Recording English, Researching English, Transforming English

This book presents new research results in English historical linguistics. Section I deals with sounds and spellings, e.g. the role of writing in language change, Pre-Old English sound changes and their reflection in runic inscriptions – plus the first complete list of OE runic inscriptions – and with velar fricatives in Middle English. Section II contains studies on words and phrases (e.g. the OE terms for the chain-mail coat), shell nouns, and secondary agent constructions. Section III highlights the developments of ‘because’, relative clauses, impersonal and passive constructions. Section IV analyzes the role of dialects in literature (e.g. 16th and 18th centuries). Section V sheds light on the use of early literature by later authors (e.g. J.R.R. Tolkien) and on Chinese translations of ‘Beowulf’.