The English Dialect Dictionary (1898–1905), in its digitised beta-version EDD Online, allows for the retrieval of the gerund construction to be on verbing, generally in the reduced form to be a-verbing. The pattern was so much alive in the period covered by the EDD, 1700 to 1900, that its frequency… read more
Given that the Late Modern English (LModE) period has been widely neglected in English historical linguistics and that dialect is now seen by many to play a role as sociolect rather than regionalect, the material on English dialects in Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary (EDD) (1898––1905)… read more
Based on an analysis of the Innsbruck Prose Corpus, this paper gives evidence of the West Germanic heritage in Middle English fixed expressions. The samples include the non-French and non-modern use of prepositions and of the zeroarticle in prepositional phrases with adjectives (with loud word),… read more