Breadcrumbs

Historical English Language

Glasgow has a long-established, international reputation for the historical study of English, with colleagues undertaking research relating to every period of the language, from Old English to the recent past. Digital approaches are a major feature of our work in this area. Glasgow’s approach to the history of English links the best of the philological and linguistic traditions. We have distinctive strengths in such subjects as corpus-studies, onomastics, Norse, the history of Scots and Scottish English, the interface with Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and historical pragmatics (with special reference to the language of letters). Much of our historical work is informed by insights from the study of present-day English usage, and there is cross-theme interest in both Historical and Modern English Language clusters in linguistic variation and change.

Our reputation has been recognised by substantial external funding from (e.g.) the British Academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Leverhulme Trust, JISC, and the UK Research Councils. For details, contact Jeremy.Smith@glasgow.ac.uk

Research Review 2010-2011

Associated staff

Ellen Bramwell (Postdoctoral Research Assistant)

Jean Anderson (Honorary Research Fellow)

Carole Biggam (Honorary Senior Research Fellow)