The 19 papers in this volume are a selection from a UCLA conference intended to take stock of the state of the field at the beginning of the new millennium and to stimulate research in English HistoricalLinguistics. The authors are predominantly U.S. scholars. The fields represented include morphosyntax and semantics, grammaticalization, discourse analysis, dialectology, lexicography, the diachronic study of mixed language texts, phonology and metrics. >From the contentsI. MILLENNIAL PERSPECTIVES >From etymological to historical pragmaticsElizabeth Closs TraugottMixed-language texts as data and evidence in English historical linguisticsHerbert SchendlDialectology and the history of the English languageWilliam A. Kretzchmar, Jr.Etymology unknownAnatoly LibermanIssues for a new history of English prosodyThomas CableChaucer: Folk poet or littérateur?Gilbert Youmans / Xingzhong LiA rejoinder to Youmans and LiThomas CableII. PHONOLOGY AND METRICSThe history of English /r/Blaine EricksonVowel variation in English full rhymesKristin HansonLexical diffusion and competing analyses of sound changeBetty S. PhillipsPurely metrical criteria for dating Old English poemsGeoffrey RussomShort shrift for the "great" vowel shiftRobert StockwellRestoration of /a/ revisitedDavid WhiteIII. MORPHOSYNTAX / SEMANTICSPragmatic uses of shall future constructions in early Modern EnglishMaurizio GottiExplaining the creation of reflexive pronouns in EnglishEdward L. KeenanThe word order of Old English poetry compared with prose once moreAns van KemenadeThe have perfect in Old English - how close was it to the Modern English perfect?Jeong-Hoon LeeReporting direct speech in early Modern slander depositionsColette MooreThe verb-verb compound in 20th century English and 20th century linguisticsBenji Wald / Lawrence BessermanIV. ENVOYCome to find out: a thousand years of the history of EnglishRichard W. Bailey