This volume drawn from the 20th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL, Edinburgh 2018) focuses on the role of language contact in the history of English. It showcases a wide variety of historical linguistic approaches, including 'big data' analyses of large corpora, dialectological methods, and the study of translated texts. It also breaks new ground by applying relevant insights from other fields, among them postcolonial linguistics and anthropology. This pluralistic approach brings new and under-studied issues within the scope of explanation, and challenges some long-held assumptions about the nature of historical change in English. The volume will be of interest to an audience interested in the history of English, and the impact of its contact with Viking Age Norse, Old French, and Latin.

This book aims at providing a cross-section of current developments in English linguistics, by tracing recent approaches to corpus linguistics and statistical methodology, by introducing new inter- and multidisciplinary refinements to empirical methodology, and by documenting the on-going emphasis shift within the discipline of English linguistics from the study of dominant language varieties to that of post-colonial, minority, non-standardised, learner and L2 varieties. Among the key focus areas that define research in the field of English linguistics today, this selection concentrates on four: corpus linguistics, English as a global language, cognitive linguistics, and second language acquisition. Most of the articles in this volume concentrate on at least two of these areas and at the same time bring in their own suggestions towards building bridges within and across sub-disciples of linguistics and beyond.

This volume drawn from the 20th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL, Edinburgh 2018) focuses on the role of language contact in the history of English. It showcases a wide variety of historical linguistic approaches, including 'big data' analyses of large corpora, dialectological methods, and the study of translated texts. It also breaks new ground by applying relevant insights from other fields, among them postcolonial linguistics and anthropology. This pluralistic approach brings new and under-studied issues within the scope of explanation, and challenges some long-held assumptions about the nature of historical change in English. The volume will be of interest to an audience interested in the history of English, and the impact of its contact with Viking Age Norse, Old French, and Latin.

This book aims at providing a cross-section of current developments in English linguistics, by tracing recent approaches to corpus linguistics and statistical methodology, by introducing new inter- and multidisciplinary refinements to empirical methodology, and by documenting the on-going emphasis shift within the discipline of English linguistics from the study of dominant language varieties to that of post-colonial, minority, non-standardised, learner and L2 varieties. Among the key focus areas that define research in the field of English linguistics today, this selection concentrates on four: corpus linguistics, English as a global language, cognitive linguistics, and second language acquisition. Most of the articles in this volume concentrate on at least two of these areas and at the same time bring in their own suggestions towards building bridges within and across sub-disciples of linguistics and beyond.