Description
Book SynopsisAn introduction to Early Modern English, this book helps students of English and linguistics to place the language of the period 1500-1700 in its historical context as a language with a common core but also as one which varies across time, regionally and socially, and according to register. The volume focuses on the structure of what contemporaries called the General Dialect - its spelling, vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation - and on its dialectal origins. The book also discusses the language situation and linguistic anxieties in England at a time when Latin exerted a strong influence on the rising standard language.
Table of Contents1. The Early Modern English Period; 2. Sources for the Study of Early Modern English; 3. Towards a Standard Language; 4. Old Words and Loan Words; 5. Word-Formation and Semantic Change; 6. Nouns and Pronouns; 7. Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs; 8. Syntactic Structures; 9. Changing Pronunciation; 10. Language in the Community.
