Change in Contemporary English: A Grammatical Study

The aim of this series is to provide a framework for original studies of English, both present-day and past. All books are based securely on empirical research, and represent theoretical and descriptive contributions to our knowledge of national and international varieties of English, both written and spoken. The series covers a broad range of topics and approaches, including syntax phonology, grammar, vocabulary, discourse pragmatics, and sociolinguistic, is aimed at an international readership.

Based on the systematic analysis of large amounts of computer-readable text, this book shows how the English language has been changing in the recent past, often in unexpected and previously undocumented ways. The study is based on a group of matching corpora, known as the 'Brown family' of corpora, supplemented by a range of other corpus materials, both written and spoken, drawn mainly from the later twentieth century. Among the matters receiving particular attention are the influence of American English on British English, the role of the press, the 'colloquialization' of written English, and a wide range of grammatical topics, including the modal auxiliaries, progressive, subjunctive, passive, genitive and relative clauses. These subjects build and overall picture of how English grammar is changing, and the linguistic and social factors that are contributing to this process.

Marianne Hundt is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English at the University of Zürich.

Christian Mair is Professor of English Linguistics in the Department of English at the University of Freiburg.

Nicholas Smith is Lecturer in the School of English, Sociology, Politics and Contemporary History at the University of Salford.