In Search of Jane Austen: the Language of the Letters

Machine generated contents note: 1.Introduction 1.1.Introduction 1.2.The Language of The Letters 1.3.A Sociolinguistic Analysis 1.4.Jane Austen's Language 1.5.A Single-Author, Focussed Corpus 1.6.The Wider Perspective 2.Letter-Writing 2.1.Introduction 2.2.The Surviving Letters and Those That Were Lost 2.3.Letter-Writing Materials 2.4.The Postal System 2.5.Letter-Writing: A Social Activity 2.6.Being Dependent on the Post 3.A Social Network of Letter-Writers 3.1.Introduction 3.2.Jane Austen's Correspondents 3.3.Letter-Writing Formulas 3.3.1.An index of formality? 3.3.2.Opening formulas 3.3.3.Closing formulas 3.3.4.Dating and signing letters 3.4.The Correspondence Network and The Lost Letters 4.The Letters as a Corpus 4.1.Introduction 4.2.Types of Letters 4.3.Self-Corrections 4.4.Short Forms 4.5.Dashes and Capitalisation 4.6.Two Corpora for Analysis 5.The Language of the Letters: Spelling

Contents note continued: 5.1.Introduction 5.2.A Dual Spelling System 5.3.Epistolary Spelling 5.3.1.Tho' and thro' 5.3.2.Older spellings 5.3.3.Other epistolary spelling features 5.4.More Variable Spelling Features 5.5.Problems with The Apostrophe 5.6.Spelling as Evidence of Pronunciation 5.7.A Consistent if Idiosyncratic Speller 6.The Language of the Letters: Words 6.1.Introduction 6.2.Jane Austen in The Oxford English Dictionary 6.3.Creative Language Use 6.4.Vulgar Words and Intensifiers 6.5.Linguistic Involvement 6.6.Referring to Close Relatives 6.7.Jane Austen's Linguistic Fingerprint? 7.The Language of the Letters: Grammar 7.1.Introduction 7.2.Developing Grammatical Awareness 7.3.Variable Grammar 7.4.Verbal -Ing Forms 7.5.Changing Grammar 8.Authorial Identity 8.1.Introduction 8.2.The Discarded Persuasion Chapters 8.3.Different House Styles for Mansfield Park? 8.4.Dating The Watsons

Contents note continued: 8.5.Why Analysing Spelling Matters

9.Conclusion.