The end of linear narrative? Reflections on the historiography of English

Roger Lass
Professor Emeritus
University of Cape Town

The histories of languages are typically presented in textbooks and handbooks as linear narratives: 'one damn thing after another', with a certain directionality. This is often the result of subtle conceptual errors (including a kind of blindness to variation), and an insufficiently fine data-grid. This talk is a preliminary attempt at unpacking some of the problems in writing the history of a language, by someone who has done it -- in part -- the wrong way for most of his career.