Cambridge University Press Nineteenth-Century English: Stability and Change (Studies in English Language)

This volume of Studies in English Language focuses on the nineteenth century, an important period of both stability and change for the English language. Through ten detailed case studies, it highlights the relationships between English, its users, and nineteenth-century society, looking particularly at gender differences and variation across genres. It also discusses major structural aspects of nineteenth-century English, such as nouns, verbs and adjectives, and Germanic vs. Romance vocabulary. Although the nineteenth century is often viewed as a relatively stable period in the development of the language, this volume shows the 1800s to be a time of significant change, some of which continued into the twentieth century. By making comparisons possible with both earlier and later periods, it makes an important contribution to our overall understanding of the history of the English language. Review 'This volume is an important and highly welcome contribution to the investigation of nineteenth-century English and to the corpus-based diachronic study of linguistic variation in general. It goes without saying that it provides further evidence for the fact that the nineteenth century is a very attractive period in the history of English which merits the particular attention of historical linguists.' Journal of English Language and Linguistics Book Description This volume explores English in the nineteenth century, showing it to be a period of both stability and change for the language. About the Author Merja Kytö is Professor of English Language, Uppsala University.Mats Rydén is Professor Emeritus in English, Uppsala University.Erik Smitterberg is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in English Linguistics, Stockholm University.