Early Modern English

This volume provides a comprehensive account of Early Modern English, organized by linguistic level. In seventeen individual chapters, written by recognized experts in the field, this volume not only presents detailed outlines of the traditional language levels, such as phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. It also explores key questions and debates, such as do-periphrasis, the Great Vowel Shift, pronouns and relativization, literary language (including the language of Shakespeare), and sociolinguistics, including contact and standardization.

This series of books reprints articles from the successful English Historical Linguistics: An International Handbook (HSK 34.1 and 34.2) in a convenient paperback set suitable for use in the classroom or by scholars. While the first volume provides an overview of the history of English, the second to fourth volumes focus on individual periods and the final volume covers language variation from an historical perspective.