Patterns of Change in 18th-century English

Eighteenth-century English is often associated with normative grammar. But to what extent did prescriptivism impact ongoing processes of linguistic change? The authors of this volume examine a variety of linguistic changes in a corpus of personal correspondence, including the auxiliary do, verbal -s and the progressive aspect, and they conclude that direct normative influence on them must have been minimal.
The studies are contextualized by discussions of the normative tradition and the correspondence corpus, and of eighteenth-century English society and culture. Basing their work on a variationist sociolinguistic approach, the authors introduce the models and methods they have used to trace the progress of linguistic changes in the “long” eighteenth century, 1680–1800. Aggregate findings are balanced by analysing individuals and their varying participation in these processes. The final chapter places these results in a wider context and considers them in relation to past sociolinguistic work.
One of the major findings of the studies is that in most cases the overall pace of change was slow. Factors retarding change include speaker evaluation and repurposing outgoing features, in particular, for certain styles and registers.

Carol E Percy, University of Toronto, on Linguist List 32.874 (9 March 2021):
This excellent collection delivers more than the sum of its parts. [...] In all cases, the authors are long-term experts on their variables. Across their studies, interesting and significant variation arises from the team’s rigorously coherent approach. Their array of perspectives should attract and satisfy a broad audience. [...] Scholars in other disciplines can rely on this team’s key findings.