Old English And The Theory Of Phonology

First published in 1985. This title is a study in the synchronic and diachronic phonology and morphology of the Mercian dialect of Old English. It is particularly concerned with issues in the theory of phonology that have been the subject of the ‘abstractness controversy’, which developed in response to the theory of phonology put forward by Chomsky and Hale. This title will be of interest to students of English language and linguistics.

A detailed study of Old English, taking as its point of departure the 'standard theory' of generative phonology as developed by Chomsky and Halle. Dr Lass and Dr Anderson set out all the main phonological processes of Old English and against their larger historical background (including subsequent developments in the history of English). They propose many fresh solutions to long-standing problems in the history and structure of Old English. The result is an extensive and sophisticated treatment of this subject. An important theory is examined against a well-studied body of linguistic knowledge, and is partly validated and partly revised. The book will be important for all linguistics and historians of English and Indo-European.

First published in 1992, A Grammar of Old English, Volume 1: Phonology was a landmark publication that in the intervening years has not been surpassed in its depth of scholarship and usefulness to the field. With the 2011 posthumous publication of Richard M. Hogg’s Volume 2: Morphology, Volume 1 is again in print, now in paperback, so that scholars can own this complete work. Takes account of major developments both in the field of Old English studies and in linguistic theory Takes full advantage of the Dictionary of Old English project at Toronto, and includes full cross-references to the DOE data Fully utilizes work in phonemic and generative theory and related topics Provides material crucial for future research both in diachronic and synchronic phonology and in historical sociolinguistics

Old English is a companion to Old English studies and to historical studies of early English in general. It is also an introduction to Indo-European studies in the particular sense in which they underpin the history of English. Professor Roger Lass makes accessible in a linguistically up-to-date and readable form the Indo-European and Germanic background to Old English, as well as what can be reconstructed about the resulting state of Old English itself. His book is a bridge between the more elementary Old English grammars and the major philological grammars and recent interpretations of the Old English data.Old English assumes a basic knowledge of phonetics and phonology, the elements of syntactic and morphological theory, and an introduction to historical linguistics. An extensive glossary gives definitions of the major technical terms used.

First published in 1992, A Grammar of Old English, Volume 1: Phonology was a landmark publication that in the intervening years has not been surpassed in its depth of scholarship and usefulness to the field. With the 2011 posthumous publication of Richard M. Hogg’s Volume 2: Morphology, Volume 1 is again in print, now in paperback, so that scholars can own this complete work. Takes account of major developments both in the field of Old English studies and in linguistic theory Takes full advantage of the Dictionary of Old English project at Toronto, and includes full cross-references to the DOE data Fully utilizes work in phonemic and generative theory and related topics Provides material crucial for future research both in diachronic and synchronic phonology and in historical sociolinguistics

This book, the second volume in A Linguistic History of English, describes the development of Old English from Proto-Germanic. Like Volume I, it is an internal history of the structure of English that combines traditional historical linguistics, modern syntactic theory, the study of languages in contact, and the variationist approach to language change. The first part of the book considers the development of Northwest and West Germanic, and the northern dialects of the latter, with particular reference to phonological and morphological phenomena. Later chapters present a detailed account of changes in the Old English sound system, inflectional system, and syntax. The book aims to make the findings of traditional historical linguistics accessible to scholars and students in other subdisciplines, and also to adopt approaches from contemporary theoretical linguistics in such a way that they are accessible to a wide range of historical linguists.