Introduction

Chapters in this book

1. Prelim pages i
2. Table of contents v
3. Acknowledgements vii
4. Introduction 1
5. part iVerbal constructions
6. “Þonne hate we hine morgensteorra” 11
7. Tracking and explaining variation and change in the grammar of American English 29
8. Prevent and the battle of the - ing clauses 45
9. Prescription or practice? 63
10. On the idiomatization of “ give + O + to ” constructions 79
11. The clausal complementation of good in extraposition constructions 95
12. part iiModality and (marginal) modals
13. The ‘ fail to ’ construction in Late Modern and Present-Day English 123
14. The interplay of modal verbs and adverbs 143
15. Current change in the modal system of English 165
16. part iiiDevelopments in the English noun phrase
17. Discontinuous quantificational structures in Old English 185
18. Genitive variation in letters, history writing and sermons in Late Middle and Early Modern English 197
19. part ivSyntactic variation and change through contact
20. On the use of beon and wesan in Old English 217
21. The reflexes of OE beon as a marker of futurity in early Middle English 237
22. Stylistic fronting in the history of English 255
23. Subject and Word index 279