Aspects of the History of English Language and Literature

Established in 2001, the Society of Historical English Language and Linguistics (SHELL) was founded in order to share in international conferences the work of young scholars of the English linguistics and philology that were previously shared and commented on only over computer networks so as to encourage younger scholars and students to write papers and exchange ideas. This volume collects 28 plenary lectures and papers from the SHELL conferences convened at various Japanese universities in 2005, 2007, and 2009 (the papers were in fact submitted by preponderance of Japanese contributors, but representatives of other nations, e.g. Korea, Germany, Canada, Poland, show up as well). Seven papers were drawn from symposia on Chaucer and the Dickens Lexicon Project, while the rest address a range of issues from Old English, Middle English, and Modern English, as well as the history of English in general. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Osamu Imahayashi is professor at Hiroshima University (Japan), and the secretary general of the English Research Association of Hiroshima (ERA). His interests focus especially on language and style of Charles Dickens.
Yoshiyuki Nakao is professor at Hiroshima University and the president of the Japan Society for Medieval English Studies. He is one of the leading scholars of Chaucer studies in Japan.
Michiko Ogura is professor at Chiba University (Japan). Her field of research is medieval English syntax.