The important role of historical cities as centers of higher literacy and text production in the standardization processes of written languages has been recognized some time ago by scholars working on different languages. The current article, which is couched in the study of urban vernaculars in… read more
In this chapter we discuss the current achievements of historical sociolinguistics and highlight new insights provided by the contributions in the volume. Taking the essay by Nevalainen (2015) as a starting point, we will consider the themes of crossing boundaries and bridging gaps between… read more
The an(d) conjunction, whose primary function in present-day English is
coordination, could introduce conditional clauses in earlier stages of English,
most notably during the Middle English and the Early Modern English periods
(Rissanen 1999: 281). This particular use of the conjunction, which… read more
The English playwright Thomas Dekker belonged to a generation of dramatists, along with Shakespeare and Jonson, who, particularly in comedy, discriminated their characters through lexical and stylistic choices. This new conception of the dramatic character is well illustrated in Dekker’s play The… read more
This paper focuses on language variation and change in nineteenth-century England. The first part of the paper is concerned with grammar writing and the influence that grammatical norms may have had on the English language. The second part of the paper takes a closer look at actual language usage.… read more
Histories of linguistic variability and language standardization in Late Modern England have predominantly focused on the well-educated layers of society. This paper aims at providing a more complete overview of language use during that period by focusing on the lower social ranks. The discussion… read more
The English playwright Thomas Dekker belonged to a generation of dramatists, along with Shakespeare and Jonson, who, particularly in comedy, discriminated their characters through lexical and stylistic choices. This new conception of the dramatic character is well illustrated in Dekker’s play The… read more