This collection of essays focuses on current approaches to variation and change in historical
English grammar and lexicon. Of the twelve papers in the collection half are based on grammar
and syntax half on lexical developments. The volume highlights the contributions that strong
empirical research can make to our knowledge of the development of English grammar especially
as realized in lexical development. In illustration of contemporary research trends the
articles in the collection make strong use of extralinguistic factors to discuss language
change as well as argue for internal and structural development.The authors are drawn from nine
different countries and each article is followed by a commentary and response that provide
actual dialogue about the issues in the field thus representing world-wide discussion of
issues in the history of English. The essays recognize the different audiences for historical
variation and change - formal linguists sociolinguists and lexicographers - and specifically
address the interests and discourse in those areas. The volume shows how historical studies of
English are increasingly engaged with contemporary trends in linguistics at the same time as
demonstrating how empirical and other methods can bring classical philology fully into the
sphere of contemporary linguistics without abandoning its traditional concerns.
