Originally presented at the second in the newly-launched series of International Conferences on English Historical Dialectology, held at the University of Bergamo in August 2007, the contributions collected in this volume discuss significant aspects of socio-geo-historical variation in language. In addition to British English, the focus is on Dutch, Scots and varieties of English outside England (in Wales and in the American colonies of the seventeenth century), in a time span ranging from medieval times to the nineteenth century. The aim is to highlight the traits that allow scholars to approach the study of English in a broader European perspective, identifying the patterns that show convergence or divergence, not just in terms of shared linguistic features (morphosyntactic, lexical or pragmatic), but also in terms of methodological approaches. In this respect, great attention is given to the latest developments in corpus and computational linguistics, showing the extent to which such new tools as electronic atlases and tagged corpora may facilitate answers to important research questions. At the same time, perceptual dialectology is awarded new interest on account of its significant role in normative and argumentative language use.

The Handbook of Dialectology provides an authoritative, up-to-date and unusually broad account of the study of dialect, in one volume. Each chapter reviews essential research, and offers a critical discussion of the past, present and future development of the area. The volume is based on state-of-the-art research in dialectology around the world, providing the most current work available with an unusually broad scope of topics Provides a practical guide to the many methodological and statistical issues surrounding the collection and analysis of dialect data Offers summaries of dialect variation in the world's most widely spoken and commonly studied languages, including several non-European languages that have traditionally received less attention in general discussions of dialectology Reviews the intellectual development of the field, including its main theoretical schools of thought and research traditions, both academic and applied The editors are well known and highly respected, with a deep knowledge of this vast field of inquiry

This book presents a comprehensive and critical overview of historical phonology as it stands today. Scholars from around the world consider and advance research in every aspect of the field. In doing so they demonstrate the continuing vitality and some continuing themes of one of the oldest sub-disciplines of linguistics. The book is divided into six parts. The first considers key current research questions, the early history of the field, and the structuralist context for work on segmental change. The second examines evidence and methods, including phonological reconstruction, typology, and computational and quantitative approaches. Part III looks at types of phonological change, including stress, tone, and morphophonological change. Part IV explores a series of controversial aspects within the field, including the effects of first language acquisition, the status of lexical diffusion and exceptionless change, and the role of individuals in innovation. Part V considers theoretical perspectives on phonological change, including those of evolutionary phonology and generative historical phonology. The final part examines sociolinguistic and exogenous factors in phonological change, including the study of change in real time, the role of second language acquisition, and loanword adaptation. The authors, who represent leading proponents of every theoretical perspective, consider phonological change over a wide range of the world's language families. The handbook is, in sum, a valuable resource for phonologists and historical linguists and a stimulating guide for their students.

A Dictionary of Varieties of English presents a comprehensive listing of the distinctive dialects and forms of English spoken throughout the contemporary world. Provides an invaluable introduction and guide to current research trends in the field Includes definitions both for the varieties of English and regions they feature, and for terms and concepts derived from a linguistic analysis of these varieties Explores important research issues including the transportation of dialects of English, the rise of ‘New Englishes’, sociolinguistic investigations of various English-speaking locales, and the study of language contact and change. Reflects our increased awareness of global forms of English, and the advances made in the study of varieties of the language in recent decades Creates an invaluable, informative resource for students and scholars alike, spanning the rich and diverse linguistic varieties of the most widely accepted language of international communication

This collection of articles covers a wide range of topics in English philology and history of linguistics. The volume proceeds from Old English studies offering a unique perspective and approach in literary and linguistic research into Anglo-Saxon England. Two articles deal with English phonology from both historical and contemporary standpoints, and another with a theoretical discussion of etymological inquiry. The last section contains three articles focusing on the history of linguistics or the history of ideas. The wide range of topics addressed in the 12 chapters of this volume reflects the diversity of interests in the research efforts of Shoichi Watanabe, professor emeritus at Sophia University, to whom this volume is dedicated by his former students. He is not only highly valued as a distinguished professor of English philology, but also acknowledged for his critique of civilization with his unique view of history and culture.

The skillful use of the Scots language has long been a distinguishing feature of the literatures of Scotland. The essays in this volume make a major contribution to our understanding of the Scots language, past and present, and its written dissemination in poetry, fiction and drama, and in non-literary texts, such as personal letters. They cover aspects of the development of a national literature in the Scots language, and they also give due weight to its international dimension by focusing on translations into Scots from languages as diverse as Greek, Latin and Chinese, and by considering the spread of written Scots to Northern Ireland, the United States of America and Australia. Many of the essays respond to and extend the scholarship of J. Derrick McClure, whose considerable impact on Scottish literary and linguistic studies is surveyed and assessed in this volume.

Examines how pre-modernist conceptions and social organizations of pleasure have impacted post-WWII film.

Even before the Helsinki Corpus was published, Spain had a good amount of Historical English researchers, such as the group directed by Teresa Fanego in Santiago de Compostela. In the last couple of decades, the number of scholars working in the field of Historical Corpus Linguistics has increased, and, nowadays, there are some interesting projects in Spain that will result in the publication of valuable material for scholars throughout the world. The aim of this volume is twofold. On the on...

Written by an international team of leading scholars, this groundbreaking reference work explores the nature of language change and diffusion, and paves the way for future research in this rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field. Features 35 newly-written essays from internationally acclaimed experts that reflect the growth and vitality of the burgeoning area of historical sociolinguistics Examines how sociolinguistic theoretical models, methods, findings, and expertise can be used to reconstruct a language's past in order to explain linguistic changes and developments Bridges the gap between the past and the present in linguistic studies Structured thematically into sections exploring: origins and theoretical assumptions; methods for the sociolinguistic study of the history of languages; linguistic and extra-linguistic variables; historical dialectology, language contact and diffusion; and attitudes to language

This volume is concerned with assessing fictional and non-fictional written texts as linguistic evidence for earlier forms of varieties of English. These range from Scotland to New Zealand, from Canada to South Africa, covering all the major forms of the English language around the world. Central to the volume is the question of how genuine written representations are. Here the emphasis is on the techniques and methodology which can be employed when analysing documents. The vernacular styles found in written documents and the use of these as a window on earlier spoken modes of different varieties represent a focal concern of the book. Studies of language in literature, which were offered in the past, have been revisited and their findings reassessed in the light of recent advances in variationist linguistics.