Developments in English
Expanding Electronic Evidence

Addresses current issues in corpus linguistics – methodological, theoretical and applied – with special reference to Englishes past and present.

Irma Taavitsainen (Edited by), Merja Kytö (Edited by), Claudia Claridge (Edited by), Jeremy Smith (Edited by)

9781108810432, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 December 2019

323 pages, 37 b/w illus. 59 tables
23 x 15 x 1.5 cm, 0.45 kg

'This edited collection breaks new ground in harnessing the methodology of corpus linguistics to historical language studies. There is a coherent theoretical focus to a wide-ranging set of topics, from the changing function of hesitation markers to the unfolding impact of religious prose on written English. The many insights are bound to inform, frame and stimulate further research in data-driven, diachronic linguistics.' John Corbett, University of Macau

The history of the English language is a vast and diverse area of research. In this volume, a team of leading historians of English come together to analyse 'real' language, drawing on corpus data to shed new light on long-established issues and debates in the field. Combining synchronic and diachronic analysis, the chapters address the major issues in corpus linguistics – methodological, theoretical and applied – and place special focus on the use of electronic resources in the research of English and the wider field of digital humanities. Topics covered include polemical articles on the optimal use of corpus linguistic methods, macro-level patterns of text and discourse organisation, and micro-features such as interjections and hesitators. Covering Englishes from the past and present, this book is designed specifically for graduate students and researchers working in fields of corpus linguistics, the history of the English language, and historical linguistics.

1. English in the digital age. General introduction Irma Taavitsainen, Merja Kytö, Claudia Claridge and Jeremy Smith
Part I. Linguistic Directions and Crossroads: Mapping the Routes Merja Kytö: 2. Corpus-based and corpus-driven approaches to linguistic analysis: one and the same? Charles F. Meyer
3. Quantitative corpus approaches to linguistic analysis: seven or eight levels of resolution and the lessons they teach us Stefan Th. Gries
4. Profiling the English verb phrase over time: modal patterns Bas Aarts, Sean Wallis and Jill Bowie
Part II. Changing Patterns Claudia Claridge: 5. On the functional change of desire in relation to hope and wish Minoji Akimoto
6. From medieval to modern: on the development of the adverbial connective considering (that) Matti Rissanen
7. Spoken features of interjections in English dialect (based on Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary) Manfred Markus
Part III. Pragmatics and Discourse Irma Taavitsainen: 8. Interjection-based delocutive verbs in the history of English Laurel J. Brinton
9. Uh and um as planners in the Corpus of Historical American English Andreas H. Jucker
10. Religious discourse and the history of English Thomas Kohnen
Part IV. World Englishes Jeremy Smith: 11. History, social meaning and identity in the spoken English of postcolonial white Zimbabweans Susan Fitzmaurice
12. Singapore weblogs between speech and writing Andrea Sand
13. Mergers, losses and the spread of English Raymond Hickey
14. Complex systems in the history of American English William A. Kretzschmar, Jr.

Subject Areas: Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF], Linguistics [CF], Language: history & general works [CBX]