Introduction

Chapters in this book

1. Prelim pages i
2. Table of contents v
3. Preface vii
4. Introduction 1
5. Part I. Phonology
6. “A received pronunciation” 21
7. The interplay of internal and external factors in varieties of English 43
8. Part II. Morphosyntax
9. The myth of American English gotten as a historical retention 67
10. Changes affecting relative clauses in Late Modern English 91
11. Diffusion of do 117
12. A diachronic constructional analysis of locative alternation in English, with particular attention to load and spray 143
13. Part III. Orthography, vocabulary and semantics
14. In search of “the lexicographic stamp” 167
15. “Divided by a common language”? 185
16. Women writers in the 18th century 203
17. Eighteenth-century French cuisine terms and their semantic integration in English 219
18. Spelling normalisation of Late Modern English 243
19. Part IV. Pragmatics and discourse
20. A far from simple matter revisited 271
21. What it means to describe speech 295
22. Being Wilde 315
23. “I am desired (…) to desire” 333
24. Index 357