Freeborn Dennis. From Old English to Standard English. A course book in language variation across time

3th edition. — Macmillan, 1992. — 234 p.The book is a comprehensive exploration of the linguistic and cultural development of English, from the Middle Ages to the present day. The book provides students with a balanced and up-to-date overview of the history of the language. The present edition has been revised and updated to keep students up to date with recent developments in the field. The present book is more grammatical and typological in focus, i.e. language-internal. A lot of emphasis is placed on linguistic (phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic) analysis of Old, Middle, and early Modern English texts. This means students will learn how to approach older texts and to work with these. Most examples and texts will be authentic and the use of facsimile editions is encouraged. Incorporating these texts in this book, rather than in an (optional) workbook, makes it easier to see working with texts as an integral part of a class on the history of English.