailed, and completely original study, Jeremy Smith combines historical criticism with corpus linguistics to demonstrate an entirely new way to approach language history and literary interpretation. Showing how topic, genre, and register shaped the lexis of religious texts across centuries, he also provides ground-breaking illustrations of a humanistic linguistics that melds the innovations of new technologies with the precision of historical philology.' Tim William Machan, Mary Lee Duda Professor of Literature, University of Notre Dame
'Jeremy J. Smith offers us an impressive and profound assessment of religious language use from medieval times to the present, not only in the mainstream but in dissident sects, too. His outstanding achievement provides a historical pragmatics overview with contextual assessment, combined with digital humanities methods.' Irma Taavitsainen, Professor Emerita of English Philology, University of Helsinki