This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the First International Conference on English Historical Dialectology (ICEHD), organized at the University of Bergamo in September 2003. It includes papers on fundamental aspects of English historical dialectology, from Old English to Late Modern English. The papers discuss points in two thematically distinct but related sections, 'Methods' and 'Data'. The volume also includes the transcript of a debate on methodological issues, in which the main themes are the principles of historical investigation of geographical varieties, the new approaches provided by corpus linguistics and computer technology, and the need for greater awareness of textual reliability.

Autorentext

The Editors: Marina Dossena is Associate Professor of English Language at the University of Bergamo. Her research interests focus on the features and origins of British varieties of English and the history of specialized discourse. Recent publications include Insights into Late Modern English, co-edited with Charles Jones (Lang 2003) and Scotticisms in Grammar and Vocabulary (2004). She is currently compiling a corpus of 19th-century Scottish correspondence and is the current editor of the Online Bibliography of Scots and Scottish English.
Roger Lass is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Honorary Research Associate in English at the University of Cape Town. His special interests are the history of English, historical linguistic theory, and its interface with evolutionary biology. His most recent publications include Historical Linguistics and Language Change (1997) and volume III of The Cambridge History of the English Language (1999). He is currently working on the Linguistic Atlas of Early Middle English.

Inhalt
Contents: Roger Lass: Ut custodiant litteras: Editions, Corpora and Witnesshood Margaret Laing: Multidimensionality: Time, Space and Stratigraphy in Historical Dialectology Keith Williamson: On Chronicity and Space(s) in Historical Dialectology Mieko Ogura/William S.-Y. Wang: Dynamic Dialectology and Complex Adaptive System Anneli Meurman-Solin: Towards a Variationist Typology of Clausal Connectives: Methodological Considerations based on the Corpus of Scottish Correspondence Raymond Hickey: Standard Wisdoms and Historical Dialectology: The Discrete Use of Historical Regional Corpora Peter Kitson: On Margins of Error in Placing Old English Literary Dialects Richard M. Hogg: North Northumbrian and South Northumbrian: A Geographical Statement? Merja Stenroos: Regional Dialects and Spelling Conventions in Late Middle English: Searches for (th) in the LALME Data Julia Fernández Cuesta/Ma Nieves Rodríguez Ledesma: Northern Features in15th-16th-Century Legal Documents from Yorkshire Jeremy J. Smith: Phonological Space and the Actuation of the Great Vowel Shift in Scotland and Northern England Joan C. Beal: Marks of disgrace: Attitudes to Non-Standard Pronunciation in 18th-Century English Pronouncing Dictionaries Susan M. Fitzmaurice: Orality, Standardization, and the Effects of Print Publication on the Look of Standard English in the 18th-Century.