Introduction

Chapters in this book

1. Prelim pages i
2. Table of contents v
3. Foreword vii
4. Introduction ix
5. Part I. Pragmatic and stylistic choices
6. Politeness in the history of English 3
7. The which is most and right harde to answere : Intensifying right and most in earlier English 31
8. The diachronic development of the intensifier bloody : A case study in historical pragmatics 53
9. Variation and change in the writings of 17th century scientists 75
10. Part II. Lexical and semantic change
11. The convergence of two need verbs in Middle English 97
12. Rivalry among the verbs of wanting 117
13. A look at respect : Investigating metonymies in Earle Modern English 139
14. Germanic vs French fixed expressions in Middle English prose: Towards a corpus-based historical English phraseology 159
15. Latin loanwords of the early modern period: How often did French act as an intermediary? 185
16. Disseisin : The lexeme and the legal fact in Early Middle English 203
17. Was Old Frech -able borrowable? A diachronic study of word-formation processes due to language contact 217
18. Women and other 'small things': -ette as a feminine marker 241
19. Index of subjects 259