THE VIRTUES OF LANGUAGE -- Editorial page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Acknowledgements -- Table of contents -- PART I THOMAS FRANK: APPRAISALS OF HIS LIFE AND WORK -- Thomas Frank, 1925-1990* -- THOMAS FRANK: LIST OF WRITINGS, 1953-1996 -- Thomas Frankin the Neapolitan Environment1 -- Honoring Thomas Frank Introduction and Overview of the Contributions -- PART II STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE -- Grammaticalisation, Textuality and Subjectivity The Progressiveand the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Old English progressive: a question of origins -- 3. Semantic-pragmatic change, textuality and subjectivity -- 4. Style and the Anglo Saxon Chronicle -- 5. The progressive and narrative development in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle -- 6. Expressive narrative and the Peterborough Chronicle -- 7. Coda -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- The Language of "wit" in Piers Plowman -- 1. Summary -- 2. Wit between science and wisdom -- 3. "Wit" in Langland's lexicon -- 4. The language of Wit and his associates -- 5. Wordplay as a language of "wit" -- 6. Conclusion -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- Relative Sentences in late Middle EnglishThe Paston and the Cely Letters -- 1. Purpose -- 2. Quantitative analysis of relativisers -- 3. Qualitative analysis of individual relativisers -- 4. Functional analysis -- 5. Coda -- TEXTS -- REFERENCES -- PART III STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF LINGUISTICS -- The Interpretation of Historical Sources as a Problem for Diachronic Typology Word-order in English Rhetorical and Grammatical Treatises of the XVIth and Early XVIIth Centuries -- 1. General Linguistics and the problem of historical int -- 2. Word-order in English rhetorical and grammatical sources of the XVIth and early XVIIth centuries -- 3. Thomas Wilson's and Obadiah Walker's rhetorical treatises -- 4. Early English Grammars.

5. The Relation of Early English Grammars to the Scholastic Tradition and Classical Rhetoric -- 6. The treatment of English as a mother-tongue and related pedagogical problems -- 7. Awareness of language specific characteristics -- 8. Do Gill and Wallis really represent an opposition of the Baroque vs Baconian spirit? -- 9. Concluding remarks -- NOTES -- TEXTS -- REFERENCES -- The 'new science' and the New Language in Seventeenth Century England -- REFERENCES -- Otto Jespersenas a Reader of the Cours de linguistique générale* -- 0. Introduction -- 1. Jespersen as a reader of the Cours -- 2. Conclusions -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- PART IV STUDIES ON HISTORY IN LITERARY TEXTS -- PART IV STUDIES ON HISTORY IN LITERARY TEXTS -- Macbethand the Implied Director -- TEXT -- Sir Thomas Elyot's The Image of Governance A Humanist's Speculum Principis and a Literary Puzzle -- NOTES -- TEXTS -- REFERENCES -- The Union of England and Scotland Represented at Court in Ben Jonson's Hymenaei (1606) -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- "How-to" Literature A Comparison of Some Texts on Childbirth -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Early medical writings -- 3. Linguistic features considered -- 4. Conclusions -- TEXTS -- REFERENCES -- General Index.