History of English historical linguistics: The Netherlands and Belgium

The Dutch-speaking area can boast a philological tradition in historical English linguistics that goes back to the 17th century. This tradition is continued in the Netherlands to the present day, now focusing on the history of English linguistics. At the same time, this chapter shows that in the last 30 years new research traditions to historical English linguistics have been developed, stemming mainly from a generative framework in the Netherlands, and from a functional, cognitive one in Belgium. These new research traditions have produced innovative research in areas like diachronic syntax, grammaticalization, mechanisms of change, historical pragmatics, historical sociolinguistics, lexicology, and corpus linguistics.

ISBN:978-3-11-020265-6

Publication year:2012

Accessibility:Closed