This series promotes specialist language studies, both in the fields of linguistic theory and applied linguistics, by publishing volumes that focus on specific aspects of language use and provide valuable insights into language and communication research. A cross-disciplinary approach is favoured and most European languages are accepted.

The Editors: Christiane Dalton-Puffer, Dieter Kastovsky, Nikolaus Ritt and Herbert Schendl teach at the Department of English at the University of Vienna and have published widely in different areas of English Historical Linguistics.

Contents: Minoji Akimoto: On the Decline of and in Verb Phrases – Anita Auer: Precept and Practice: The Influence of Prescriptivism on the English Subjunctive – Joan C. Beal/Anthony P. Grant: «Make do and mend»: An Online Investigation into Processes of Neologisation and the Dearth of Borrowing in Newer English Wartime Vocabulary – Claudia Claridge: : Functions of the Superlative in 19th-Century English – Thomas Egan: Pronominal and Full Nominal Subjects in Expanding Constructions – Larisa Oldireva Gustafsson: Irregular Verbs in 17th- and 18th-Century English Grammars: A Maze of Classifications – Minna Palander-Collin/Minna Nevala: Reporting in 18th-Century Letters of Hester Piozzi – Günter Rohdenburg: The Role of Functional Constraints in the Evolution of the English Complementation System – Anni Sairio: Progressives in the Letters of Elizabeth Montagu and her Circle in 1738-1778 – Elena Seoane: Changing Styles: On the Recent Evolution of Scientific British and American English – Stefan Thim: Phrasal Verbs in Late Middle and Early Modern English: Combinations with , , , , and – Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade: «Disrespectful and too familiar»? Abbreviations as an Index of Politeness in 18th-Century Letters. Inhaltsverzeichnis