English in Modern Times describes the development of the English
language from 1700 until 1945, and argues that it is in the course
of this later modern English period that the characteristics of
"modern" English evolved. This is the first undergraduate text to
cover the whole of this important period, which has been called the
"Cinderella" of English historical linguistics because of its lack
of representation of scholarly literature.
This book is sociohistorical in orientation, arguing that social
changes in the Anglophone world need to be taken into account if we
are to understand the linguistic changes that occurred during this
period. Further chapters deal with changes in vocabulary, syntax
and morphology and phonology and with the attempts of
lexicographers, grammarians and elocutionists to arrest and control
these changes by codifying the language. Unlike many earlier
histories of English, English in Modern Times does not define
"English" as confined to Standard (English) English, but also
considers the development of extraterritorial Englishes and
non-standard varieties of British English in the Later Modern
period.
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Review This Product
Thu, 22 Sep 2022 | Review
by: Norman B.
This book provides an overview of changes in the English language, phonological morphological and syntactic, from 1700-1945. As the author notes, Late Modern English has been something of a Cinderella in the field of historical linguistics until quite recently but that this has changed for several reasons.
No doubt the biggest reason has been the feeling that, at least grammatically, the language has changed less dramatically in this period than others. With the advent of corpus linguistics and huge computer databases, it has been possible to examine an unparalleled range of data and discover variation which had been undetectable before. The 19th century is also more distant now, making it possible to feel that we can see such a century in better perspective than we could even a few generations ago.
As the author notes, these has been some of several reasons why the time was ripe for a synthesis. In addition, Beal has briefly covered non-British forms of English to emphasise that by the mid-twentieth century no single group or nation could be said to own the language anymore. I have not seen this done in the other overviews I have read and this coverage adds to the book's usefulness.
For all but the most knowledgeable specialists, I suspect this book will have much to teach any reader. A most welcome contribution.
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