A historical and sociolinguistic Study of 18th-century English

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The purpose of this three-year research project (2003-2005) was to analyze and clarify various features (syntax, morphology, lexicology, stylistics and others) of Eighteenth-Century English from a historical and sociolinguistic point of view, on the basis of abundant data collected from novels, plays, biographies, diaries, periodicals, and so on. The chief results of the study so far done are as follows :1.Collected some 500 relevant books and articles on Eighteenth-Centtury English, which were compiled with some critical comments.2.Made a survey of historical and sociolinguistic studies on Eighteenth-Century English, based upon the above materials, and emaphasized the importance of the study of Eighteenth-Century English in reference to Present-day English.3.Showed that negative constructions without do are still existent in the eighteenth century. Especially, verbs like know, doubt, and have are in favour of do-less constructions. Do-less constructions are also favoured in interrogative sentences and conditional clauses introduced by if.4.Demonstrated that the overall tendency of adjective comparison in 18th-century English did not significantly differ from that of Present-day English and that the frequency distribution of the inflectional and periphrastic forms differentiated the 18th century usage from that of today.5.Also made a detailed descriptive study of perfect forms of intransitive verbs of motion, intensive adverbs, both of which were published)6.Articles on the compound gerund, the subject of the gerund, the double-object construction, terms of address, swearing, and others are nearly completed.