History of the English Language

"Thanks in part to the survival of many medieval manuscripts, the study of Old and Middle English goes back hundreds of years. Initially, much of the research was philological in nature, i.e. the emphasis was on literary texts and history with the study of the language as subsidiary. This view starts to change from the middle of the 18th century on and 1849, for instance, sees the establishment of the Philological Society with the aim of studying languages and their histories. The general introduction will briefly describe the history of English historical linguistics, using the work by e.g. Helmut Gneuss, and discuss the distinction between philology and linguistics.The four proposed volumes will cover major linguistic issues in the phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics of the history of English. It will include earlier as well as later works that are representative of the major issues and controversies. Each volume will have an introduction to outline some of these controversies and will explain the reasons behind the choice of the articles"--