Charting the major developments in the morphology of English, this book
introduces students to English inflectional and derivational morphology,
presenting them with a long-range perspective of language change. The
book is also built around the chronological periods crucial for each
type of important large-scale change in the morphology of English,
moving from Old, Middle and Early Modern English, to Modern English. The
book also explores four sources of linguistic innovation - learner
errors in categorical inflectional systems, lexical analogy,
productivity in derivational systems and language and dialect contact -
illustrating the extent to which the history of English Morphology
offers significant information about morphological change in general.