Setting out to explore the development of vocabulary over time, along with the sociohistorical processes underlying it, this book provides a comprehensive account of the sources of English words, their phonological properties, and their morphological structure. Although its primary focus is on the lexical items borrowed from the classical languages (Latin and Greek), either directly or indirectly through French, it sheds light on a web of complex relationships between meaning, form, and pronunciation in the English lexicon.

The book consists of ten chapters and an appendix with a list of morphemes together with explanations, examples of usage, and sources. Ch. 1 provides a general overview of word origins, covering lexical heritage, regular word-formation processes (derivation and compounding), and ways of creating new words, including the most recent and increasingly popular forms of blending and shortening, typical of text-messaging and other forms of electronic communication. The final part of this chapter is devoted to word obsolescence and death. Ch. 2 focuses on the sociohistorical conditioning of the English lexicon. A typological characterization of the English language is followed by a discussion of the implications of this for the early English vocabulary as well as for loanwords from various sources and periods. Ch. 3, which explores early modern and modern English, along with their sociocultural context, concludes with a summary of early British history and related loanwords in English. Ch. 4 deals with the properties, types, and functions of morphemes, the process of compounding and hyphenation, and cognate words. Its final section provides practical advice on identifying roots in dictionaries.

The discussion on the origins and types of allomorphy in Ch. 5 is followed by a brief overview of the English sound system and the semantic classification of affixes. Chs. 6 and 7 elaborate on changes in the phonological form of roots, affixes, and words, classifying them as replacement rules, deletion rules, and expansion rules, and shed light on the phenomenon of segment sonority. Ch. 8 discusses “fossilized” allomorphy in the context of Grimm's law, gradation, and rhotacism, with a view to explaining some of the most obscure allomorphic links between Germanic and Latinate cognates, including false cognates. Ch. 9 examines sense relations and semantic change. The former are discussed in terms of homophony, homonymy, and polysemy, as well as synonymy, antonomy, and hyponymy; importantly, some other “-onymys” are presented too. Then the authors discuss the external and internal motivations for and the implications of change. Ch. 10 illuminates on the stress rules of the loan vocabulary in English, syllable division, and syllable weight.

The volume could serve as a reference book, systematizing the English lexicon. The logical organization of its chapters facilitates the comprehension of relatively complex phenomena. With verve and clarity, the book guides the reader to an understanding of the history of English words.