“Selected Authors’ Writings in the Early Modern English Period and the Historical Development of Always”

This paper includes some descriptions of the corpus Selected Authors’ Writings in the Early Modern English Period (SAEMEP) and discussion on the development of always as observed in it. The first part describes the structure of the corpus and the second part concentrates on the analysis of always in different authors included in it.

It is shown that forms of always were still various in the Early Modern English period, both with and without –s and both with and without space between all and way(s). This versatility is particularly noticeable with Thomas More’s writings in SAEMEP, and to some extent with William Cowper, who has a Scottish background, while it comes to be gradually reduced as time passes. The process is described in the discussion.

In the concluding part, the paper stresses the importance of combining the macro- and micro-views towards language. Individual deviations are of particular interest when compared with and contrasted with the overall trend as observed in large corpora.

Related publications

• Iyeiri, Yoko. 2016. “On Alway(s) and Algate(s) in Middle English Again”. Memoirs of the Faculty of Letters, Kyoto University 55: 61-80. (Downloadable PDF)
• Iyeiri, Yoko. 2014. “The Shift from Alway to Always in the History of English”, in Studies in Middle and Modern English: Historical Change, ed. Yoko Iyeiri & Jennifer Smith, pp. 29-47. Suita: Osaka Books.

Some other articles of mine published in the same journal are available in KURENAI (Kyoto University Research Information Repository).