This volume focuses on the present state of English historical linguistics as a unitary discipline. In particular, the selection of papers challenges the idea that the community of linguists working on the history of English stands united merely by subject matter, but divided by method and theoretical outlook. The volume emphasizes the way in which scholars in our community are led to refine and further articulate their empirical proposals by challenges from different research paradigms. Thus, a running thematic thread of the volume is the dialogue between generative grammatical theory and corpus studies, including those in sociolinguistic tradition. The volume is divided in four main sections: syntax, phonology, text types, sociolinguistics and dialectology.On the history of relative 'that'Aimo SeppänenThe complementation of verbs of appearance by adverbsNikolas GisborneOn the use of current intuition as a bias in historical linguistics: The case of the LOOK + -ly construction in EnglishKristin KillieThe indefinite pronoun 'man': "nominal" or "pronominal"?Linda van Bergen1.2 Form and functionCoordinate deletion, directionality and underlying structure in OldEnglishRodrigo Pérez LoridoThe position of the adjective in Old EnglishOlga FischerOn the history of the s-genitiveAnette Rosenbach, Dieter Stein and Letizia VezzosiThe passive as an object foregrounding device in early Modern EnglishElena Seoane PosseReinforcing adjectives: A cognitive semantic perspective on grammaticalisationCarita Paradis2. Text typesVariation and change: Text types and the modelling of syntactic changeWim van der WurffThe progressive form and genre variation during the nineteenth centuryErik SmitterbergThe conjunction 'and' in early Modern English: Frequencies and uses in speech-related writing and other textsJonathan Culpeper and Merja Kytö3. Sociolinguistics and dialectologyProcesses of supralocalisation and the rise of Standard English in the early Modern periodTerttu NevalainenThe rise and fall of periphrastic DO in early Modern English, or "Howe the Scots will declare themselv's"Arja NurmiGrammatical description and language use in the seventeenth centuryLilo MoessnerGeographical, socio-spatial and systemic distance in the spread of the relative "who" in ScotsAnneli Meurman-SolinInversion in embedded questions in some regional varieties of EnglishMarkku FilppulaPutting words in their place: An approach to Middle English word geographyMerja Black4. PhonologyHappY-tensing: A recent innovation?Joan BealSyllable ONSET in the history of EnglishDonka MinkovaName indexSubject indexContents