A Historical Morphology of English

A textbook survey of how English morphology has evolved from Old English to the present

• Explores four sources of linguistic innovation: learner errors in categorical inflectional systems, lexical analogy, productivity in derivational systems and language and dialect contact
• Includes inflectional and derivational morphology
• Organized chronologically navigating Old, Middle and Early Modern English and Modern English
• Draws on data from English, Germanic, French, Greek and Latin
• Includes discussion questions, exercises and suggestions for further reading

Charting the major developments in the morphology of English, this book introduces students to English inflectional and derivational morphology, presenting them with a long-range perspective of language change. It is built around the chronological periods crucial for each type of important large-scale change in the morphology of English, moving from Old, Middle and Early Modern English, to Modern English.The book also explores four sources of linguistic innovation - learner errors in categorical inflectional systems, lexical analogy, productivity in derivational systems and language and dialect contact - illustrating the extent to which the history of English Morphology offers significant information about morphological change in general.