Table of Contents

Preface
Chapter 1: Metaphors, myths, ideologies and archives
Chapter 2: Establishing a linguistic pedigree
Chapter 3: Breaking the unbroken tradition
Chapter 4: The construction of a modern myth: Middle English as a creole
Chapter 5: Barbarians and others
Chapter 6: The myth of "greatness"
Chapter 7: Reinterpreting Swift's A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue: Challenging an embryonic modern myth
Chapter 8: Polishing the myths: The commercial side of politeness
Chapter 9: Challenging the hegemony of standard English
Chapter 10: Transforming a myth to save an archive: When polite becomes educated
Chapter 11: Commodifying English and constructing a new myth
Chapter 12: Myths, ideologies of English and the funnel view of the history of English
References
Index

About the Author

Richard J. Watts is Emeritus Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Bern.

Reviews

the culmination of a long and distinguished career.
*Tim William Machan, Review of English Studies*

thought-provoking and richly documented
*Chiara Rubagotti, L'analisi Linguistica e Letteraria*

This book is densely written and thoroughly academic; it is myth-busting of a higher order. ... For postgraduate study and research into the history of English and historical (socio)linguistics more generally, however, where an awareness of our own ideologies is crucial, LMHE is highly recommended reading.
*Remco Knooihuizen, Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics*

we must thank Watts for presenting a narrative and interpretative text, in which the quantitative results, so prevalent in recent research, reamain secondary. Within its pages, it becomes clear that history has an open nature, acquiring new dimensions in new circumstances, and that knowledge, a shared legacy continuously rebuilt, is only obtained through research and debate.
*Paloma Tejada Caller, Journal of Historical Linguistics*