Aimed at advanced students, this book discusses a number of approaches to charting the major developments in the syntax of English. It discusses internal factors such as the loss of morphology and pressure from analogy. It also covers external factors such as the sociolinguistic impact of language and dialect contact.
Focusing on the historical development of the to-infinitive in English, this book offers a clear exposition accessible to readers without advanced knowledge of generative theory. It appeals to scholars interested in the transition from Old to Middle English and those exploring broader syntactic changes. The work delves into the processes and causes behind this linguistic transformation, making it a valuable resource for those studying the evolution of the English language.
This book explains how particle verbs fit into the grammatical systems of English and Dutch.