Includes appendices and indices

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Frontmatter
Preface
Frontispiece
1. Modelling English
Part I - The History of English
2. The Origins of English
3. Old English
4. Middle English
5. Early Modern English
6. Modern English
7. World English
Part II - English Vocabulary
8. The Nature of the Lexicon
9. The Sources of the Lexicon
10. Etymology
11. The Structure of the Lexicon
12. Lexical Dimensions
Part III - English Grammar
13. Grammatical Mythology
14. The Structure of Words
15. Word Classes
16. The Structure of Sentences
Part IV - Spoken and Written English
17. The Sound System
18. The Writing System
Part V - Using English
19. Varieties of Discourse
20. Regional Variation
21. Social Variation
22. Personal Variation
23. Electronic Variation
Part VI - Learning about English
24. Learning English as a Mother Tongue
25. New Ways of Studying English
Appendices
I. Glossary
II. Special Symbols and Abbreviations
III. References
IV. New Addresses
V. Further Reading
VI. Index of Linguistic Items
VII. Index of Authors and Personalities
VIII. Index of Topics
Acknowledgements ( )

David Crystal is/was the specialist of the English language in most of its forms and changes. This is a comprehensive encyclopedia on the English Language and highly recommended. ( )

I have only read the history of English Language "Old English" and "Middle English" sections and they are very good. It is a great companion so far to someone studying the history of English Literature. For each page having separate information from the next, and being slightly disjointed, there is a lot of information on the origins of the English Language. Also, book used to have a different plural form. It was bek. (Long E) If I had just learned that, I think it would have made this book valuable! ( )

Covers everything there is to know