An Introduction to Late Modern English

by Tieken-Boon Van Ostade, Ingrid

• ISBN13: 9780748625970
• ISBN10: 0748625976
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-05-12
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Summary

For decades it has been commonly believed that the English language hasremained fairly static since the beginning of the eighteenth century, but recentresearch shows that this is far from true. An Introduction to Late ModernEnglish focuses on the tail end of the standardization process(codification and prescription), during which such important social changes as theIndustrial Revolution shaped the language. Late Modern English currently generates alot of scholarly attention, mainly due to new developments in sociohistoricallinguistics and corpus linguistics. By drawing on this research, Ingrid Tieken-Boonvan Ostade offers a fuller account of the language than previously possible. Hervolume is designed for students and beginning scholars and is grounded in recentresearch in which sociolinguistic models are applied to earlier stages of thelanguage (1700-1900). It focuses on people as speakers and writers of English, andit provides research questions aimed at acquiring skills at working with suchelectronic research tools as Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), theOxford English Dictionary, and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The bookalso references electronically available texts and databases such asMartha Ballard's Diary, the Proceedings of the OldBailey, and Mrs. Beeton's Book of HouseholdManagement.

Author Biography

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade is Professor of English Sociohistorical Linguistics at the University of Leiden.