Chapter 1 - Introduction

Summary

Chapter 1 provides a short introduction to the historical setting in sixteenth and seventeenth-century England, as well as a rationale for the chronological boundaries chosen in my research work, i.e. 1500 and 1700. The introductory chapter also provides a comprehensive review of previous, relevant work in Early Modern English orthography. The final part of the introduction outlines three research questions: (1) How can we develop a more systematic empirical method for gleaning insights into the linguistic mechanisms in English spelling? (2) Can new insights into linguistic developments tell us to what extent early printing was relevant to the large-scale standardisation of Early Modern English spelling? and (3) How do the Early Modern English printers’ attitudes towards regularising spelling instruct our understanding of the process of standardisation in English spelling?